Human Resource Development Quarterly最新文献

This study responds to the call for a closer analysis of the role that contextual and individual factors play in workplace coaching as a context-sensitive intervention. We build on theories of regulatory focus and training motivation, to propose and examine a model that explains employees' pre-coaching motivation when assigned to workplace coaching. Specifically, we propose that the employees' perception of the organizational coaching context, as either developmental or remedial, contributes to their pre-coaching motivation through employees' situational regulatory focus. Results of a scenario-based experimental study (N = 175) demonstrated that organizational coaching context affects employees' situational regulatory foci beyond their chronic dispositions. Further, the indirect relationship between developmental organizational coaching context and pre-coaching motivation was mediated by employee situational promotion focus. However, we did not find the hypothesized indirect relationship between remedial organizational coaching context and employee pre-coaching motivation via employee situational prevention focus. The study highlights the important role that organizations' management and human resource development personnel play in the “kick-off” of a workplace coaching intervention by shaping the context of coaching assignments prior to coaching. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of including the organization's informal feedback to the employee prior to coaching as a key contractual element that contributes to coachees' pre-coaching motivation. We conclude with implications for future workplace coaching research and practice.

Building upon the job demands–resources framework and employing an interactionist perspective, the purpose of this scholarly work was to investigate the relationship between age-related HR/D practices (being a contextual antecedent) and career commitment (being a personal antecedent), and the interaction between these two, on the one hand, and subjective career experiences, on the other hand. Moreover, elaborating on life-span developmental theories and earlier empirical work on aging at work, this study also examined whether this relationship was moderated by age category (younger workers [<50 years] vs. their older counterparts [≥50 years]). An online self-report questionnaire with thoroughly validated measures was distributed among academic staff employees (N = 139). The results partially supported the specific study assumptions. Concrete, age-related HR/D practices add significantly to academics' subjective career success. Contradictory to our expectations, we could neither find a main effect of career commitment nor for its interaction with age-related HR/D practices in the light of subjective career success. Results from the multigroup analyses indicate that, in reality, the above results may apply only to older academics (≥50 years). Possible explanations for this outcome are discussed. This study extends past career research by applying an interactionist perspective (context: age-related HR/D practices; person: career commitment) approach for explaining subjectively experienced career success. The results of this scholarly work provide useful insights for protecting and further enhancing the sustainability of careers in academia, which is of upmost importance in nowadays' labor markets in this occupational sector.

The emergence of the Occupy movements along with other social movements in 2011 elevated the idea of radically decentralized “leaderless” social movement organizations. We argue that looking at such an alternative, horizontalist form of organizing presents an opportunity to reframe how we understand leadership. This paper illustrates how the coordination of the Occupy London movement was accomplished horizontally in the absence of formal organization, leadership, or authority structures. Using an ethnographic approach, we show how this movement generated a “multimodal” repertoire of protest that included (1) the politically effective occupation of urban space; (2) the ability to deploy symbols as compelling forms of aesthetic questioning; and (3) the creation of politically charged spectacles that allowed the movement to appropriate the news agendas of established broadcast media. The findings of this paper challenge the language of leadership and contribute to understandings of feminist forms of leadership and leaderless organizing by explaining one way that “leadership” occurs in horizontal organizational structures such as social movements. Namely we demonstrate how the modes of space, symbols, and spectacles effectively replace the role of “leader” in the absence of formal organizational structures.

The challenges resulting from increasing digitalization and globalization require flexible continuing education for white-collar workers. Especially informal learning becomes increasingly important in the modern workplace. Practitioners want to promote informal learning among employees, researchers want to unveil conducive contextual conditions for informal learning, but they lack an appropriate, validated measure. Based on the octagon model of informal workplace learning (Decius et al., Human Resource Development Quarterly, 2019, 30, 495–535) and an existing 24-item scale for blue-collar workers, we present a short version of eight items for use among white-collar workers. Using three independent samples of 695, 500, and 3134 German employees, we show that the second-order factor structure—following the multidimensional octagon model—has a better fit compared with a model in which all items load on a single factor. The short scale is strongly correlated with the original full scale. The scale's reliability is satisfying (α = 0.76/0.77/0.85; ω = 0.78/0.78/0.86), considering the heterogeneous conceptual nature of informal learning. Regarding criterion validity, we found theoretically expected correlations with job demands, job autonomy, knowledge/skill acquisition, age, and self-directed learning orientation. Furthermore, the scale reveals measurement invariance across sociodemographic characteristics of gender and educational background. We also discuss implications for research and practice of the new informal learning measure among white-collar workers.

Leadership development is a top priority for many organizations and a critical driver of success. This qualitative case study research examined ways participation in a cohort-based LDP contributed to HiPo employee's leadership development for the purpose of talent management, including an examination of which programmatic components help promote participant growth. This study illustrates the importance of, and methods to support, better leadership development outcomes for HiPos to improve talent management efforts. This research utilized a method for qualitative analysis and was conducted using a constant comparative method, requiring new findings and interpretations be compared with those previously found during analysis. Data included end-of-program graduate evaluations, semi-structured interviews, and manager evaluation surveys. Findings support the importance of 360-feedback and peer coaching as part of HiPo employee development. Each of these simultaneously improves self-awareness, human capital, networking, and participant well-being; the resulting model provides an illustration of the relationships found.

One of the more important responsibilities for HRD professionals is to help employees fit into the organization. This fitting in, or adjustment, to the organization includes the skills to perform one's job, understanding the relationships of one's role to the broader organization, and feeling accepted by one's peers. Onboarding, or more broadly, organizational socialization, is a proven practice that enhances employee adjustment through learning and development. Prior research reveals favorable relationships between organizational socialization (OS) practices and employee adjustment. Much less is known about which aspects of OS the HRD professional should focus on, why employees are motivated to use the knowledge gained from socialization to improve job performance, or whether relationships discovered in past research on newcomers can or should be generalized to more experienced employees. The current research is based on the multidomain, continuous model of OS. Consistent with that model, we found that effective socialization enhances employee organizational adjustment, which subsequently raises their organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and that OS has stronger relationships with adjustment for less experienced employees than those with more experienced employees. Our results also reveal that adjustment mediated growth in OBSE that accompanied the ongoing process of OS, and that employees who perceived higher levels of socialization had greater increases in OBSE. We discuss the implications of our results for HRD professionals in designing OS programs, particularly as they relate to the targeted employees, and the framing of the communications.

In the fast-changing world of business, organizations including individuals and groups/teams need to unlearn old knowledge and learn new knowledge and routines to stay competitive. The purpose of this study is to review the current studies on unlearning in organizations and to integrate the findings to provide insights on how to better manage and facilitate the process of unlearning. We reviewed 37 empirical and related studies to reveal the current research perspectives on unlearning in the workplace. We also identified 30 antecedents promoting unlearning and 44 outcomes of unlearning at the individual, group, and organizational levels. These antecedents and outcomes related to learning, knowledge, and innovation are key HRD research topics. Discussion, implications, and recommendations for future research are presented.