Chief Learning Officers Research Articles

Borrow or Grow: An Overview of Talent Development/Management Practices in Indian IT Organizations

The Problem In recent years, as India started to emerge as the IT (information technology) super power and the supplier for human capital trained in IT to the Western world, a plethora of talent management and development issues have started coming to the surface. Given the vastness of India’s young and diverse human resources, the concerns center less around availability of talent and more around managing and developing the available talent to suit local needs. Furthermore, concerns are raised over excessive reliance on Western models of TD/TM (talent development/talent management) in Indian organizations and their implementation without significant adaptation to local cultural and institutional conditions. The Solution This study explores TD/TM strategies in three different business organizations using the case study method. The three organizations are a multinational corporation headquartered in India, a foreign multinational organization with subsidiaries in India, and a smaller local business organization. The article discusses (a) the commonalities and differences in the TD/TM strategies followed by three different types of organizations, (b) the use of home-grown strategies and strategies borrowed from the West, (c) the trends and challenges of TM/TD practices facing the IT industry. The Stakeholders Chief learning officers, directors of human resources, HRD scholars

How chief learning officers build learning organizations

PurposeThis study aims to identify how and why chief learning officers (CLOs) build the learning organization. The study was undertaken in the conceptual framework of leadership and change by using the lens of the Marquardt Systems Model.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study used semi-structured interviews with 20 participants. The purpose of the interviews was to understand the themes and subthemes associated with how CLOs define and build the learning organization, as well as the activities and strategies they use to build a learning organization.FindingsFour major conclusions were drawn from the study: CLOs collaborate and encourage others to collaborate both within and outside of the organization; they assess and measure learning and development programs consistently; they seek and secure funding and resources; and they have a vision for the learning organization and realize that vision through strategy development and implementation.Originality/valueThis study is the first to provide comprehensive research on how CLOs build learning organizations, as well as the first to analyze this role using the Marquardt Systems Model.

Learning to Think Strategically: A Book Review

In Learning to Think Strategically, Julia Sloan examines the relationship between strategic thinking and the continuous learning. The book is a primer on how to think strategically. It traces the history of strategy, differentiates strategic thinking from planning, describes the influence of culture, streamlines the roles of rationality and intuition and identifies the key ways of learning to think strategically. Julia Sloan asserts - based on her continuous-learning, teaching, research and consultancy experience - that learning can transform thinking strategically into sustainable competitive advantage. The book links strategic thinking with continuous communication, knowledge management and engagement. Through its examination of personality development and strategic decision-making it promotes selfanalysis and understanding. It is written clearly and organized systematically, with good indexing, a full bibliography and thorough notes to help the reader to a full understanding of the topic. The book is a complete solution to learning how to think strategically, both for individuals and organizations. It will be particularly valuable to chief learning officers, human-resource and organizational-development specialists, senior line managers and students of HR.

Age, employability and the role of learning activities and their motivational antecedents: a conceptual model

In today's time of demographic change and rapid innovation, age and employability as well as the role of learning and development are high on the agenda of human resource managers and chief learning officers. However, existing research has failed to integrate these concepts in a clear model and offers little explanation of how the concepts may be linked exactly. In this conceptual paper we show how chronological age, despite its poor characteristics as a predictor, might still affect employability indirectly. Specifically, we propose that employees' motivation – in terms of future time perspective and goal orientation – and formal and informal learning activities need to be considered. Since an individual's chronological age cannot be changed, it is important to recognize these mediating variables, which may be targeted more easily by human resource development or age management initiatives.

Learning Leaders Require Business Acumen: Instructional Design Professionals at the Corporate Leadership Table

Noting the increase in shifting markets, technological changes, and unstable world politics, Clark and Gottfredson (2008: 4) make a compelling argument for individual and corporate learning: "to continuously acquire new knowledge and skills assets during or ahead of changes in the market." Their article contends that learning agility is the key to organizational success in the turbulent business environment of the twenty-first century. Within their argument, the need to understand business trends, marketing and global business practices is a leitmotif in the call for learning at every level of an organization. They predict that learning will expand from the purview of Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) and Human Resource departments to a responsibility shared with managers and front-line employees.

Websites of note

Websites of note

Effective Training Yields Learning and Growth

Effective Training Yields Learning and Growth

The workplace learning cycle

Building on the conceptual foundations suggested in the previous two papers in this issue, this article describes the application of a workplace learning cycle theory to the construction of a curriculum for a graduate‐level course of study in workplace education. As a way to prepare chief learning officers and heads of corporate universities, the piece argues, one can engage students in the process of analyzing the learning and knowledge‐use in a work environment through the lenses of the pedagogical and curricular concepts in these and other writings. Moving beyond the traditional concept of “training” for specified competencies, the graduate program aims to enable students to understand and use the more generative concepts of workplace knowledge‐use, and to promote learning as an essential feature of organizational life.

The Knowledge Chiefs:: CKOs, CLOs and CPOs

The field of knowledge management continues to garner both academic and practitioner interest. While much has been written about the technological, social, and economic aspects of managing knowledge in organizations, little is known about the managers who lead the engagements. In the following research project, we examine the roles of three C-level executives — Chief Knowledge Officers, Chief Learning Officers, and Chief Privacy Officers, these individuals are tasked (and titled) to manage various aspects of an organization’s knowledge assets. Specifically, we seek to explicate how the three kinds of Chiefs contribute to knowledge management activities of the organization. To this end, we have employed a two-stage research methodology. First, we searched for news announcements reflecting newly created CKO, CLO, and CPO positions. A thorough coding of these announcements was conducted to profile CKOs, CLOs, and CPOs. Moreover, we examined the reasons for their hiring and their expected contribution to the organization. In the second stage of the research, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a select group of CKOs, CLOs, and CPOs to gather further insights and to validate findings from the secondary data. We have discovered that the three Chiefs play distinct yet inter-related roles in knowledge management.