Search results

Are organizations responding to significant changes in Australian labour force demographics by providing more family‐friendly programs? This article explores whether or not variations across companies in the implementation of work‐family programs and policies relate to demands of key constituent groups. Findings of the present evaluation indicate that certain employee demographic factors, particularly employees with dependents, women, union members, and long‐serving employees are more likely to predispose an organization to offer work‐family benefits. Employers need to be able to characterise the demographics of their workforce to plan the type of policies and programs that might be most suitable and contribute to productivity outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reason for, and outcomes of, the New South Wales Land and Property Authority's (Lands) Vision 2013 plan designed to deal with a perceived impending human capital crisis in light of a rapidly ageing workforce. The research questions examined are “Did the perceived crisis eventuate?” and “What was the impact of implementing the plan to combat the threat of an ageing workforce?”

Using a case study approach, the paper incorporates semi‐structured interviews, planning papers and annual reports to critically examine the impact of implementing the Vision 2013 plan. Lands was chosen because in 2005 the ageing workforce issue motivated Lands to investigate how it would successfully manage organisational knowledge then and into the future. With the purpose of promoting discussion and critical reflection, we examine how Lands addressed the perceived crisis and the impact it had on the management of knowledge and human capital.

The ageing workforce crisis appears not to have been as significant as anticipated because of the combination of improved processes and training of new employees, allowing for knowledge transfer, making some old knowledge redundant and creating new knowledge. However, a gap exists between the new processes and tacit knowledge that can only be filled through experience. While the ageing workforce crisis seems to have abated, a new crisis of retention looms on the horizon.

The paper provides a longitudinal example of how a particular employer dealt with the threat of knowledge loss due to the retirement of older workers. It demonstrates that the threat cannot only be thwarted but can also help drive system and process improvements. The lessons learned, the authors argue, can be generalised to the public and private sector; however, they must be tempered within specific local, national and international contexts.

The paper provides a longitudinal observation of a public sector government business enterprise's implementation of a plan to address the issue of an ageing workforce. Many contemporary organisations face this issue so the results of the case study will be of value to those facing similar challenges.

Academic and research libraries have made many efforts to diversify their workforces; however, today the profession remains largely homogenous. We recognize that diversification cannot be achieved without creating inclusive and more equitable workspaces and workplaces. This requires rethinking our assumptions and behaviors as individuals and as a profession, questioning entrenched structures that maintain the status quo, and developing practices that keep these critical questions in the forefront as we do the difficult work of redefining our infrastructure in order to create equitable and socially just workplaces. To inspire a different type of dialogue, we offer actionable information and tools – strategies, ideas, and concepts from outside our profession. In this chapter, the authors present strategies used by corporations, industries, organizations, or fields outside of academia that have contributed to substantially diversifying their workforces and discuss how they could be integrated into our own workplaces. While these efforts are imperfect, incomplete, or have mixed results, we focus on strategies that demonstrate outside-the-box thinking for our profession, practices that will require academic and research libraries to rethink their operations, the behaviors and structures that support them, and thus the way library management and leadership are practiced. We are hoping that providing strategies outside our profession, as well as guidance on applying these strategies, will create reflection, dialogue, and innovative ideas for our own institutions.

Research on work status differences has yielded inconsistent results and is not relevant for today's workforce, economic circumstances, or the changing nature of work. Inconsistencies may be due to substantial heterogeneity, rather than homogeneity, within each group (part-time (PT) and full-time (FT)). Thus, researchers created a PT worker typology based on demographics and personal life roles. Systematic differences in attitudes and behaviors across derived groups of PT workers were found. The purpose of the current study is to test the applicability of this PT worker typology on FT workers and to extend the typology's foundational theory, partial inclusion theory (PIT).

The current study employs cluster analysis on three diverse samples (n=3,747) to establish a basis for the generalizability of the FT typology.

Strong support was found for a similar, but distinct, FT employee typology. Attitudinal and behavioral differences were also found among the various FT groups which were similar to the differences found among the PT groups.

The current study has implications both for the application of PIT as well management and human resources. Targeted wellness and retention programs can be designed for various groups of FT employees, including scheduling flexibility and benefit plans.

This is one of the first studies to examine the heterogeneity of the FT workforce, understanding that FT workers also have substantial life roles outside of work that likely affect their involvement and attitudes at work.

A majority of human resource executives report that their inability to attract and retain middle-skills talent frequently affects their firm’s performance. Middle-skills jobs, those that require more than a high school diploma, less than a four-year college degree, and pay above the national living wage, account for nearly half of labor demanded in the United States. As technology transforms the workplace, digital skills are becoming increasingly important and in higher demand. In today’s dynamic workforce, managers are facing managing and developing interdisciplinary and multilevel teams while combating a technical skills divide (lack of qualified workers), making it difficult to recruit and retain a high-technology, middle-skill-level workforce. This chapter focuses on addressing unique challenges relevant to recruitment, upskilling, and management best practices as they relate to the integration of technology and middle-skill-level workers in a highly successful workplace.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of gender, age and education on new technology implementation in Saudi Arabia, a technologically developing country, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).

The research was an empirical investigation based on surveys completed by 1,088 Saudi knowledge workers.

The TPB model performs well in Saudi Arabia. This validation accounts for 37 percent of the variance in behavioral intention among Saudi knowledge workers. For the moderator variables, there were no statistically significant interactions, with the exception of the moderation of perceived behavioral control on behavioral intention by level of education.

Saudi Arabia is an exemplar for many developing nations characterized by distinct intellectual and cultural traditions that differ from Western cultures. Demographic variables (e.g. gender and age) that have been reported to be significant moderators of the influences of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intention in other cultural samples were found to be non‐significant in this Saudi Arabian sample.

System developers using user‐centered design approaches have different design criteria for the successful workforce adoption of information technology (IT) systems in a technologically developing nation, as compared to the workforce of a technologically developed nation.

This paper validates TPB as a multi‐cultural model for investigating the impact of attitudes, beliefs, and subjective norms on technology adoption, and, in contrast to previous studies, indicates the (non)effects of select demographic moderators on the model using a non‐Western sample.

The chapter provides a brief review of team diversity research from its roots in group composition and workforce demographics through recent trends toward dynamic multilevel models. The divergence from this research area's early motivations in social justice and inclusion to a primarily economic motivation is highlighted. The chapter also reviews major theories that have been used to explain diversity effects in team interactions and outcomes. The review leads to a discussion of three broad critiques of mainstream diversity research, namely a predominance of US cultural outlook, a narrow disciplinary base in organization sciences and psychology, and inadequate attention and overly simplistic perspective on communication processes. The chapter ends with implications for team diversity research and a discussion of how the suggestions can be applied to emerging dimensions of diversity.

Literacy has been one of the most publicized societal problems of the past decade, and it is likely to continue as such for some time to come. Like many problems of modern society, it involves a variety of educational, social, and economic factors, and will therefore not be easily solved.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies are handling the issue of knowledge retention from old age retiring workers in the oil and gas sector. This is achieved by providing a detailed insight on the challenges and strategies related to knowledge retention through study of companies from different geographical locations across the globe.

The study adopts a qualitative research methodology and 20 semi-structured interviews, with open-ended and probing questions, were conducted to gain an in-depth insight into the knowledge retention phenomena.

Knowledge retention activities tend to be inconsistent in majority of the oil and gas companies, with not much work being done regarding knowledge loss from old employees, partly because of the fall in oil prices and layoffs. Oil prices turn out to be a decisive factor in oil and gas industry regarding workforce and knowledge retention activities. The political situation and geographical locations of the companies also affect the knowledge retention activities. Moreover, the aging workforce and retirement issue is more acute in the upstream sector.

The focus of the study was on the oil and gas sector, and thus the research results may lack generalizability.

This paper fulfills an identified need for investigating the issues and challenges of knowledge retention regarding old age retiring employees by taking into account a global perspective and providing a comparison among different companies in different geographical locations.

This chapter examines emerging trends in the use of advancing technologies in human resource development (HRD). The use of technology in the workplace to increase productivity and optimize business results is not a new concept; however, the use of technology to capture vital HRD data and create innovative organizational development strategies and programs is now the cornerstone of many HRD organizations. In dealing with the challenges of a global, multigenerational workforce, having to do more with less, and the constant demand to remain competitive, organizations seek innovative ways to integrate technology into its organizational development practices. The use of technology in human resource development has proven to save time, costs, and provide a more accurate assessment of the state of the workforce regarding skills, competencies, culture, and talent acquisition over previous methods. While advancing technologies in human resource development offer significant value and benefits, it also presents challenges and issues. For this reason, it is vital for organizations to gain a holistic understanding of the positive and negative implications that advancing technologies have on human resource development practices. This chapter explores four areas of focus in advancing technologies in HRD: (1) emerging trends; (2) value and benefits; (3) challenges and issues; and (4) opportunities for use.