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The purpose of this article is to analyse the extent to which the CIPD's professional project can be successfully realised.

The study is based on a two‐fold literature review that analyses the professional project with reference to nascent professions. This review is then applied to the CIPD's qualification scheme through a documentary analysis of four key components of it.

Analysis suggests that whilst a high degree of professional closure has been achieved, the concomitant rise in professional and organisational status sought by the CIPD has not and is unlikely to do so in the future.

Whilst the arguments presented need further empirical study, our analysis suggests that the policy aims and initiatives advanced by the CIPD do not eradicate the tensions and ambiguities that have long characterised personnel roles.

This analysis questions whether the CIPD's professional standards are yielding the business skills and knowledge needed to be an effective business partner; seeing the advent of individual chartered status as an implicit recognition of the standards inadequacies in equipping its students appropriately.

The paper contributes to knowledge in two areas: firstly, the difficulties faced by emergent professions in a wider political economy that has witnessed the erosion of professional power. Secondly, that the ambiguities faced when managing people in a capitalist market economy will not be resolved by recourse to the unitarist and managerial approaches seen in the CIPD's professional programme.

Drawing upon Sternberg's theory of mental self‐government, this paper aims to investigate the thinking styles and workplace experiences of 152 human resource (HR) practitioners pursuing Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) membership. It seeks to explore whether their thinking styles complemented their jobs and consider the implications for the CIPD's notion of the “thinking performer”.

A two‐part questionnaire, including the Thinking Styles Inventory‐Revised II (Sternberg et al.) is completed by the research participants to identify their Type I (creativity‐generating) and Type II (norm‐favouring) thinking styles. Six focus group sessions are also conducted to gather insights about the participants' workplace experiences.

On average, participants scored more highly on Type I thinking styles. Although this suggested their thinking styles are consistent with the “thinking performer” ideal, focus group participants doubted whether the creativity‐generating attributes of Type I suited the reality of the HR function, which is described as being awash with rule bound behaviours. Particularly, this is the experience of junior staff, who felt unable to challenge senior management or contribute to the bigger picture. Correlation coefficients revealed that age, length of service with current organization and perceived autonomy at work are the most significant socialisation variables.

Emphasis on strategic matters in CIPD courses needs to be balanced with a greater recognition of the operational and routine reality of much HR practice.

This represents the first known attempt to test thinking performer construct amongst HR practitioners. The study combines questionnaire and focus group methods.

This study aims to explore the use of a double diamond design method to engage the industry in a sector-wide response to the issues of food waste as constructed by consumers. This particular design method is achieved by an exploration of a collective intelligence-participatory design (CIPD) project to engage industry participants in understanding and responding to consumers’ perceptions of the role of packaging in reducing food waste.

Using the UK Design Council’s double diamond design method as a guiding conceptual principle, the project recruited industry participants from medium to large food businesses across various food categories. Two scoping workshops with industry were held prior to the initiation of a 12-stage project (n = 57), and then two industry workshops were held (n = 4 and 14). Eighty participants completed an online qualitative survey, and 23 industry participants took part in a Think Tank Sprint Series. The Think Tanks used participatory design approaches to understand barriers and opportunities for change within food industry sub-sectors and test the feasibility and acceptability of package designs to reduce consumer waste.

For CIPD to work for complex problems involving industry, it is vital that stakeholders across macro- and micro-subsystems are involved and that adequate time is allowed to address that complexity. Using both the right tools for engagement and the involvement of the right mix of representatives across various sectors of industry is critical to reducing blame shift. The process of divergence and convergence allowed clear insight into the long-term multi-pronged approach needed for the complex problem.

Participatory design has been useful within various behaviour change settings. This paper has demonstrated the application of the double diamond model in a social marketing setting, adding value to an industry-wide project that included government, peak bodies, manufacturing and production and retailers.

This article reviews the opportunity provided by the work placement year for human resource management students to gain professional membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD). A case study approach is used to reflect on findings related to the first two cohorts. It concludes that the benefits of the opportunity to gain a separate professional qualification are twofold. First, it ties in closely with what appears is a more strategic career decision‐making process on behalf of the student and, second, the CIPD qualification provides a robust framework for the placement period during this important stage of student studies.

This paper is prompted by recent professional and political events and specifically the politically oriented “Manifesto for Work” recently published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The purpose of this paper is to propose a manifesto for the broad professional sphere of higher education, skills and work-based learning.

This paper utilises a unique form of political ideology critique, applied to the CIPD’s manifesto for work, to propose alternative directions for practice, research and policy.

This paper highlights four key areas which need further research and development in the area of higher education, skills and work-based learning. These are discussed in relation to: overhauling corporate governance; inclusive workplaces, flexible working and disadvantaged groups; investment in skills, lifelong learning and well-being; and re-balancing working practices and rights.

This paper highlights areas for further research in the broad professional area of higher education, skills and work-based learning.

This paper is a unique, time-bound political respond to the current political landscape, and is the first to propose a manifesto for the professional sphere of higher education, skills and work-based learning.

This article aims to question the narrow focus of the existing approaches to leadership development, and guide organizations to a more systemic perspective.

The findings are based on the review of academic literature on the subjects of leadership and management, as well as surveys of 2,069 UK employees (including 806 individuals with managerial responsibilities), 467 HR professionals from the CIPD membership database, 128 senior HR professionals, and 250 senior decision-makers.

Although most organizations today provide leadership development activities to their employees, the focus of those activities, and the lack of enabling organizational systems and processes, may inhibit leader behaviors in practice, potentially explaining the lack of leadership and management skills in UK organizations.

In developing a leadership development strategy that is aligned with business priorities, organizations should consider which segments of the workforce can add value by demonstrating leader behaviors, which aspects of organizational context might act as enablers or barriers to individuals demonstrating those behaviors, and which incentives are in place to stimulate leader behaviors.

The argument steps away from discussing the construct of “leadership”, assuming that its definitions will vary among organizations, and emphasizes the context in which leaders operate and HR practices as having impact on the effectiveness of leaders.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a short review of some of the sessions at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Conference.

The paper reviews a number of sessions held at the CIPD Conference.

The paper finds that session tracks covered: “Strategy and leadership”, “Managing change, how HR can make the difference”, “Driving your organization's performance”, “Managing talent, today's issues”, “Tomorrow's workforce”, and a workshop track featuring some six “How to” sessions.

The paper provides a brief review of some of the sessions covered at the CIPD Conference.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic organisations are adapting to a new environment of global talent shortages, economic uncertainty and geo-political turmoil. As an outcome, the organisational strategies of digital transformation and remote working have been accelerated in the race to boost innovation, competitivity and attract staff. This has led to the rise of two new organisational dynamics: the increase of virtual teams (VTs) and focus on widespread work automation. However, despite the rise of these two related phenomena, literature does not connect them as one research area, and there is a gap in the understanding of the new employee wellbeing needs they form and how to respond to them. This paper aims to bridge this gap through a systematic literature across these areas.

This paper conducts a systematic literature review across the areas of leadership, VTs and automation over the past three years.

In this review, a number of newly arising employee wellbeing needs are identified such as fear of job displacement, a lack of self-efficacy and social cohesion, poor relationships with leaders and more. In addition, this paper recommends three fundamental research gaps to be addressed by future studies: 1. How to build and cultivate the new leadership skills needed to support VTs and workplace automation? 2. How to design work in a way that caters for employee wellbeing needs when operating in VTs or hybrid teams and working on or with workplace automation? 3. How to design work in a way that builds and emphasises the new employee skillsets to support augmentation and solves for the new employee wellbeing needs experienced by workplace automation?

This paper provides a novel contribution to literature by centralising current schools of thought across the cross-disciplinary themes and synthesising literature to recommend new wellbeing and leadership skills for organisations to focus on, alongside producing a new research agenda for scholars to focus.

This paper aims to focus on the role of line management and learning culture in the development of professional practice for the human resource (HR) practitioner.

Three‐year longitudinal, matched‐pair study involving five participants and their line managers.

Two of the five participants experienced greater career growth and professional development, due to various factors; the roles of line management and learning culture.

Limitations are the nature of the research and small numbers in the study. This paper considers only two of the five categories that emerged and does not include the quantitative data findings.

Greater attention needs to be given to informal learning processes and knowledge‐sharing activities in organisations.

Due to a number of constraints, the longitudinal method used in this research is rare. There are significant benefits to gathering data over a period of time to capture different perspectives of practice and provide deeper understanding.

The purpose of this article is to show how two specialist advisers from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) provide practical advice on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and diversity.

The article includes two best practice guides based on the experience and quantitative and qualitative research of the CIPD. The first half focuses on CSR, what it means in the workplace and how HR professionals can implement or encourage its take up in a strategic and meaningful way. The second half tackles diversity, explaining its role in the workplace and its importance to HR professionals in helping organizations gain competitive advantage.

The strategic importance of both issues provides HR with an opportunity to demonstrate its strategic value to the organization. People policies and people management are at the heart of CSR and diversity.

CSR and diversity are similar, in that they both have to be approached with serious intent that results in effective delivery. Purely paying lip service, or poor implementation, is most likely to have negative implications for the business. There are also differences between the two, a key one being that there are best practice approaches to guide HR professionals in approaching CSR, whereas diversity is a more complex concept that relies on approximate reasoning.