Woven within the pages of HRD’s historical literature, a variety of scholarly voices can be found drawing attention to the increasing inconsistency in the language of the field. Within the literature, we also find evidence of a long-standing discord and debate regarding the field’s definition and identified boundaries. This is the first study that attempts to elevate the conversation of HRD’s definition to that of an exploration of what is shared, and what makes the discipline’s members unique. Utilizing Li’s (2009) lens of disciplinary identity and elements of Gee’s (1999) theory of Discourse, this study presents a concept of what HRD’s disciplinary identity may look like at the macro level. This study also investigates the construct from both the academic and practitioner lens, in an attempt to include perspectives and influences at the micro level regarding the discipline’s enacted identity in both scholarship and practice, which may aid the relationship between theory and practice. Embedded within the larger aim of this study was the goal of revealing current similarities and differences in academic and practitioner labels-in-use within the field of Human Resource Development. To that end, this study employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design that began with a quantitative collection and analysis of text from the Association for Talent Development’s (ATD) website and the Academy of Human Resource Development’s (AHRD) website. A second, qualitative phase was then conducted consisting of interviews of a diverse group of academics and practitioners from institutional/organizational contexts that were believed to provide greater insight into the potential contextual nuances behind the quantitative results. Mixed analyses of the quantitative and qualitative findings found a variance in the language-in-use, as well as indications that the discipline’s espoused identity may not reflect what is actually lived. These findings also suggest insights into the discipline’s social actions and interactions at the micro level, providing support for a proposed cultural model of HRD at the macro level. Although this study is a first step in trying to better understand HRD’s language-in-use and overall disciplinary identity, it also provides evidence that viewing HRD’s language-in-use in this way warrants further investigation.

I en värld som ständigt förändras och utvecklas kan det finnas ett pågående tryck hos organisationer att behålla värdefull kunskap men även att identifiera var kunskap saknas och åtgärda detta. Arbetet med detta hos organisationer kallas ofta för ”kompetensförsörjning”. Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera hur arbetet med kompetensförsörjning i vissa fall kan se ut för HR-medarbetare och chefer i en offentlig verksamhet. Studien är kvalitativ och innehåller tidigare forskning gällande Human Resources och kompetensförsörjning . I studien har fyra halvstrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med fyra respondenter som alla arbetar med HR inom offentlig sektor. Därefter har data blivit tematisk analyserat för att ge form till de olika teman som återfinns i resultatet. Resultatet påvisar att både HR-medarbetare och chefer är delaktiga i arbetet med kompetensförsörjning, men att cheferna ofta tilldelas utvalda ansvarsområden och att HR-medarbetare har det övergripande ansvaret och fungerar som en specialistfunktion. Slutsatsen påvisar att både HRmedarbetare och chefers olika kunskaper är viktiga beståndsdelar i kompetensförsörjningen men även att det finns alternativa arbetssätt som skulle vara önskvärda om tid och möjlighet funnits.

This thesis concerns human resource development (HRD) and educational reform in Laos which is one aspect of poverty eradication in Laos. The thesis aim to describe, understand and analyze how HRD is constructed in policies and among teachers at the National University of Laos (NUOL) and what possibilities and constraints they connect to it. To find answers to these questions we have analyzed national policy documents and interviewed teachers with PhD degrees at NUOL. Educational reform was initiated after the declaration of the Lao People Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) independency in 1975 and with the help of donor organizations efforts have continuously been made to raise the quality of education in Lao PDR in order to improve skills among the population.Our findings show that in policy HRD is constructed as poverty reduction, meeting international standards and educational development. The respondents have described that HRD can be achieved through staff development, student-centered learning method, development of skills through international cooperation and relevant educational equipment. The biggest constraint according to the respondents is lack of money. After that comes lack of knowledge, inadequate equipment and low incentives for teachers. The main possibilities described are that NUOL is in a position to spread information about education and material to other education institutions; that textbooks are more readily available and that it is getting easier to apply for scholarships for studies abroad.

This interpretive critical inquiry was aimed at coming to understand the experiences of faculty at research universities who teach using educational technology in the present academic capitalism era, and how these experiences affect their job satisfaction. The study was carried out in the South Central region of the US at two research universities—University A and University B—of one university system. Purposive sampling was used to select 10 tenured faculty members as study participants. The data collection included ethnographic interviews, participant observations, and document analyses and occurred over an 8-month period between April and December 2007. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) approach to content analysis. Based on the themes and subthemes that emerged, the experiences of teaching using educational technology seemed to yield positive end results that served as rationales. However, the participants did experience obstacles such as time constraints, steep learning curves, technical problems, and various pedagogical challenges. Those who seemed least burdened appeared to be those with the most departmental support. The participants’ experiences portrayed the professorship in the research university as an independent and autonomous position with a heavy work load and constant juggling of different tasks. The path to successful promotion and tenure appeared to be clearly marked by guidelines that require research productivity through external funds, an instance of academic capitalism. Teaching appeared to be secondary or tertiary in importance. Conflicts seemed to exist between the faculty and administrators in the utilities of teaching using educational technologies in terms of mismatched rationales or motivations, and therefore, mismatched outcome expectations. The majority of the participants appeared to be very satisfied with their jobs. Even so, all ten stated they had turnover intentions to leave University A or B at one point or another in the past, although perhaps not the professoriate. Many said teaching using educational technology was personally satisfying. The conclusion includes implications to students, faculty, research universities, and HRD; recommendations for future research; and three working hypotheses.

Organizations are faced with competitive and changeable environments which demand more prepared employees to successfully cope with these current and future challenges (Oswick, Grant, Michelson, and Wailes, 2005). Organizations, as a way to cope with more hostile environments, may foster individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning within their employees in order to potentially increase the organizational level of competitiveness. In other words, individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning may help organizations increase their levels of productivity and be better prepared to face uncertain scenarios. The purpose of this study was to examine the path of relationships among Environmental Hostility, Individual Learning, Intrapreneurship, and Organizational Learning for two selected mining companies in Chile. A survey instrument was applied to 383 participants who worked in the mining companies. Structural Equation Modeling was the statistical technique utilized to examine if the collected data supported the researcher?s proposed model. None of the models - the researcher?s proposed model, a proposed model based on Exploratory Factor Analysis, and a proposed model based on AMOS; were considered as confirmed models. For this reason, four possible arguments were elaborated to explain why the data did not fit any of the models. First, there is a lack of empirical support of the potential relationships among the construct/variables of the proposed model. Second, this study is a pioneering work in examining Environmental Hostility, Individual Learning, Intrapreneurship, and Organizational Learning altogether. Third, previous studies related to the construct/variables of this study were mainly conducted in the United States and Australia. Fourth, and finally, the social and economic scenarios that Chile faced during the last century were very different than the social and economic situations confronted by the United States in the same period.

The purpose of this study was to understand and interpret the identity formation of women on their journeys to leadership positions in corporate America. The narratives of these women in leadership positions described their experiences of how they became who they are, their experiences of critical points, their achievements and their sacrifices in their lives on their journey to these positions. The dissertation design was an empirical, qualitative, interpretive study which simultaneously drew upon and developed the theoretical work of Erik H. Erikson regarding the concept of ego-identity. Women in this study were purposively selected based on criteria for this research. They were successful females in engineering management positions, which is a male-dominated field. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews. Three main themes about their self-knowledge emerged from the findings in the study as components in the women's identity formation. These components shaped and developed the women to become who they are today, starting as a process from early child hood and until today. The three main themes are as follows: relations between mothers and daughters, a delayed moratorium and inner strength. The women in this study are unanimous in regard to singling out the significance of their mothers. Their mothers have been instrumental to their futures in regard to education in a male-oriented area and in giving them a "sense of being all right." Furthermore, these women seemed to undergo a delayed moratorium state as adults. This finding was a departure from and an addition to Erik H. Erikson's concept of "moratorium", in that I found that these successful women were able to make-up for their inability to obtain a moratorium in young adulthood by fashioning it in mid-life. They described these experiences of getting closer to themselves and what life was really about. Finally, this study revealed that these women had an inner strength to go on when they faced obstacles and hurdles in their careers and their personal lives. This inner strength consisted of resilience and authenticity, an ability to stay true to themselves.

The purpose of this study is to reveal, through the use of case study methodology, how faculty collaboration may foster the development of intellectual capital and how organizational reward systems mediate this process. Collaboration has been chosen as the unit of analysis due to the collaborative nature of innovation. Innovation often produces a sustainable competitive advantage for organizations. The key in leveraging organizations' innovative capacity is through the development of intellectual capital. Human resource development is a viable method of fostering organizational resources such as intellectual capital. Due to economic, political, and organizational constraints upon traditional human resource development activities, intellectual capital may be best fostered via non-traditional methods. Organizational reward systems, as in the case of performance-based tenure and promotion, have been shown to both promote and hinder collaborative activities. A qualitative case study approach has been chosen due to contextual factors influencing collaboration. Semi-structured interviews, document and archival analysis served as the primary means of data collection. Faculty collaboration occurring at a large Texas university was examined via three main data sources: the college-level strategic plan, network analysis of interdepartmental collaboration, and targeted, semi-structured interviews. Data analysis revealed collaboration at the university often occurs via relationships, networks, and is fostered via resource allocation. Tenure and promotion as well as available resources seem to have a mediating effect on the decisions faculty made relating to research collaborations. Data supported the theoretical variables derived from the Theory of the Learning Organization. Recommendations for fostering collaboration center upon administering rewards in close proximity of collaboration behaviors. Further research must be performed to better understand the outcomes of successful collaboration as well as the different context in which fostering collaboration may be beneficial to organizational outcomes.

This study focused on the issue of paradigms in Human Resource Development (HRD). Its purpose was to validate the HRD Cube as a synthesized model of HRD and to explicate some of the extant paradigms of HRD. The study was carried out by examining the text of articles published in Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD)-sponsored journals. Purposeful, stratified, and random sampling was used to select 16 articles published in AHRD-sponsored journals. Articles were treated as if they were the representative voice(s) of their author(s). Data units from within each article were identified and coded using two sequential techniques. First, units were axially coded and sorted into one of seven pre-determined categories based on the axioms of theory, research, and practice. Second, units were open coded using the constant comparative method, and themes and sub-themes were developed. Axial coding results identified a heavy emphasis on practice. The accumulation of units representing research and theory were comparatively smaller. Evidence of shared perspectives was found that emphasized the practice axiom. The accumulation of units emphasized research-practice, followed by theory-practice, and concluded with theory-research. Data units were also found that described all three axioms concurrently, theory-research-practice. Open coding results identified representative themes and sub-themes within each of the axiom-based categories of theory, research, and practice. Six themes developed in the theory category, 9 themes and 1 sub-theme developed in the research category, and 6 themes and 10 sub-themes developed in the practice category. The results provide evidence to support the overall construction of the HRD Cube. Theory, research, and practice perspectives of HRD were represented within the 16 articles used. The results also support the components described on each side of the HRD Cube. On the theory side, people, processes, and outcomes, and informing disciplines of HRD, were identified. Post-positive, interpretive, and critical epistemologies were identified on the research side. Individual, group, organizational, national, and global levels were identified on the practice side. Given the initial validation and support of the HRD Cube and of the components described within theory, research, and practice sides, within these 16 articles published in AHRD-sponsored journals, at least 18 prospective paradigms of HRD were identified.

With the increasing use of the computer and the Internet in the training sector, there are constant debates about the effectiveness of e-learning versus traditional face-to-face (FTF) education since the early 1990s. However, limited empirical studies have been conducted for this purpose in the field of Continuing Professional Education (CPE), on which the flexibility in time and place of e-learning have made and will potentially make a greater impact. Even fewer such studies were situated in a non-academic context for professions other than nursing or healthcare. Moreover, the learners‟ voice is often absent in the debates. This exploratory study was designed to a) obtain professionals‟ perceptions concerning the effectiveness of online versus FTF CPE courses from two pedagogical aspects of adult learning: professional knowledge and practice development and technology context link, and b) assess if professionals‟ perceptions varied as a function of their sociocultural and professional contexts. Self-reported perception data were collected through an online survey. Professionals (n=399) from Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) participated in the study. The professional units where the participants worked included Fire Service, Utilities and Public Work, Homeland Security, Safety and Health, Public Safety and Security, Technology, and Search and Rescue. Exploratory factor analysis (Principle Component Analysis), descriptive statistics, t-tests, multivariate analysis and ANOVAs were run for the purpose of data analysis. It was found that the professionals who participated in the study (a) perceived that online CPE courses were less effective in enhancing their professional knowledge and practice development when compared to traditional FTF CPE courses; (b) perceived that online CPE courses were more effective in linking what they had learned to technology contexts that they were in; (c) perceived that online CPE courses were less effective than FTF courses in general; (d) who were female perceived online CPE courses‟ ability in improving their professional knowledge and practice less negatively than male participants; and (e) who were firefighters favored the online CPE courses compared to professionals from the other units in TEEX, while the professionals from Safety and Health were most negative about the effectiveness of online CPE courses. The responses to the two open-ended questions provided information on the measures recommended by surveyed professionals to improve the effectiveness of online and FTF CPE courses.

Career development (CD) is a multilevel topic involving both the individual and the organization and influencing outcomes at the individual, group and organization level. The established limitations in current CD theory and human resource development (HRD) theory building can be addressed by examining the topic of CD through a multilevel lens. Using multilevel theory building (MLTB) to bridge the theoretical gap between individuals and organizations, this approach to theory building provides an opportunity for HRD professionals to address goals important to both individuals and organizations. Based on the CD and HRD interests described above, the threefold purpose of this study is to develop a multilevel theory of CD as a means of strengthening the theoretical connection between CD and HRD, advancing theory building in HRD, and contributing to meaningful convergence amongst existing CD theory. A new MLTB framework is developed and subsequently used to develop a multilevel theory of CD. Finally, future research options are suggested in order to make the appropriate theory refinements, continue the dialogue about MLTB and multilevel considerations in HRD, and add to the convergence of CD theory by providing a multilevel perspective of CD.