Exploring the relationship between our learning,E-learning and HRD: E-Learn 2005 conference report

Abstract

This report provides a personal reflection on the E-Learn Conference held in Vancouver, Canada, in October 2005. First, I provide a brief review of previous conference reports and then share my experiences of this particular conference, focusing on technical, social, pedagogical and cultural aspects.     

中美元首记者会上的七次笑声

1月19日,胡锦涛主席与奥巴马会谈之后举行联合记者招待会,现场翻译频出“状况”。根据白宫发布的记者招待会实录来看,记者会整体来说还是轻松的,听众和记者席中爆发出7次笑声,其中5次是奥巴马总统引起的,1次是胡主席引起,最后一次由新华社记者引起。     

Moving HRD from the periphery to the centre for transformation of an Indian public sector bank: Keynote address, 4th Asian conference of the academy of HRD

The transformation of Bank of Baroda, one of the largest commercial banks in the public sector in India, into a highly customer centric, technology driven and an innovative entity in retail and SME (small and medium enterprises) segments represents one of India's most remarkable success stories and one of the quickest turnarounds ever in public sector banking.

Known as an important player in commercial banking with international operations for several decades, the bank was gradually declining in recent years. In an environment of competition within the public sector as also due to entry of private banks with latest technology and young staff, the bank plunged into an unprecedented spiral of failing to innovate and adopt new technology.

Drastic action was required to regain its leadership position in the public sector space. Over the next one and a half years, the bank was back in reckoning and was firing on all cylinders. It retained its core business on track with a bang, restored its image as the most vibrant player among public sector banks (PSBs) through wide-ranging initiatives such as a logo change, hiring a cricketing icon as brand ambassador, heightened credit growth, improving the work culture, initiating many customer-centric initiatives and restoring the customer base, derisking the treasury portfolio, and winning several accolades and awards.

Today, Bank of Baroda has embarked upon more wide-ranging changes and a new vision to change the bank from a ‘vanilla banking’ entity to a ‘multi-specialist bank’. The author, who joined the bank as a HR specialist and eventually rose to become CEO of the bank, extensively used his HRD knowledge and academic background to initiate changes to harness energy in the bank's 40,000 staff to drive organization change.

Achieving a successful outcome seems to be far more difficult for a public sector bank with a legacy culture, high degree of unionization, poor compensation and aging staff. In spite of these constraining factors, the paper argues that it is through mobilizing the passion of people that leadership can transform organizations and put them on high growth trajectory.     

A review of the 8th international conference of the academy of HRD (Asia chapter) & 1st international conference of the academy of HRD (MENA chapter) held in Bahrain in December 2009: a cultural dimensions perspective

This article will provide a review for the 8th International Conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (Asia Chapter) and the 1st International Conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (MENA Chapter), 12–15 December 2009. Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions are used for the purpose of providing a perspective to illustrate how different variables can affect an international conference. The article concludes with the authors' recommendations for future international HRD conferences.     

Long range planning society report Challenges in corporate planning—Third international conference on corporate planning—Brussels September 1973

Organized by the European Society of Corporate and Strategic Planners and jointly sponsored with the International Affiliation of Planning Societies this proved a valuable opportunity for over 400 delegates from 25 different countries to hear distinguished speakers and meet together.     

Comments on globalization, interdisciplinary research, myopia and parochialism, government, convergence, and culture

Globalization presents social scientists with a wide variety of issues and challenges that cut across disciplinary boundaries. Disciplinary boundaries encourage specialization and advances in understanding aspects of social behavior, but specialization also creates barriers to more comprehensive understanding of social behavior such as globalization. Successful interdisciplinary efforts entail gains from trade across disciplinary specializations. The papers in this volume help outline an agenda for interdisciplinary investigation of globalization to knock down disciplinary boundaries and encourage gains from trade that further our understanding of globalization. But much work remains before we see real fruits from such efforts.     

Technology,Geography, and Trade

We develop a Ricardian trade model that incorporates realistic geographic features into general equilibrium. It delivers simple structural equations for bilateral trade with parameters relating to absolute advantage, to comparative advantage (promoting trade), and to geographic barriers (resisting it). We estimate the parameters with data on bilateral trade in manufactures, prices, and geography from 19 OECD countries in 1990. We use the model to explore various issues such as the gains from trade, the role of trade in spreading the benefits of new technology, and the effects of tariff reduction.     

Computers,People, and Productivity

No abstract available for this article.