Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extant human resource development (HRD) definition research literature and theorizes a new definition of HRD.

The authors adopted keyword and content analyses to examine selected 32 HRD definitions in relation to different organizational and sociopolitical contexts base on theory development criteria and methodology for definition research.

From a theoretical perspective, the extant definitions were mostly empirical descriptions of HRD practice with conceptualization being absent. From a context perspective, the definitions were based on HRD phenomena indigenous to the western world, especially the USA and Western Europe. They can hardly explain HRD phenomena in a non-western context. The glaring gaps lead to theorizing a new definition by focusing on the hard core of HRD in defining and criterial attributes. The defining attribute of HRD is its host-system-dependence, and the criterial attributes are its shaping and skilling mechanisms.

This study unveils that HRD is a means to support the ends defined by the corresponding host system, and not an end in itself. This definition is applicable to different sociopolitical, cultural, and organizational contexts. It provides clear criteria and boundaries to gauge the relevance of HRD research and shows the unique identity of HRD, thus offering new directions to expand the landscape of HRD research.

The new definition can help human resources practitioners better understand the role and mechanism of HRD that the worldwide practitioners can resonate in various sociocultural and political contexts. Communicating the definition and goals of HRD will enhance internal clients’ understanding and appreciation of the value of HRD.

This study fills important research gaps in HRD definition research. It is the first HRD definition derived through a rigorous theory development process. The new definition connects the HRD research niche to the general human resource literature and lead to new HRD research.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between family responsibilities and family support, on the one hand, and decisions by men and women concerning owning a business, as well as how many hours they work in that business.

The authors used data collected by the US Current Population Survey between 1989 and 2011 and had a starting sample of 1,258,430 individuals, and a final sample of 27,147.

The authors found that both women and men are more inclined to own a business when they are married, have children or receive financial support from their spouse. They also found widespread gender differences in these analyses. The influence of family-related issues on owning a business is stronger for women than for men.

The findings indicate that male business owners work longer hours if they have young children. In contrast, female business owners reduce their work hours if they are married, have young children and receive support from their spouse. Implications are discussed.

The logic of consequences and the logic of appropriateness have long been central to understanding behavior in organizations. However, scholarly work on the logic of appropriateness has consisted mostly of conceptual clarification and ex post explanation of observed behavior. In an effort to facilitate the study of the logic of appropriateness through experimental methods, this paper introduces an experimental paradigm that allows for the manipulation of decision logic as an independent variable. Using this paradigm, 710 participants played four iconic behavioral games in which profitability and ethics are both at play and, sometimes, at odds: Prisoners’ Dilemma, Dictator Game, Ultimatum Game, and Trust Game. The manipulation generated behavioral data, as well as qualitative data about participants’ considerations while deciding according to each logic. The behavioral data show that, compared to participants employing a logic of consequences, participants employing a logic of appropriateness rejected more unfair offers in an Ultimatum Game and were more generous when reciprocating trusting behavior in a Trust Game. In all other cases, behavior between the two logics was not significantly different. An analysis of the qualitative data suggests that a logic of consequences increased participants’ focus on monetary concerns, whereas a logic of appropriateness increased participants’ focus on moral concerns. Taken together, these data provide new insights into when, how, and why the two logics result in behavioral and cognitive differences. The authors conclude by considering directions for future research that they see as particularly amenable to study using the experimental manipulation presented here.

A novel type of artistic Artificial Life environment is introduced and where evolving agents, who have the ability to make and listen to sound, populate a synthetic world are described. An evolvable, rule‐based system which drives agent behaviour and where agents compete for limited resources in a virtual environment that is influenced by the presence and movement of the artwork's audience is discussed. It is shown that through a link between the real and virtual spaces, virtual agents evolve implicitly and try to maintain the interest of the human audience.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insights into how a group of novice principals, all in schools that deployed principles of autonomy as mechanisms for improvement, conceptualized what the authors label “controlled autonomy” – a condition in which school leaders are expected to both make site-based decisions and be accountable to district oversight. The study aims to support more effective interactions between school and district leaders around controlled autonomy to increase performance.

Using schema as a framework to guide the inquiry, this paper uses qualitative methods and interviewing in particular to explore the questions of interest. Seven novice principals were each interviewed three times over the year each interview lasting approximately one hour (n=21). Data were analyzed thematically using both inductive and deductive coding techniques.

Findings show that principals tended to group potential district supports into four categories: operations, instruction, advocacy, and vision and their perceptions regarding the balance between their and the district’s control over activities in each category was dynamic, varied and dependent on views relating to issues as broad as values alignment to perceptions of bureaucratic efficiency.

Because of the small sample size and methodological approach, it may be inappropriate to generalize the findings across all controlled autonomy contexts. Further research in additional settings is encouraged to support the proposed findings.

This paper has a number of implications for districts and school leaders. Among these is the need for districts to better articulate the parameters of controlled autonomy and for school leaders to receive more and more effective training and support to effectively utilize autonomy as a mechanism for reform.

This work fills a gap in the research regarding on how principals conceptualize controlled autonomy or, more specifically, how they view what school autonomy should look like relative to district control and is this paper’s focus. It also provides insights into practice and potential means to enhance a growing, but so far unevenly implemented and under performing reform initiative (i.e. controlled autonomy).

This chapter explores the role of postmodern intertextuality in Neil Jordan’s 2012 vampire film Byzantium. This intertextuality serves to place the film in dialogue with earlier vampire fiction, in particular the 1970s cycle of British and European erotic vampire films such as Daughters of Darkness and The Vampire Lovers from Hammer Films. Byzantium recalls these earlier texts structurally and thematically, both through direct reference and more oblique allusions.

While Fredric Jameson characterizes postmodern intertextuality as mere nostalgia and the imitation of ‘dead styles’, feminist postmodern theorists such as Linda Hutcheon contend argue for the political potential of postmodernism. This chapter proposes that the postmodern intertextuality of Byzantium is a critical intertextuality, and that the foregrounding of storytelling, writing, and rewriting in the film draws attention to the ways in which the intertextuality of Byzantium is not merely a return to past forms but also a reworking of them.

Taking up the work of Linda Hutcheon and Catherine Constable, this chapter demonstrates the ways in which Byzantium critically reworks aspects of earlier vampire fiction in order to critique and expand the representation of the female vampire and through this explore issues relating to female subjectivity and community.