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This paper aims to explore the use of developmental evaluation methods with community of practice programmes experiencing change or transition to better understand how to target support resources.

The practical use of a number of developmental evaluation methods was explored in three organizations over a nine-month period using an action research design. The research was a collaborative process involving all the company participants and the academic (the author) with the intention of developing the practices of the participants as well as contributing to scholarship.

The developmental evaluation activities achieved the objectives of the knowledge managers concerned: they developed a better understanding of the contribution and performance of their communities of practice, allowing support resources to be better targeted. Three methods (fundamental evaluative thinking, actual-ideal comparative method and focus on strengths and assets) were found to be useful. Cross-case analysis led to the proposition that developmental evaluation methods act as a structural mechanism that develops the discourse of the organization in ways that enhance the climate for learning, potentially helping develop a learning organization.

Developmental evaluation methods add to the options available to evaluate community of practice programmes. These supplement the commonly used activity indicators and impact story methods.

Developmental evaluation methods are often used in social change initiatives, informing public policy and funding decisions. The contribution here is to extend their use to organizational community of practice programmes.

In this chapter we examine the individual-level accelerators of global leadership development as they affect the acquisition of cross-cultural competencies through both cross-cultural training and developmental cross-cultural experiences. Individuals’ cognitive ability, prior knowledge, and personality traits will accelerate the knowledge they gain from cross-cultural training. Their personality characteristics, language skills, motivation, and prior experience will facilitate the development of cross-cultural competencies from high-quality international experiences. We highlight an aptitude × treatment interaction approach whereby the level of a given individual-level attribute affects how global leaders will respond to instructional methods, cross-cultural experiences, or developmental opportunities. The chapter suggests that global leaders’ individual differences can accelerate (or possibly impede) the developmental gains in their cross-cultural competencies.

Drawing upon survey and interview data, this research paper aims to explore the usage and impact of management development processes and practices in Ireland from an organisational perspective.

The paper examines numerous related issues including: the issue of aligning management development needs to business strategy; the usage of management development methods; the development of high potential managers; and the assignment of responsibility for management development. Tbe paper is the result of a study which included a combination of 13 semi‐structured interviews with HR/training managers and the completion of postal questionnaires by 53 respondents from the HR/training management population in Ireland from a cross section of organisations.

The study suggests that organisations are both concerned for their management population, see their development as a key priority and are willing to invest in them. Organisations are experimenting with the usage of numerous developmental methods and are particularly aware of the benefits achieved from informal methods. Both reactive and ad‐hoc approaches to management development were observed.

This paper adds value to management learning and education theory and concludes by highlighting the fact that before initiating management development activities, organisations must question their rationale for investing resources in development. Failing to devote time at the initiation stage of a management development activity will result in organisations trying to “reverse engineer” and justify developmental initiatives upon completion. Organisations must become more acutely aware of the indirect benefits that accrue from management development instead of focusing all attention to the visible direct outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the nature of leadership development (LD) methods adopted by companies operating in Syria by exploring the content, purpose, and the implantation of LD methods.

Middle and top managers were asked via semi-structured interviews to describe the content, purposes, and implementation of LD practices.

The findings revealed that the LD interventions are mixed between experiential learning and self and team analysis. Specifically, five major methods or activities used in Syria: action learning, coaching, feedback, rotation, and networking. These methods and activities were not only used for a specific purpose, but also for multiple purposes.

Research data were conducted during what was called the Arab Spring, which has negative implications not only on the participants, but also on the way they responded to questions. In addition, the for-profit sector was only involved in the study because of its flexibility, lack of bureaucracy, and the application of LD.

This study is the only study that investigated LD methods and activities in Syria.

The purpose of this paper is to report a new kind of workshop process which aims at co‐creation across disciplines in a service research network. The case concerns Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and took place from January to May, 2009.

Both foresight and organizational learning methods are combined in the process. During workshops, researchers and management are enabled to co‐create interdisciplinary service research proposals and a service research strategy for VTT. The workshops are designed to facilitate a dialogue between users of the research and potential collaborators (universities, funding agencies and societal actors). This initiative reflects the current global service science discourse based on a renewal of service management through service‐dominant logic and network thinking.

Although the need for co‐creation across disciplines and together with the customer has often been stated in service research, methods enabling such a way of acting have rarely been tested and achieved. This method worked as a concrete way for managing future‐oriented networking across organizational borders as a basis for continuous learning and innovation.

The new approach to service science and the methods used in the VTT network are applicable in research practice.

The development process presented in this paper is an embryo for a new kind of research culture that fosters learning in networks as well as the shared and transparent planning of project proposals.

By creating the service science and business network and a process of learning by foresighting and evaluating our ideas on a concrete case are applied. This is believed to be the first time that methods of foresight and organizational learning have been combined. Furthermore, the process builds a research strategy both from below and above and together with customers and other collaborators thus establishing a network of co‐creation.

“Natural” and “managed” management development are contrasted, with the latter guiding the attempt by a large North American financial service to answer the question, “What can we do to develop our managers most effectively?” In‐depth interviews with a stratified sample of managers produced strong suggestions about what is being done well, what is being done poorly, and what needs to be done. Representative responses are presented together with the recommendations and conclusions they engender for this company and others.

The HRD profession is witnessing a revolution in its philosophy, programmes and methods. Training methods used in management education and training are either traditional, such as lectures, or modern, such as role playing or case methods. Lectures are only a method of transferring knowledge to adult learners. Modern training methods help adult learners to build their skills and develop their attitudes.

Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study aims to examine the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee innovative behavior, incorporating with the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of face orientation.

A survey was conducted in 15 manufacturing companies in China. The participants comprised 302 employees. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The mediating effects and the moderated mediating effects are further examined with bias-corrected bootstrapping method.

Supervisor developmental feedback has a positive effect on employee innovative behavior through psychological safety, and this mediating effect is weakened by protective face orientation (fear of losing face), while the moderating effect of acquisitive face orientation (desire to gain face) is not significant.

Organizations should create a development-oriented and safe innovation atmosphere for employees. In addition, leaders should adopt differentiated feedback and communication methods according to subordinates' face orientation.

The study has demonstrated the positive effect of supervisor developmental feedback on employee innovative behavior, which is different from previous studies on performance feedback and leadership types. Meanwhile, this study has also explored the mediating effect of psychological safety and the moderating effect of face orientation, which provides more insights on the mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect of supervisor developmental feedback.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze nurses’ perceptions and evaluations of healthcare developmental work after the introduction of Lean and Six Sigma and, how nurses aspire to maintain a high reliability organization (HRO).

Nurses’ roles and the way they respond to new efficiency and quality working methods are crucial. Underlying themes were analyzed from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with (n=17) nurses at two Swedish hospitals.

The nurses perceived that Lean worked better than Six Sigma, because of its bottom-up approach, and its similarities with nurses’ well-known work qualities. Nurses coordinate patients care, collaborate in teams and take leadership roles. To maintain high reliability and to become quality developers, nurses need stable resources. However, professional’s logic collides with management’s logic. Expert knowledge (top-down approach) without nurses’ local knowledge (bottom-up approach) can lead to problems. Healthcare quality methods are standardized but must be used with flexibility. However, HROs ensue not only from method quality but also from work attitudes, commitment and continuous work-improvement.

Management can support personnel in developmental work with: continuous education, training, teamwork, knowledge sharing and cooperation. Authoritarian method structures that limit the healthcare professionals’ autonomy should be softened or abandoned.

The study uses theoretical concepts from HROs, which were developed for unexpected events, to explain the consequences of implementing Lean and Six Sigma in healthcare.

International experience (IE) has been acknowledged to be the most useful method for developing global leaders. However, not everyone benefits equally from IE. During the last two decades, our understanding of why this is the case and how global leaders learn from IE has rapidly increased. Several individual and organizational enablers facilitating global leader learning from IE have been identified in the literature, as have learning mechanisms that make such learning possible. However, the literature remains fragmented, and there is a great need to integrate the findings in the field. Therefore, the present paper systematically examines peer-reviewed studies on global leaders' learning from IE published between 1998 and 2019. The study contributes to the extant literature by identifying and integrating individual enablers, organizational enablers, and key learning mechanisms from global leaders' IE and by suggesting topics for future research.