Responding to Career Development Uncertainties and Successfully Navigating Career Journeys

The Problem The COVID-19 pandemic has forced employees and organizational leaders to consider the reality of its impact on career goals. Individuals have been forced to reconsider or readjust their career goals as being achievable, deferred, or even eliminated. Organizational leaders or those in strategic positions have been forced to consider how individual career goals could impact the organization’s capacity to survive. The Solution Career development theories are useful for examining the role of human resource development professionals in helping employees achieve career goals as they attempt to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic. Re-emphasizing career development as a core component of HRD highlights the significance of career development theories in adjusting to pandemics and crises that impact individual career goals and organizational strategic goals and opportunities. The Stakeholders HRD researchers, scholar/practitioners, professionals, and others who research and practice career development and use career development theory.

Work–Life balance policies and organisational outcomes – a review of literature from the Indian context

Purpose In the past decade, the rapid globalisation and modernisation has resulted in an increased focus of organisations on implementation of family friendly work–life balance (WLB) policies for enhancing employee retention. The purpose of this study is to review the importance of WLB policies and programmes and its impact on organisational outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Using Deery’s (2008) framework as the conceptual framework, the current study attempts to provide an integrated literature review of the empirical studies conducted in the area of WLB and employee retention in India for a decade from 2007 till 2017. Findings The analysis of the extant literature revealed that the research on WLB for Indian organisations really surged since 2013. Most of the empirical studies conducted in this area use a positivist paradigm. Numerous industry sectors including the information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing sectors have benefitted from WLB policies, but the banking and higher education sector have generously implemented employee-friendly WLB policies. Practical implications The study stresses upon the implementation of employee friendly WLB policies for achieving high organisational outcomes. Furthermore, the findings may be useful for human resource management and human resource development professionals to understand and appreciate the organisational components, settings that are necessary to facilitate better WLB in Indian organisations, thereby resulting in better organisational outcomes. Originality/value The study provides us with a comprehensive review of different WLB studies conducted in India till date and its possible impact on various organisational outcomes.

Vicarious Learning From Innovative Women Entrepreneurs in Thailand

The Problem The number of Thai women entrepreneurs has increased to nearly half of all Thai entrepreneurs over the past years with 80% of them reported to have entered into opportunity-driven entrepreneurship. This growing social phenomenon, however, remains underexplored by limited numbers of academic studies on Thai women entrepreneurship. Extending the understanding of opportunity-driven women entrepreneurs in the changing Thai context is therefore significant for developing national human resources. The Solution This study highlights the opportunity-driven category of women entrepreneurs defined by Cromie and Hayes as Innovators. Taking the phenomenological approach as a research method, in-depth interviews from 13 innovative women business owners in Thailand were analyzed to understand their motivations, challenges, and success factors, as well as the contemporary worldview of the Thai culture and values concerning gender roles and social norms. The Stakeholders National policymakers, educators, human resource development professionals, and parents can craft policies and practices that align with key learnings from the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs. Aspiring women entrepreneurs can also vicariously learn from the study participants who serve as role models.

Strategic human resource development: A manoeuvre for future competencies

The changing role and function of Human Resource Development professionals due to social, economic, political and technological alterations lead the way for strategic HRD practices in organizations. In this current world of industrialization, this term relates to the achievement of competitive benefits by aligning organizational goals and priorities with structured and future-oriented activities. A study on strategic HRD lends a hand to eliminate the hitches of an organization by rational planning and people development with a focus on predictability and consistency. This research not only enlightens the implication of strategic activities but also it strengthens individual creativity, knowledge management, career planning, and individual competencies amongst employees in industrial sectors. It highlights on the employee perception about these SHRD practices of companies, which is a fundamental factor for the employee contentment, performance, and for the necessity of socio-technical systems. Accordingly, the study is focused at Dubai, U.A.E., in the shape of "Strategic Human Resource Development - A manoeuvre for future competencies" with a sample size of 300 from various companies by quantitative and qualitative analysis. Accordingly, it has been statistically confirmed that four independent variables show a positive relationship with strategic HRD activities. Along with this, it identifies the extent to which the HRD and its related work-life factors are provided by the selected companies. The result of the survey generated a key model and a framework for SHRD by creating a valuable contribution to the organization in facing the future challenges.

Women's career interruptions: an integrative review

Purpose The purpose of this integrative literature review was three-fold: to explore the phenomenon of women’s career interruptions as revealed by publications in the past two decades, to propose a new career decision tree model (CDTM) and to outline an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted the integrative literature review approach proposed by Torraco (2005, 2016) and used a mind mapping application called MindMeister to synthesize 64 identified articles. Findings The proposed CDTM can assist those who are interested in exploring individuals’ career decisions to think systematically about career influencers at different levels. Originality/value The CDTM is significantly different from existing career models and theories in that it explains women’s career interruptions in a context-sensitive manner. This model can assist human resource development professionals in analyzing the influencers of women’s career decisions and tackling individual problems level by level.

Perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness in Mexico and the USA

Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of Mexican and US employees about effective and ineffective managerial behaviour. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple cross-case comparative analysis of findings obtained from two past emic replication studies of observed effective and ineffective managerial behaviour carried out in Mexico and the USA respectively was conducted. Findings Notwithstanding the significant cultural variances between Mexico and the USA underlined by various cross-cultural studies, the findings suggest that Mexican and US employees perceive effective and ineffective managerial behaviour in a very similar manner. Research limitations/implications While the results of the study suggest that culture may not play a significant role in the way people perceive managerial and leadership effectiveness, the authors suggest that more replication studies with larger and more balanced gender samples using different methods need to be performed in both countries. Practical implications The findings of the study may be relevant for human resource development professionals in both countries when providing training to expatriates for international assignments. Reinforcing the set of managerial practices that are perceived as effective in these two countries and emphasizing those practices that may be particular to Mexico and the USA respectively, could lead to an improvement in the performance of Mexican executives managing in the USA and US executives managing in Mexico. Originality/value This paper compares managerial behavioural effectiveness between Mexico and the USA.

Conclusion: Diversity Intelligence as a Core of Diversity Training and Leadership Development

Problem: Leadership development is a core part of training, education, and career management strategies in organizations. Yet, leaders are not translating what they learn about protected class employees during leadership development initiatives back to the workplace. Solution: Diversity intelligence should be added to organizational diversity and leadership development training and education initiatives. With DQ as a core of the training and education initiatives, leaders may acquire the needed ability to translate what they learn to actual practice. A conceptual model for DQ as a core of leadership development and typology of leaders with low and high DQ are provided. They will be able to better lead their protected class followers because they will know who they are and how to enhance their performance. Stakeholders: Workplace leaders, diversity trainers, educators, and career management professionals are provided ideas for enhancing their diversity improvement efforts. Implications for Human Resource Development professionals and researchers are also offered.

Exploring Leaders’ Discriminatory, Passive-Aggressive Behavior Toward Protected Class Employees using Diversity Intelligence

The Problem As there is diversity in many workplaces, diversity intelligence (DQ) needs to be integrated alongside intellectual, emotional, and cultural intelligences to be effective. DQ requires leaders to have knowledge to understand protected class employees and the legal mandates and executive orders established to protect those employees from discriminatory practices at work. Irrespective of the billions of dollars invested in diversity or antidiscriminatory practices training, many protected class workers remain underutilized or marginalized due to leaders’ unfamiliarity with these groups of workers and/or incompetence to harness their talents to achieve organizational goals. DQ deficiencies trigger some leaders to apply passive-aggressive behaviors as a coping mechanism. These passive-aggressive behaviors can lead to a toxic and hostile work environment as evidenced through high attrition, unrealized productivity, feelings of frustration, fear, disappointment, resentment, among other adverse responses from both leaders and employees. The Solution To efficiently and effectively integrate protected class employees to contribute at their optimum levels, leaders need to possess DQ. Leaders in this study need to be educated or reeducated so that they understand who protected class employees are in the workplace. The Stakeholders Implications for human resource development professionals and researchers are offered. Opportunities for workplace leaders and protected class employees are presented.

Exploring the Relationship Between Diversity Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, and Executive Coaching to Enhance Leader Development Practices

The Problem Leadership development is one of the most pressing issues for human resource practitioners within organizations. Recently, coaching to enhance emotional intelligence (EQ) has become a major focal area for human resource and leadership development. The concept of EQ has received overwhelming research and practical support, suggesting that it, more so than technical skills or cognitive ability, is the key determinant of success in leaders. However, EQ alone may not help leaders in creating an inclusive work environment and proactively recruiting and developing diverse employees. The Solution Diversity intelligence (DQ), recently introduced by Hughes, is another important skill that has significant impact on the interpersonal relationships at work. The current article seeks to integrate the concepts of EQ and DQ with a practical and strategic approach for human resource development professionals. A theoretical review, qualitative examination, and practical application of the main models of EQ with a focus on how specific components of these models can be utilized in coaching for increased DQ is presented. Using concepts of executive coaching and general principles of leadership development, the current study examines which facets, or dimensions, of EQ should be highlighted and developed to increase DQ. The Stakeholders In addition to identifying which facets of each EQ model are essential for DQ, practical applications for human resource development practitioners and leaders are presented.