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The purpose of this paper is to provide varied conceptualisation of talent management and development (TMD) by building managerial talent development model that is more appropriate to the context of the Ghanaian gold mining industry.

The authors use two sets of data – foundation pillars of TMD and industry and definition of TMD. The authors first create a TMD framework by conducting constructive alternative analysis using the TMD foundation pillars that inform local talent situation, and then use the results and evaluation of industry definition of TMD to build the model.

The authors find that the model departs from the predominantly Western version of human resource management that has characterised TMD in industry. Developed from indigenous perspective, the model is more likely to be effective tool for the development of local managers in industry.

From practical viewpoint, the study has provided insight into understanding of expatriate managers to integrate locally relevant experiences, which are of meaning to trainee managers into their development for successful outcome.

This is the first study which has explored prevailing talent situation and expectations of local managers in the Ghanaian gold mining industry. The constructed model provides an innovative approach for context-specific approach to the development of its local managers to satisfy the mining sector localisation policy.

Why is it that highly trained and seasoned executives fail? On the surface, this doesn’t make sense because they are very successful; yet research in the organization sciences provides no shortage of evidence to prove just that. From the classic Mann Gulch fire disaster of Weick’s famous collapse of sensemaking study, to studies of myopia of learning, escalation of commitment, threat-rigidity, dominant logic, the architecture of simplicity, the Icarus Paradox, to core competencies turning into core rigidities, and navigating new competitive markets using “old” cognitive maps, and many more such examples point to a ubiquitous phenomenon where highly trained and experienced professionals find themselves “stuck” in the heat of battle, unable to move and progress. On the one hand, for some, there is a desperate need for change, but are unable to do so, due to their trained incapacities. On the other hand, some simply cannot see the need for change, and continue with their “business as usual” mentality. For both, their visions of the world shrink, they have a tendency to cling onto their past habitual practices and oversimplify the complexity of the situation. In moments like these: DROP YOUR TOOLS and UNLEARN! This book chapter introduces a framework (grounded in clinical psychology) that has had consistent success in helping seasoned executives and key decision-makers open up the alternatives whenever they find themselves stuck with complexity.

Our preoccupation with the Repertory Grid Technique has left little time and attention to the core ideas articulated in Kelly’s (1955) Theory of Personal Constructs. After more than 20 years engaging with the method, I have (re)discovered his theorizing about man’s quest for knowing, to be the most insightful. This chapter shares my reflections/reflexions about the crucial role he placed on the notion of “anticipation.” I position this importance within the context of the challenges of our times and advocate that his “psychology of the unknown” is just as important today as it was 62 years ago.

The paper aims to trace the challenges that multinational companies (MNCs) face as they grow out of their national borders into foreign countries and how they attempt to transfer human resource management (HRM) policies and practices across their subsidiaries for a best-fit HRM model.

The paper uses the dilemma theory (involving two opposing values which doing one without the other creates a disadvantage but both cannot be done together) as the main analytical tool and reviews scholarly literature on MNCs’ HRM transfers for the assessment of the transfer challenges.

It is found that MNCs face a dilemma as to how to find best-fit between home-country HRM requirements and host-country demands. In the face of this dilemma, MNCs attempt to build synergy between home-country requirements and host-country demands for a best-fit HRM that is beneficial to both the parent company and their foreign subsidiaries. Despite the best-fit HRM practices to diffuse the tension, parent company has greater influence in the final synergy product which is the trade-off between home-country HRM label and host-country contextual demands, thereby advancing the dominant HRM option of the dilemma.

MNCs should be aware of the possible challenges as they internationalise and should equally be aware that though they may build a synergy (a blend of workable headquarters and subsidiary HRM), the final product will continue to favour headquarters’ HRM policies and practices.

The paper generates theoretical implications into the issues and challenges that arise with HRM transfers within multinational firms by examining how the dilemma theory sheds light on the transfer process and challenges from the dominant-contextual tension till the fight for best-fit HRM. It also contributes to the development of cycle of cross-border HRM dilemma, cross-border HRM transfer framework and Synergy-Dominant theory.

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) who display aggression necessitate effective interventions for reducing highly disruptive behavior, while keeping learning environments safe and secure for all students and staff. In this chapter, we describe the merits of cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBIs) in school settings to reduce student aggression and other destructive and maladaptive behavior and to promote student success and lifelong learning. To that end, we first explore three theoretical frameworks for aggression: the general aggression model, social learning theory, and social information processing, each of which examines the role of environment, cognition, and behavior as foundational to the occurrence of aggression. Synthesizing these theories assists in the development and implementation of CBIs in classroom settings. We then describe the CBI approach to teaching students cognitive and behavioral strategies to reduce problematic behaviors and increase the use of more pro-social alternatives, and ultimately generalize learned skills to a variety of social situations. A brief history of CBIs is explored, followed by a discussion of several meta-analyses establishing CBI's effectiveness in decreasing aggression across a variety of venues and populations. We then focus on social problem solving as an example of a cognitive-behavioral approach and describe the Tools for Getting Along curriculum as an example of a school-based CBI. At the end of the chapter, we explain some limitations of CBIs in schools and delineate future research needs.

Many occupations require people to draw on their experience to make decisions based on intuition and subjective judgement; this includes craft‐ and skill‐based tasks, and the more cognitive tasks associated with strategic decision‐making by senior managers. Discussion of the processes involved tends to regard them as somehow inappropriate or illegitimate, excessively subjective because not open to scrutiny. The repertory grid is a powerful and precise way of making tacit knowledge explicit; moreover, it rests on a detailed and epistemologically convincing theory of knowledge, personal construct psychology. Both have been used in a great variety of occupations, and this paper will sample some of them, concentrating on the identification of the intuitive factors involved in bank commercial lending, and venture capital investment, decision processes. The willingness of financial institutions to support, and their reluctance to adopt, this particular approach to the identification of tacit knowledge will also be examined.

The purpose of this paper is to present George Kelly's The Psychology of Personal Constructs and to discuss how Repertory Grid Technique can aid a better understanding of friends and members in an arts marketing context.

The project is a phenomenological study drawing on Kelly's The Psychology of Personal Constructs. The author conducted 16 unstructured face‐to‐face interviews across the UK during 2007 with individuals who were friends or members of at least five heritage supporter groups as part of a larger mixed methods study. The interviews included the building of Repertory Grids.

Analysis of the Repertory Grids gives a detailed understanding of participants' perceptions of, and involvement in, heritage supporter groups. Five themes emerged from the analysis: Organization; Engagement with the Organization; Involvement; Motivation; and Relationships with other members.

The paper provides a rich understanding of the portfolio of memberships that individuals have and of how they perceive and interact with them.

The paper contributes to the arts marketing literature methodologically by illustrating how to use Repertory Grid Technique in an arts marketing context and by focusing on friends and members, whose perspectives the academic literature does not cover extensively.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the practical utility of using repertory grids with sexual offenders in denial and to demonstrate through a case study how they can be used to bolster both initial assessment and psychological formulation.

The study uses a single case study design and applies a repertory grid methodology, which is underpinned by personal construct psychology, to make sense of the case study. The analysis predominately focuses on the structure of the repertory grid.

The case study appeared to elicit factors that were of clinical utility and which could be used as tentative hypotheses for problem formulation and also seemed to point to an adequate starting point for intervention.

The use of the case study makes generalisation difficult and future research may benefit from more large‐scale research.

Rather than subscribing to fatalist notions of deniers as untreatable, the paper argues that constructive work can be done with this population and that repertory grids can be one way to initially facilitate this process.

Currently “total deniers” are excluded from treatment and are seen as untreatable. It is argued here that this need not be the case and it is demonstrated how repertory grids can inform initial formulation with such offenders. Repertory grids have not been used with deniers before and this is an original feature of this research.

The main theme of this chapter is raising awareness and improving insights and planning abilities in relation to problems faced by people of colour, as individuals and in institutions. In promoting these skills, there is a need to recognize the role played by personal perceptions and emotions in the way in which we construe problems. Here, the author presents a personal construct psychology (Kelly, 1955, Ravenette, 1997) derived approach, which offers a way through the conceptual confusion clouding our thinking about aspects of our lives that concern us, and often leaves us lacking the energy and ability to loosen our thinking and move in the direction of rewarding new attitudes and behaviours.