What Are We Learning About the Research‐Practice Gap From HRD Scholars and HRD Scholar‐Practitioners?

This study examined the effects of leadership style and organizational culture on organizational commitment and organizational performance, and then verified the mediator role of organizational commitment between leadership style and organizational performance, and the mediator role of organizational commitment between organizational culture and performance. The employee of top ten financial holding companies that Common Wealth Magazine’s (2006) announced are the survey subjects, and the study uses stratified sampling to proceed the questionnaire survey. Out of 452 questionnaires sent, 396 valid questionnaires returned, resulting in a valid return rate of 87.6%; furthermore, this study’s confirmation used cluster analysis, one-way ANOVA, and regression analysis, and the result are as followed: 1. The effects of different types of leadership style on subordinate’s organizational commitment have significant difference. It means when the director are apt to use transformational leadership, their subordinate will have higher organizational commitment, and the effort commitment is the highest. If the director are apt to use transactional leadership, their subordinate will have lower organizational commitment, and the retention commitment is the lowest. 2. The effects of different types of leadership style on organizational performance have significant difference. It means when the director are apt to use transformational leadership, their organizational performance will be higher, and the performace of learing and growth is the highest. If the director are apt to use transactional leadership, their organizational performance will be lower, and the financial performace is the lowest. 3. The effects of different types of organizational culture on subordinates’ organizational commitment have significant difference. It indicates that the supportive culture has the highest subordinates’ organizational commitment and the effort commitmet is the highest. The bureaucratic culture has the worst subordinates’ organizational commitment and the retention commitment is the lowest. 4. The effects of different types of organizational culture on organizational performance have significant difference. It indicates that the supportive culture has the highest organizational performance and the performance of learing and growth is the highest. The bureaucratic culture has the worst organizational performance and the performance of learing and growth is the lowest. 5. It has the positive relationship between organizational commitment and organizational performance. It means the more degree of organizational commitment to the subordinates, the higher of their organizational performance. The subordinates’ value commitment impact the performance of learning and growth most. And the subordinates’ effort commitment impact the performance of learning and growth most. And the subordinates’ retention commitment impact the performance of learning and growth most 6. The study demonstrates that organizational commitment truly has positive mediator effect degree between leadership style and organizational performance. 7. The study demonstrates that organizational commitment truly has positive mediator effect degree between organizational culture and organizational performance.

Purpose This paper aims to identify ways by which the core functions of human resource development HRD can be used to enhance the university–community partnership (UCP) in lieu of the “town and gown” era. Furthermore, the paper addresses the need to extend HRD activities beyond the organization and leverage HRD to spearhead the community-development agenda through coalition building between organizations, local universities and the community. Design/methodology/approach Literature on UCP is reviewed and analyzed, and the need to extend HRD focus beyond the organization to include community development through coalition building is discussed. A single-case descriptive analysis to illustrate the critical role of human resource and leadership development in UCP is done. Findings HRD’s interest in the UCP drive is negligible. UCP presents a new frontier for HRD research and practice because there is both public and private funding that can be assessed through the right contacts and networks. Originality/value The need for UCP has been a subject of discussion among scholars for time immemorial. However, the collapse of the “town and gown” era has inspired greater interest in UCP. HRD scholars and practitioners can leverage the expertise in applying andragogy principles, the focus on the adult learner and community leadership development to play a crucial in the UCP drive.

There have been extensive explorations of organisational climate (OC) and performance in large organisational contexts but predominantly in western economies. Despite the rich and growing body of literature on the topic, there is considerable lacuna in the understanding of how the composites of organisational climate factors coalesce into business enablement and performance outcomes especially in economically resurgent African economies of which Nigeria is one. More fundamentally, the dimension of High Growth Small and Medium Enterprises (HGSMEs) exemplify the dearth of knowledge of the intricate role of OC in reconfiguring strategic positioning and performance of organisations, especially the genre of SMEs attributed as the main driver of economic growth. Against this backcloth, this study explores the dynamic interaction between OC and HGSME performance in Nigeria with a view to providing situated understandings of how organisational performance is moderated by variabilities of OC. This relationship is investigated empirically using as conceptual prisms four principal constructs distilled from the extant literature; leadership, organisational strategy, HRM practices and entrepreneurial orientation. Methodologically, a triangulation procedure was applied in order to afford both rich-context and scaled datasets. From a sample of HGSME drawn from the national database maintained by Small Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the mixed method approach used encompassed data gathered through (a) in-depth interviews conducted with senior executives of sample organisations and (b) survey questionnaires administered to 300 employees within two Nigerian HGSMEs. Qualitative data was analysed through thematic analysis. The quantitative data treatment rigour was achieved through descriptive statistics; correlation and multivariate regression analysis. OC was measured at the firm level using the validated instrument (Organisational Climate Measurement instrument, OCM, Patterson et al., 2005), while the organisational performance was measured subjectively using efficiency and quality as performance proxies. Results show direct effects of organisational factors (leadership, strategy, HR practices and entrepreneurial orientation) on organisational climate configuration. The relationship between organisational climate and performance is significantly positive while the direct effect of some HR practices on organisational outcomes such as efficiency (training vs. efficiency, employee involvement vs. efficiency) was negative. The results are robust in indentifying the nature of internal organisational systems and networks that triggers growth and sustainability of HGSMEs.

Universities are facing changes that could be adapted by learning. Organisational learning helps universities in attaining better organisational and sustainable performance. The study aims to combine and explore how organisational learning culture enables organisational learning to contribute to better organisational performance and better sustainable performance, following the natural resource-based view and organisational learning theory. The study examines the relationship between organisational learning culture, organisational learning, organisational performance, and sustainable performance in the university context from university teachers. The author collected 221 surveys from public university teachers in Europe to test the model. The results indicate a positive relationship between organisational learning culture and organisational learning. In addition to that, the positive relationship between organisational learning and organisational performance is indicated. Moreover, the results indicate a positive relationship between organisational learning and sustainable performance. The results also show that the organisational learning process mediates organisational learning culture and university performance. The study addresses a gap in the scarce studies in the university context for organisational learning and sustainable performance. Finally, this study reproduces an organisational model that has been adapted for universities.

PurposeThe purpose of this research was to model the impact of customer knowledge on the performance of organization with a focus on information technology industry. Furthermore, it is intended to analyze the effect of customer knowledge investment on the performance measures, by reviewing investment policies.Design/methodology/approachThe relationship between customer knowledge and performance measures was specified using literature review and grounded theory method. The system dynamics approach was then applied to analyze the impact of the customer knowledge on the performance measures.FindingsThis study provided a dynamic model on the causal relationship between customer knowledge and organizational performance. The results showed that measures such as product development, financial performance, idea generation, technical knowledge and knowledge maturity were affected by the customer knowledge while the relationship with customer loyalty and the number of customers was not proven. Besides, it was found that to increase the impact of customer knowledge on organizational performance, knowledge maturity was essential, and investing on customer knowledge without investing on knowledge maturity would reduce the organizational performance. The results also showed that more knowledge investment would not necessarily increase financial strength of the organization.Practical implicationsResults of this study could be useful for strategy formulation and deployment especially for IT-based companies showing the importance of investment on customer knowledge on the one hand and the knowledge maturity in the organization on the other hand.Originality/valueIn this research, the impact of customer knowledge on both financial and nonfinancial performance measures was studied showing new findings on the dynamism of their relationships.

Health professional education is based on an apprenticeship model, where a novice gradually transforms into a skilled, independent practitioner under the tuition and supervision of an expert in the workplace. A key component of this education involves an educator observing a learner undertaking a clinical task, followed by feedback. Many influential authorities argue that feedback is the key to developing mastery. However, despite the promise of feedback offering valuable benefits, the literature exposes that it is fraught with problems for both the giver and receiver. Poor feedback can result in negative emotions (anger, humiliation, demotivation), damaged relationships and deterioration in performance. Therefore it is important to establish those elements of feedback that improve learner motivation, learning and performance. The specific focus of this thesis is on the health professional educator's contribution to high quality feedback during scheduled, face-to face meetings that follow observation of a learner performing a task in the workplace. It focuses on the educator's role in facilitating the learner to improve their skills. This thesis has two sections. The first section explores the literature to identify verbal feedback quality instruments, and evidence or argument for elements concerning an educator's contribution to high quality verbal feedback. The comprehensive literature review involved health professions, education, psychology and business literature. Ten instruments (or parts of instruments) or modifications of these instruments were found that assessed verbal feedback quality in health professional education. None of them were based on a comprehensive literature review and designed to assess the quality of a health professional educator's contribution to feedback following observation of a learner performing a task in the workplace. Eighteen elements for optimising the educator's role in feedback were developed from the literature review. The second section of this thesis describes the development and refinement of an instrument to assess and guide a health professional educator's contribution to feedback following observation of a learner performing a task in the workplace. Initial items were developed by the research team through thematic analysis; they evolved from the 18 elements through an iterative process of item refinement and reduction. This initial set of items for the Feedback Quality Instrument (FQI) was then tested using a Delphi technique involving a panel of experts, who rated the importance and phrasing of the items, to establish an expert consensus over three rounds. The first round of panel feedback and subsequent item refinement are presented in this thesis. At that stage, the FQI contained 27 items that describe observable educator behaviour in feedback. The FQI is designed to promote best practice by drawing educator and learner attention to features of effective feedback. Although the instrument analyses the educator's performance, the items describe educator behaviour that facilitates learner engagement in feedback and learning. It invites multiple perspectives on the educator's performance as it can be completed by the educator themselves (selfappraisal), the learner, or an independent observer. The development of the FQI has continued beyond the stages reported in this minor thesis. The items have been refined with two additional Delphi rounds and the process is being prepared for publication. Future plans to continue the evolution of the FQI have been developed. This includes organising a focus group involving the expert panel to further refine the instrument before testing; cost associated with assembling the panel has been funded by a grant. When items and a rating scale are finalised, comprehensive testing of the instrument will enable refinement and establish acceptability, feasibility and reliability. Finally external funding will be sought to conduct a randomised controlled trial to test the impact of the instrument on the quality of an educator's feedback and, most importantly, the impact of high quality feedback on a learner's performance.

Despite the plethora of explications of the direct and indirect impacts of green people management practices on different dimensions of individual and organizational performance and sustainability, a holistic model demonstrating the constituent aspects and impacts of such sustainability on organizational, individual, and team performance is missing. The objective of this study is to address this gap/void through a review of 127 papers on green human resource management (GHRM) following a systematic literature review approach. Based on the systematic review, this study used a thematic analysis, which identified twenty-four disparate people and organizational aspects and grouped the most used ones into five theoretical lenses, including AMO = ability–motivation–opportunity, RBV = resource-based view, SHT = stakeholder theory, SET =social exchange theory, and SIT = social identity theory. These five sets of results were used to develop the first-of-its-kind holistic framework showing how GHRM works in a cyclical process to fill the missing gap in how to sustainably improve individual, group, and organizational performance for multiple organizational stakeholders. Second, this article contributes theoretically to the social engagement and social identity theories, thereby extending Deci and Ryan’s organismic integration and self-determination theories to show how GHRM practices can be implemented for sustainable organizational performance. Third, this study also proposed a new and more sustainable bottom line for business organizations seeking to improve their performance, and this contribution is referred to as sustainable GHRM-organizational performance (SGHRM-OrgP). Finally, this study proposes a research agenda highlighting where more research areas are needed. Despite the potential that such a model offers for organizational sustainability, the authors recognize the next research step of applying its constituent parts in practically optimizing performance.

Purpose This study investigates the profound impact of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities on decision-making processes and organizational performance, addressing a crucial gap in the literature by exploring the mediating role of decision-making speed and quality. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon resource-based theory and prior research, this study constructs a comprehensive model and hypotheses to illuminate the influence of AI capabilities within organizations on decision-making speed, decision quality, and, ultimately, organizational performance. A dataset comprising 230 responses from diverse organizations forms the basis of the analysis, with the study employing a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) for robust data examination. Findings The results demonstrate the pivotal role of AI capabilities in shaping organizational decision-making processes and performance. AI capability significantly and positively affects decision-making speed, decision quality, and overall organizational performance. Notably, decision-making speed is a critical factor contributing significantly to enhanced organizational performance. The study further uncovered partial mediation effects, suggesting that decision-making processes partially mediate the relationship between AI capabilities and organizational performance through decision-making speed. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing body of literature by providing empirical evidence of the multifaceted impact of AI capabilities on organizational decision-making and performance. Elucidating the mediating role of decision-making processes advances our understanding of the complex mechanisms through which AI capabilities drive organizational success.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the relationships between Entrepreneurial Orientation, Organizational Learning Capability, Service Innovation and Organizational Performance. To this end, it was sought to analyze the mediating role of organizational learning capability and service innovation within entrepreneurial orientation and organizational performance relationship in knowledge-intensive organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consisted of 159 architecture and urbanism companies from Santa Catarina, Brazil. The study opted to use managers as key informants since they are the ones that have general information about the organization and are a valuable source for assessing the different variables of the organization. For data analysis, the PLS-PM algorithm (Partial Least Squares Path Modeling) was used.FindingsResults showed that entrepreneurial orientation is a strong driver of service innovation and organizational performance. Organizational learning capability acts as a facilitator of innovation and has a positive influence on organizational performance. Another theoretical contribution of this study to organizational learning capability is the confirmation of its mediation in service innovation and organizational performance. Management needs to make its organization more proactive and creative, continually promoting new ideas. Architecture and urbanism organizations should pay more attention to maintaining and promoting entrepreneurial orientation permanently. The trend toward both proactivity and risk-taking can be an inherent advantage of these knowledge-intensive business services.Originality/valueFew studies have explored the mediating role of organizational learning capability and service innovations in organizational performance. In particular, the combined effects of entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning capability have been neglected by the knowledge-intensive organizations literature. The study is justified by providing a more complete view of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and the performance of knowledge-intensive organizations, highlighting the role of organizational learning capability and performance in service innovation.

Organizational learning has been viewed by several researchers as a key concept essential for ensuring the survival and continuity of organizations in the ever-changing business environment. Research has revealed the various benefits towards enhanced performance that are accrued through the effective establishment of organizational learning. With this information as a basis, this study sought to determine the relationship between organizational learning and performance of Sarova Whitesands Resort. The general objective was to establish the organizational learning in Sarova Whitesands and its influence on performance. The specific objectives were to determine the influence of team learning, mental models, personal mastery and a shared vision on performance of Sarova Whitesands. The study was guided by organizational learning theory, human capital theory and resource based view theory. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population of the study was the staff of Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa. The study’s total number of respondents was 300 employees who were sampled using stratified proportionate sampling method to obtain a sample size of 171 respondents. Questionnaires were used as a data collection instrument and the data collected from the field was analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The study established that personal learning, mental models, shared vision and team learning had a positive and significant influence on organizational performance. The study concludes that personal mastery enables an employee to search for their life direction and purpose, identify their strengths and weaknesses and become responsible of their action. Mental models leads to advantages of scale in that which refers to an idea that as an organization performs more and more of the same type of work it will tend to acquire efficiencies over time and as an organization becomes more efficient at a task it often gains a competitive advantage as a result improved organizational performance. Shared vision acts as a unifying force, has a positive impact on organizational performance and provides the guidance employees need to make the right decisions and that team learning allows individual participants to work through the content at their own pace. The study recommends that the organization should help their employees to know how to deal with difficult and challenging situations, develop self-confidence and self-esteem, accept imperfection and build on one’s strength. The organization should offer different kinds of mental models to help their employees make sense of the real world and be able to understand and interpret the environment and themselves. The organization’s shared vision should offer a unified framework for the organization's success so as to encourage the top managers to collaborate and to resolve conflicts creatively arising from the organization and that the organization should establish a climate for learning in the team because taking time to establish the environment and the processes for learning is the prerequisite for rapid learning and effective team performance in the future.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of electronic human resource management (The objective of this study is to look at how electronic human resource management (e-HRM) practises affect organisational performance. The study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey approach, with data collected from participants from diverse organisations in various industries. To explore the association between e-HRM practices and organisational performance, the data obtained was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). According to the findings, e-HRM practices have a considerable beneficial influence on organisational performance. The study discovered that e-HRM techniques such as online recruiting, online training, and online performance monitoring have a substantial impact on organisational performance. Online communication and compensation management, on the other hand, were shown to have no meaningful influence on organisational performance. These findings have significant implications for organisations that want to enhance their performance by using e-HRM practices.

Despite more autism research taking place than ever before, there is a disconnect between the current landscape of autism research and what autistic people and their allies want from research. While participatory research has been proposed as a potential solution, we know little about how researchers (particularly, early career researchers) employ this approach. We interviewed 25 researchers (14 early career and 11 established researchers) about their views and experiences of participatory autism research. Through reflexive thematic analysis of interview and focus group data, we identified three themes. First, our participants emphasised the flexible nature of participatory research, and the many forms it can take; yet noted that this flexibility could cause confusion. Second, our participants highlighted the importance of building relationships with research partners, while commenting on the challenges around effective communication and working with diverse groups of people who may have limited research experience. Finally, participants described the challenges of working within academic environments that are not conducive to participatory research (e.g. due to limited time, funding and support). We discuss these issues with regard to changes required at both an individual and systemic level, ensuring that efforts are made to meaningfully involve autistic people and their allies in all stages of the research process.Lay abstract‘Participatory autism research’ refers to ways of involving autistic people and their allies (e.g. family members) in making decisions about research. These decisions can include what research gets done, how it gets done and how research findings are used. While there is more and more interest in participatory autism research, we know little about how researchers at different stages of their careers use this approach. To find out more, we discussed these issues with 25 researchers. Fourteen of these were at an early stage of their careers, and 11 were more senior researchers. We spoke to people in individual interviews or in groups. We then used a technique called thematic analysis to analyse our data, which involved us looking for common topics or ‘themes’ discussed by our participants. What did we find? Our participants told us that participatory autism research was a flexible approach, meaning that autistic people can be involved in research in many different ways. While people viewed this flexibility in a positive way, it also caused some confusion about what does or does not ‘count’ as participatory research. Our participants also spoke about how important it was to build relationships with those involved in their research, but they also said it could be difficult to communicate well with diverse groups of people who may not have much experience of research. Finally, our participants said it was hard to do participatory research when there was not much time, funding or support available to researchers. In this article, we discuss these findings, focusing on what needs to change to ensure that autistic people and their allies are meaningfully involved in autism research.

Purpose The purpose of this research is to evaluate the Dimensions Of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) framework from the perspective of public sector organizations. We have used performance indicator data after organizational learning inspired intervention in a semi-autonomous network of public sector organizations. Design/methodology/approach This study used original administrative data to track the learning progress, as measured by a ratio of access to funding sources. The study also collected survey data using tailored DLOQ instruments and then determined the efficacy of DLOQ framework for public sector organizations. Several data analysis techniques were used to specify a final set for the learning organization instrument with construct validity and instrument reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis was selected to test the construct validity for the measurement of the dimensions of the learning organization and to verify the adequacy of the item to factor associations and the number of dimensions underlying the construct. Findings We found evidence that confirms that the organizational level (particularly the system connection) has a positive impact on organizational performance and a mediating effect on the relationships between the individual/group levels of learning organization characteristics and organizational performance. This study extends the Watkins and Marsick’s (1993, 1996) learning–organization framework that helped to produce case-specific outcomes such as the extent of error reduction. This framework provides a useful structure for other researchers to study learning dimensions and their relationships with other organizational performance variables. The results also show evidence of internal consistency and the construct reliability of the dimensions of the learning organization. Research limitations/implications Care should be taken in generalizing the structural equation model identified in this study. Because of the multidimensional and complex nature of the learning organization, the research setting for this study might be only one of the possible settings that specify the relationships among different levels of the learning organization and performance outcomes. There are rather complicated interactions among these dimensions and in each attribute of a learning organization. Originality/value This study theoretically confirms that the organizational level (particularly the system connection) has a positive impact on organizational performance and a mediating effect on the relationships between the individual/group levels of learning organization characteristics and organizational performance. This study also methodologically shows evidence of internal consistency and the construct reliability of the learning organization measures along with significant efficiency gain in theory.

Many organizational researchers consider innovative behavior to be an important work related factor (Fex & Spector, 2006). Researchers have found strong links between innovative behavior and organizational performance in the workplace. Jex, Beehr and Roberts (1992) found innovative behavior of employees as direct outcomes of organizational performance. Similarly, innovative behavior has been identified as a major effect for financial outcomes by many researchers (Dewe, 2003). Innovative behavior was found to be another major effect for employee satisfaction (Fox and Spector, 2006). Fox and Spector (2006) identified positive work behavior as a behavioral response caused by innovative behavior of employees (Noe, 2000). Top management support is another highly researched organizational factor that has been found to affect job attitudes and work behavior (Weiss, 2002). Top management support has been found to affect behaviors such as organizational citizenship behavior, absenteeism, turnover, and work performance (Feather & Rauter, 2004). In a HRD related topic, Egan, Yang and Barlett (2004) examined the relationship between top management support and organizational performance and shown that there is a positive relationship between these two variables. The factors discussed above that is organizational learning, top management support, innovative behavior, employee commitment, and organizational performance are the focus of this study. Exploration of these variables was based on a systematic examination of literature, a unique contribution toward elaborating upon the elements impacting organizational performance.

This study examines the effects of hierarchical bureaucracy, bottom-up learning, and the speed of strategic change on organizational performance within the context of the Indonesian military, specifically focusing on the Indonesian Army’s territorial commands. Utilizing contingency theory, this research explores how hierarchical structures and bottom-up communication influence organizational performance, with speed of strategic change and organizational learning as mediating variables. Data were collected from 50 high-ranking military officers through structured questionnaires and analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis. The findings indicate that hierarchical bureaucracy positively affects organizational learning but has a mixed effect on the speed of strategic change and organizational performance. Bottom-up learning, on the other hand, has a positive impact on both organizational learning and performance, as well as on the speed of strategic change. The results also confirm that the speed of strategic change and organizational learning mediate the relationship between hierarchical bureaucracy, bottom-up learning, and organizational performance. These insights suggest that while hierarchical structures provide control and discipline, integrating bottom-up learning and adaptability mechanisms enhances organizational performance in military contexts. This research contributes to the understanding of contingency theory in structured organizations and provides practical recommendations for improving strategic decision-making in hierarchical military organizations.