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Among the gold standards in human resource development (HRD) research are studies that test theoretically developed hypotheses and use experimental designs. A somewhat typical experimental design would involve collecting pretest and posttest data on individuals assigned to a control or experimental group. Data from such a design that considered if training made a difference in knowledge, skills or attitudes, for example, could help advance practice. Using simulated datasets, situated in the example of a scenario-planning intervention, this paper aims to show that choosing a data analysis path that does not consider the associated assumptions can misrepresent findings and resulting conclusions. A review of HRD articles in a select set of journals indicated that some researchers reporting on pretest-posttest designs with two groups were not reporting associated statistical assumptions and reported results from repeated-measures analysis of variance that are considered of minimal utility.

Using heuristic datasets, situated in the example of a scenario-planning intervention, this paper will show that choosing a data analysis path that does not consider the associated assumptions can misrepresent findings and resulting conclusions. Journals in the HRD field that conducted pretest-posttest control group designs were coded.

The authors' illustrations provide evidence for the importance of testing assumptions and the need for researchers to consider alternate analyses when assumptions fail, particularly the homogeneity of regression slopes assumption.

This paper provides guidance to researchers faced with analyzing data from a pretest-posttest control group experimental design, so that they may select the most parsimonious solution that honors the ecological validity of the data.

The purpose of this study was to apply social exchange and organizational support theories to examine the relationship between mid-level strategic enrollment managers’ perceptions of managerial coaching behaviors enacted by their senior managers and their own reported job engagement, as mediated by perceived organizational support (POS) within the US higher education context.

A quantitative survey-based half-longitudinal design, which used the latent marker variable technique, was conducted with a sponsoring professional organization in the strategic enrollment management (SEM) field in the USA. A total of 301 usable surveys were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results of this study indicate that SEM managers’ job engagement and the perceived managerial coaching behaviors provided to them by their senior managers were positively correlated, and that POS fully mediated this relationship. These findings highlight how coaching behaviors may allow managers to elicit positive emotional responses and, by fostering enhanced POS, ultimately enhance job engagement among their team members.

This study addresses several calls for research on managerial coaching, job engagement and POS in an under-examined higher education context within the human resource development field.

The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue, “The Quest for Scientific Discipline in HRD Research: Designs that Support Causal Inference”.

This special issue presents seven papers that consider human resource development (HRD) research though the lens of scientific rigor, as well as techniques and considerations that researchers might use to strengthen claims of causality.

Based on the research reported in this special issue, it appears that the field of HRD is not necessarily distinct from educational research in the level of scientific rigor used in studies as reported in a group of HRD journals.

The seven papers provide practical advice for researchers who wish to move their research up the hierarchy of evidence and conduct rigorous research that answers “what works” questions.

This study responded to the call to empirically reconcile conflicting findings in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) literature. It did so by examining the influence of organizational culture on the relationship between affective organizational commitment and UPB.

Using a sample of 710 U.S. service sector employees based on a three-wave data collection design, structural invariance assessment was utilized to evaluate the relationship between affective organizational commitment and UPB across organizational cultures with opposing effectiveness criteria (i.e. focused on stability vs flexibility).

The result indicated a statistically significant positive direct effect between affective organizational commitment and UPB for the stability-focused cultures, while finding a statistically insignificant effect for the flexibility-focused cultures. These results support organizational culture research, which shows that organizational cultures with opposing effectiveness criteria (i.e. stability vs flexibility) can either encourage or discourage ethical behavior.

While leaders and managers encourage employee commitment to the organization, it is important to understand that increased organizational commitment is not limited to positive outcomes. Cultivating elements of flexibility-oriented cultures, like promoting teamwork (as in clan cultures) or fostering innovation and adaptability (as in adhocracy cultures), can be a strategic approach to minimize the chances of UPB among committed employees.

By integrating insights from social exchange theory, Trevino’s interactionist model and the competing values framework, we have contributed to a nuanced understanding of how different organizational cultures can suppress or stimulate UPB.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership (TL) and authentic leadership (AL) using a canonical correlation analysis (CCA).

The sample was 427 knowledge workers from a Fortune Global 100 company in Korea. Descriptive statistics and CCA were used to test the relationship between the two perceived leadership constructs.

A canonical correlation indicated that the composite of TL (i.e. idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration) was strongly and significantly related to the composite of AL (i.e. transparency, moral/ethical, balanced processing and self-awareness), accounting for 82.3 per cent of the shared variance between the two variable sets.

This empirical study was based on employees’ perceptions on the two leadership behaviors of their supervisors, using a cross-sectional survey method. In addition, this study is confined to the employees in a for-profit organization in Korean cultural setting, leaving room for speculation with regard to cultural issues.

It is noted the two leadership behaviors are not substitutable, but complementary. Therefore, human resources development (HRD) practitioners are suggested to design leadership development programs focusing both on AL and TL in a concerted way. In this way, HRD professionals can help their managers enhance their AL and TL capability, and thus let their followers emulate their leader’s behaviors, which ultimately will lead to higher level of organizational commitment, employee/job engagement and in-role and extra-role performance.

This is the first study that empirically confirmed Burns’ (1978) initial intuitive conceptualization of the authentic transformational leaders. We found that an authentic leader appears to be a transformational leader or vice versa. Another contribution lies in that to identify the common denominator between the two leadership behaviors this study used a relatively rare CCA in the field of HRD.

The paper ' s aim is to report a research study on the mediator and outcome variable sets in scenario planning.

This is a cannonical correlation analysis (CCA)

Twso sets of variables; one as a predictor set that explained a significant amount of variability in the second, or outcome set of variables were found.

The study did not involve random selection or assignment and used perception-based measures.

The findings support scenario planning as a tool to reinforce certain decision styles and learning organization culture.

A critical contribution to scenario planning research, this study brings some order to the variety of variables espoused to be involved in scenario work. Clear outcomes are a learning culture and intuitive/dependent decision styles. The study makes a real contribution to quantitative scenario studies.

In human resource development (HRD) doctoral programs, advanced statistics training (AST) is crucial for certain students, depending on their research interests and career goals. However, mandating AST for all students could be inimically consequential to some students’ academic and professional success. Such requirement risks misallocating valuable time and resources, potentially diverting students from the areas where their intellectual strengths and research ambitions could flourish most effectively. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conceptually investigate AST requirement for HRD doctoral students and call for an empirical investigation to address the research gap. Indeed, aligning training with students’ diverse needs could enhance their preparedness for future academic and career challenges.

This is a conceptual study examining the necessity of mandating AST for all HRD doctoral students.

Many HRD doctoral programs design their curricula based on the caprices of academic leaders rather than empirical evidence, creating a disconnect between doctoral students’ academic strengths, career goals, and the training they receive. As a result, this misalignment may produce mediocre ambidextrous researchers ill-equipped to meet their future research needs and employer expectations. A rigid one-size-fits-all approach in doctoral education fails to leverage students’ intellectual strengths, potentially hindering their development as specialized experts capable of contributing meaningfully to the evolving demands of the HRD field and its practitioners. Therefore, the HRD doctoral curriculum should be informed by data-driven insights to ensure relevance and efficacy.

Despite its profound and far-reaching implications for students, educational institutions, and employers, no empirical study has examined this nuanced issue within the HRD discipline. In contrast, extensive research in cognate disciplines has explored the necessity of AST and its impact on diverse student outcomes. This study makes a unique contribution to the HRD field by addressing a critical gap in the literature and proposing a bifurcated approach specifically designed for HRD doctoral students. This proposed novel framework could inform curriculum design and better align training with the evolving needs of emerging scholars and the broader HRD community.

The purpose of this study is to promote Chinese indigenous research by examining a case in which adopting social capital (SC) scales developed in the Western context for Chinese samples can decontextualize inter-firm guanxi management in the Chinese context.

Adopting the existing Western scales to measure SC, we collected data from Chinese executives participating in executive master of business administration programs on buyer–supplier relationship. Using the same items and data source, we identified post hoc factors representing guanxi dimensions. Ordinary least squared regressions were used for both guanxi and SC dimensions to test the hypotheses.

Our analysis showed that Chinese natives responded to the Western SC items according to their understanding and mindsets rooted in guanxi. This was evidenced by the results from the post hoc-derived guanxi dimensions with the same data, which show better regression results for the hypotheses tested, although the construct validity was comparable. Adopting Western SC measurement scales deconceptualized the intricate Chinese context and inter-firm interactions.

It is inappropriate to borrow Western-developed scales for Chinese HRM research due to intricate differences in contexts. Doing so may run the risk of ignoring the Chinese context regarding the mechanisms and processes of complex human interactions, although it may produce superficial results consistent with the Western literature. Developing indigenous measurement scales should be considered not only as a preference but also as a requirement for Chinese management research.

We empirically compared the difference between Western-developed measurement scales and a Chinese indigenous construct, as well as their impact on relationship management in relation to indigenous Chinese management research.

Given that knowledge hiding hampers the management of employee knowledge, it is important to measure the phenomena before applying the intervention to alleviate it. This paper aims to validate knowledge hiding measurements in South Korea.

The research collected 420 and 415 different Korean employee samples for each study, and they responded to their quality of knowledge hiding. The research conducted factor analysis using Mplus software and the Rasch model using JMetrik software based on the item response theory.

The research validated Korean versions of knowledge hiding measurements consisting of three factors and ten items. The study also found that knowledge hiding has a negative relationship with knowledge sharing and an unexpectedly positive relationship with team creativity. The study confirmed that the modified measurement yields acceptable discriminant and convergent validity.

The research relied on self-reported data and may have an issue measuring their knowledge hiding generously. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to measure it from others, including supervisors and colleagues. This research has theoretical implications for psychometrically and systematically validating the measurement.

The research includes practical implications for contributing to Human resource development practitioners could assess employee traits accurately and manage their negative knowledge behavior.

The research suggests the implications for detecting a positive relationship between knowledge hiding and team creativity. The study discussed that the specific climate could contribute to team creativity in Eastern contexts.

The research identified the importance of a psychometric validating process in the development of measurements.