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Existing research on challenging experiences has focused primarily on the positive outcomes of these experiences for individuals and organizations. However, some studies have also highlighted the potential downsides to these experiences. This paper offers recommendations for organizations, including specific actions and interventions to foster development using challenging experiences.

The authors reviewed the academic and practitioner literature on challenging experiences to formulate their recommendations.

Based on a review of the literature, the authors offer five recommendations for organizations to manage challenging experiences effectively and, thus, foster the development of their employees.

The authors hope that the adoption of their five recommendations may assist organizations in improving their leadership bench strength.

Previous research has provided substantial attention to how individual-level challenging experiences lead to individual- and organization-related outcomes. This paper aims to expand existing challenging experiences theory and research by proposing a theoretical framework that addresses how challenging experiences differentiation relates to work unit effectiveness.

The authors integrate the literature on challenging experiences with that of work unit identification and citizenship behavior to shed light on the intervening mechanisms through which challenging experiences differentiation relates to work unit effectiveness.

The authors’ theoretical framework proposes that challenging experiences differentiation diminishes work unit effectiveness through the mediating roles of variation in work unit identification and variation in citizenship behavior among unit members.

By linking challenging experiences differentiation and work unit effectiveness, the authors’ framework highlights the importance of studying challenging experiences at the unit level of analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine: gender differences in the choice to perform challenging tasks, gender differences in the actual performance of challenging tasks, and the impact of challenging experiences on supervisors' evaluations of individuals' potential for career advancement.

In study 1, a sample of 158 students participated in a laboratory study that examined gender differences in choosing to perform challenging tasks in a situation that stressed individual performance. In study 2, a sample of 93 interns completed questionnaires in which the authors measured their challenging job experiences. Interns' supervisors evaluated interns' potential for career advancement.

In an achievement situation, women chose to perform fewer challenging tasks than men (study 1). During their internships, females had fewer challenging job experiences than males (study 2). Having challenging experiences was positively related to supervisors' evaluations of interns' potential for career advancement (study 2).

The use of student samples may be considered a limitation of these studies. However, the nature of the research questions justifies an initial examination among students. Moreover, small gender differences in experiences at the start of individuals' careers may ultimately lead to increasing discrepancies between men's and women's careers.

The study is the first to examine individuals' own impact on the extent to which they experience job challenge. Moreover, it is the first that empirically examines the relationship between job challenge and evaluations of career potential.

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate how an adult development perspective can further the understanding of developmental networks as holding environments for developing leaders confronted with challenging experiences.

The article utilizes constructive developmental theory (C‐D theory) to explore and address the implications of an adult development lens for leader development, especially as they confront complex leadership challenges that trigger anxiety.

Theoretical propositions suggest different kinds of holding behaviors (e.g. confirmation, contradiction, and continuity) necessary for enabling growth and effectiveness for leaders located in different developmental orders.

Propositions offered can guide future researchers to explore how leaders confronted with different kinds of leadership challenges sustain responsive developmental networks over time and how the developers in the leader's network coordinate to provide confirmation, contradiction, and continuity needed for leader development.

Leaders and their developers should reflect on how developmental orders may determine which types of holding behaviors are necessary for producing leader effectiveness amidst challenging leadership experiences. Organizations should provide assessment centers and appropriate training and development interventions to facilitate this reflection.

This paper demonstrates the important role that developmental relationships play in leadership effectiveness and growth over time. Individuals and organizations are urged to attend to the quality and availability of high quality developmental relationships for purposes of continuous learning and development.

This article re‐conceptualizes developmental networks as holding environments that can enable leader's growth as an adult and, hence, increase their effectiveness as leaders amidst complex leadership challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to bring to light the double edges faced by individuals who have international and multicultural experiences. The implication is that these individuals encounter acculturation challenges, and also gain from their multiculturality. The authors adopt Berry’s (2011) integration and multiculturalism framework to analyze the experiences and challenges that multi-culturals face. This paper suggests ways to glean the silver lining within organizations to help manage and master multicultural experiences in the workplace to benefit both individuals and organizations.

The authors used empirical materials from expatriates who have worked across multiple cultural contexts. Based on these the authors present three examples to illustrate how expatriates and multicultural individuals place themselves in situations where they experience contact and challenges associated with adopting multiple cultures. The authors then analyze these examples to show how the experiences involve psychological-level integration challenges for Multi- and n-culturals.

The three multicultural expatriate examples suggest that individuals with international and multicultural experiences who are successful at managing their experiences develop cognitive and behavioral complexity. However, these individuals also face continuous acculturation including cognitive and ethno-cultural identity conflicts such as, rejection from multiple cultural perspectives because they continually cross-multiple cultural microcosms. Suggestions are presented to help maintain one’s sense of self-worth and minimizing ethno-cultural conflicts.

Notwithstanding the value of analyzing the examples of expatriate acculturation experiences, the limitation to the examples is that it is limited to the experience of three individuals. However, the examples were effective in raising points to discuss relevant challenges and/or the double-edged reality faced by boundary spanners, multi-, and n-culturals.

The paper presents possible ways multi- and n-culturals navigate through their multiculturalism, including suggestions to help individuals who struggle with their multiculturalism through mentoring.

The paper highlights the challenges of acculturation and suggests ways that individuals can overcome these challenges. It further suggests how organizations can take advantage of such individuals by utilizing existing personnel within the organization.

The paper is one of the few that acknowledge multiculturalism is highly challenging even for successful multi-culturals and n-culturals. Currently the literature is scant concerning how individuals can manage and master multicultural experiences in the workplace. The paper suggests a number of useful strategies for individuals and organizations to manage the challenges.

The authors are two social work academics working in a UK Higher Education Institute. Social work is underpinned by principles of anti-oppressive practice which leads to challenge discrimination and stigmatisation. The authors explored experiences of deficit imposed by others' perceptions of the physical and ethnic appearance and mental health status. The authors consider how these features influence how the authors locate themselves within the wider contexts of academic spaces in higher education institutions (HEI).

Using duoethnography, a collaborative research methodology, the authors recorded reflections on their experiences for five months and met weekly to discuss their material. This process enabled them to engage in dialogic narrative through collaborative writing using both structured and unstructured reflections. The authors analysed the reflections using thematic data analysis.

Four themes were generated that led to understanding how the authors could challenge oppression. The oppression became visible as the authors reflected on the common experiences of deficit. The understanding of other's oppression as well as the authors’ own became clearer as the unconscious experiences became conscious. The authors began to locate the experiences of being both privileged and oppressed in the wider social context of the HE. Finally, the authors recognised how the “deficit” identities could transform into strengths.

This personal journey of two academics reflecting on how they are paradoxically both privileged and yet oppressed challenges other professionals to honestly explore how they themselves can occupy both roles and become allies in confronting discrimination in all its forms.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and investigate the idea that self-profiling and career control by temporary agency workers (TAWs) in low-skill jobs are positively related to informal learning and that this relationship is mediated by job challenge.

An online survey study was conducted among 722 TAWs in low-skill jobs in the Netherlands. Bootstrap mediation analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Self-profiling and career control are positively related to informal learning of TAWs and these relationships are mediated by job challenge.

This is the first study to develop and empirically test the proposition that self-profiling and career control are important factors for enhancing employees’ learning experiences in low-skill jobs.

Hiring companies and temporary work agencies could stimulate and train TAWs’ self-profiling and career control competencies to enhance their job challenge and informal learning. Organizations should consider assigning challenging tasks to TAWs, which may be a good alternative for expensive formal training programs.

Many TAWs in low-skill jobs do not possess the skills and capacities to obtain a better or more secure job. In general, temporary workers face a higher risk of unemployment and greater income volatility (Segal and Sullivan, 1997). Gaining knowledge about how to develop this group is important for society as a whole.

Research on the determinants of informal learning mainly concerned higher-educated employees and managers with long-term contracts (e.g. Dong et al., 2014), whereas very little is known about factors that stimulate informal learning among TAWs in general, and among TAWs in low-skill jobs in particular.

Upon discharge, US service members experience an instantaneous immersion back into civilian life. One of the most challenging aspects of that reimmersion is the reentry/entry into the civilian workforce. As such, it is necessary to study the returning veteran's employment experience when considering the veteran's civilian reintegration. The purpose of this study was to analyze and evaluate the returning veteran's civilian employment experience and to identify challenges faced by the veteran in the civilian onboarding experience.

This study is a qualitative analysis in which 27 military veterans were interviewed about their experience with civilian reemployment. The results of the interviews were compiled, analyzed and grouped by common theme. This study explains some of the major issues confronted by the newly separated veteran and discusses how those challenges may influence job satisfaction and job performance.

The analysis identified the following three main themes that posed challenges to the veteran to civilian employment transition: civilian employer’s military job knowledge deficit, veteran anxiety with civilian employer’s lack of clearly defined new-hire processes and civilian employer misunderstanding of veteran compensation, benefits and family involvement expectations.

This study is beneficial to scholars in as much as it will help to more clearly identify literature gaps, provide direction on emerging research concepts, add to the existing literature on the veteran to civilian transitions and connect research areas that have not yet been adequately studied. Future research would be well served to follow a similar program of research but by employing different research methods in order to address the limitations outlined above and further support the findings of this research. Specifically, future research should sample across a wider set of individuals as study participants (time since discharge, age, military rank at time of separation, reserve status, etc.). By doing this, future researchers may be able to determine how perceptions change over time and with regard to military experience. A second area of future research may be to conduct related research based on civilian employment opportunities and qualifications. Specific areas of study to be considered should be focused primarily on the macro issues such as military leadership and translating military experiences and skill sets to civilian contexts. Unlike other findings in this research, these two areas cannot be affected at the organizational level, and as such require concept exploration and clarity.

This study provides guidance and direction for veterans and employers alike by outlining areas that may be challenging for new-hire military veterans and bringing to light areas where the civilian onboarding experience can improve to better accommodate veterans. Further, this study identifies areas that directly or indirectly contribute to high veteran turnover rates and ultimately high veteran unemployment rates.

This original quantitative study conducted by the author specifically identifies several areas in the veteran to civilian employment transition that pose challenges for the returning veteran. All data for this study were gathered and analyzed using first-hand face-to-face interviews and established data analysis methods by the researcher.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether challenging experiences on development programmes would simulate leadership challenges and therefore stimulate the body’s autonomic nervous system response. The authors also aimed to determine whether increase in autonomic arousal would be related to learning, and/or moderated by personality variables.

The research used heart rate (HR) monitors to measure HR continuously over a two-day simulated learning experience. This was used to calculate autonomic arousal which was taken to be the difference between resting HR measured during sleep and HR during critical incidents (CIs) (HR). The authors correlated this with self-reports of learning immediately after, and one month after, the programme to assess the impact of autonomic arousal on perceived learning, as well as with variety of psychometric measures.

The research found significant correlations between (HR) during CIs and perceived learning which were not related to personality type. The research also found a significant correlation between (HR) and learning during a control event for individuals with “approach” personalities.

Whilst a significant result was found, the sample size of 28 was small. The research also did not empirically assess the valence or intensity of the emotions experienced, and used only a self-report measure of learning. Future research should replicate the findings with a larger sample size, attempt to measure these emotional dimensions, as well as obtain perceptions of learning from direct reports and line managers.

The findings from the research help clarify the mechanisms involved in the effectiveness of experiential learning, and contribute to the understanding of the influence of personality type on perceived learning from experiential methodologies. Such understanding has implications for business schools and learning and development professionals, suggesting that development experiences that challenge leaders are likely to result in learning that is longer lasting.

The research extends the literature regarding the value of learning through experience, the role of autonomic arousal on learning, and the impact of negative emotions on cognition. The research makes a unique contribution by exploring the impact of experience on arousal and learning in a simulated learning experience and over time, by demonstrating that simulated experiences induce emotional and physiological responses, and that these experiences are associated with increased learning.

This study aims to investigate the experiences of frontline managers supervising and developing staff to support autistic adults living in two types of residential housing in the community.

A qualitative approach used semi-structured interviews with 14 frontline managers. Audio-taped material was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

Two main themes emerged. Theme 1 “autism in practice” illustrates commonalities observed to affect autistic adults with learning disabilities receiving staff support; whilst one sub-theme illustrated the diversity in how these commonalities may be experienced and expressed, another focused on participants’ experiences of staff concerns regarding behaviours described as challenging. Theme two, “what’s important in autism-informed support” reflected participants’ perceptions of the features of successful person-centred staff support for autistic service users.

The “rich” experiences of these managers may not be readily generalised.

Features of good staff support for autistic adults who may show behaviours of concern included attending to individuals’ specific communication and sensory needs and for predictability within their environments. Developing staff skills and confidence to implement skilled approaches in the context of often high risk behaviour of concern took time and frontline managers “on site” to observe, coach, mentor and demonstrate good practice. More intellectually (verbally) able service-users were perceived as more “difficult” to support.

Staff supporting autistic adults in ordinary housing need frontline managers to act as practice leaders rather than administrators.

This study is the first to report, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on management for staff supporting autistic adults living in community housing.