Tara D. Gray and Jamie Callahan
Skills Approach leadership development suggests individuals can develop the skills, abilities, and behaviors needed to lead. However, it can be difficult to understand and apply…
Abstract
Skills Approach leadership development suggests individuals can develop the skills, abilities, and behaviors needed to lead. However, it can be difficult to understand and apply these theoretical concepts. Movies provide a storytelling platform enabling learners to link theory to practice. This article uses 300 to explore skills-based leadership theories. 300 (2007) is an adaptation of Frank Miller’s novel depicting the Battle of Thermopylae (400 B.C.) between Greece and Persia. The movie tells the story of how King Leonidas led 300 Spartan warriors in battle against King Xerxes’ army in defense of Spartan land, values, and freedom. We provide background on Katz’s (1955) and Mumford, Zacaro, Harding, Jacobs, and Fleishman (2000) skills approaches. Then we describe how theoretical concepts associated with these approaches can be found in the movie. Finally, we provide suggestions for experiential learning activities which serve to help participants link and apply theory to practice.
Rajashi Ghosh, Jamie Callahan and Penny Hammrich
The purpose of this paper is to explore how peer coaching in action learning meetings stimulates teachers to experience transformational learning through critically reflecting on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how peer coaching in action learning meetings stimulates teachers to experience transformational learning through critically reflecting on the perceptions that shape their beliefs about student bullying.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand how participating teachers were using peer coaching in the action learning meetings to make sense of their subjective experiences with student bullying.
Findings
The authors report three themes (power, categories/labels and diversity/differences) explaining the perceptions that guided participants’ understanding of student bullying, and for each theme, describe how peer coaching enabled the participants to re-shape their interpretation of experiences with student bullying.
Research limitations/implications
This study showed how peer coaching has the potential to empower teachers to devise meaningful action plans to address bullying. Future research using longitudinal quantitative research design could shed more light on the sustainability of those action plans.
Practical implications
Knowledge of teacher perceptions identified in the study can enrich anti-bullying interventions in schools. Furthermore, building a peer coaching action learning community can provide a form of systemic support to help teachers gain resilience in acting against student bullying in schools.
Originality/value
The study reveals the potential of peer coaching as a transformational learning tool to support teachers when dealing with student bullying.
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Heather C. Kissack and Jamie L. Callahan
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that training designers can, and should, account for organizational culture during training needs assessments.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that training designers can, and should, account for organizational culture during training needs assessments.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing the approach and arguments in Giddens' structuration theory, the paper conceptually applies these tenets to training and development programs within organizations.
Findings
Within a typical analysis‐design‐develop‐implement‐evaluate (ADDIE) training model, relationships between organizational culture and each step of the training are conceptually available. Organizational culture shapes, influences, and redefines training programs which, in turn, shape, influence, and redefine organizational culture. Including a culture analysis within program planning will ultimately alleviate many of the problems that may arise during the implementation of a training and development program because of cultural resistance and/or clash of values between culture and training.
Research limitations/implications
The argument provides an initial step for training designers and HRD professionals to begin researching the practicality and usefulness of including an organizational culture analysis within training programs. Future research regarding this relationship should consider using structuration theory as a tool for understanding the context, process, and breadth of reciprocity and influence between agents and the structures with which they interact.
Practical implications
The concepts discussed in the paper may very well provide insight into why some training and development programs either prosper or do not succeed.
Originality/value
The paper discusses a topic that has yet to be fully realized. Although organizational culture, as a phenomenon, has been widely researched, it has yet to reach its full potential in the human resource development and training and development literature and practice.
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Carlos Molina and Jamie L. Callahan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning to create an alternative model of how learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning to create an alternative model of how learning facilitates performance in organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper selecting targeted scholarly works that provide support for the proposed model.
Findings
The paper presents a model of intrapreneurial learning and performance in which the constructs of environment, individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning influence organizational performance. Intrapreneurship is a relatively recent area of exploration in which scholarly efforts have primarily focused on identifying the construct and distinguishing it from entrepreneurship. The proposed model of intrapreneurial learning and performance joins a growing number of works that explore how intrapreneurship contributes to organizational performance. It is suggested that the framework may help scholars identify potential strategies of learning that could help organizations position intrapreneurship as a vehicle for improving organizational performance.
Originality/value
The paper postulates an original relationship among individual learning, intrapreneurship, organizational learning, environment, and organizational performance. In this framework, individual and organizational learning combine to offer a unique perspective on the link between intrapreneurship and organizational performance.
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Rajashi Ghosh, Minjung Kim, Sehoon Kim and Jamie L. Callahan
The purpose of this study is to identify how themes and contributions featured in the four scholarly journals sponsored by the largest human resource development (HRD) research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify how themes and contributions featured in the four scholarly journals sponsored by the largest human resource development (HRD) research association (the Academy of Human Resource Development, AHRD) reflect the changing identity of the HRD field.
Design/methodology/approach
A frequency and content analysis of articles published during the period 2002-2011 was conducted to identify the dominant themes and research trend. Further, comments were made on the aims and scope and editorial discretion for each journal to understand how the journals influence the direction of scholarship in HRD.
Findings
It was found that the boundaries of the field are constantly expanding with some of the older and mature themes losing momentum and new themes coming to the forefront of scholarly interest. The journals were found to play a critical role in setting the future direction for the field.
Research limitations/implications
Future researchers can examine if the waxing and waning themes identified in the findings remain same after analyzing contributions featured in journals that are not sponsored by the AHRD, but publish articles on topics closely related to HRD. Also, the findings can guide further examination of the editors’ leadership role in driving the evolution of the HRD field.
Practical implications
Considering the characteristics of HRD as an applied discipline, the findings can guide future researchers to explore if the thematic changes as identified in the study are associated with the needs of HRD practice.
Originality/value
The study attempts to understand the landscape of HRD research by looking at how the field’s identity boundaries have shifted over time and how different entities, like authors and editors publishing scholarly articles in the four HRD journals in the past decade, have interacted to contribute to the shift.
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This paper aims to present an alternative and critical view of online learning for and by HRD professionals.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an alternative and critical view of online learning for and by HRD professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is positioned as a conceptual reflection regarding practical implications not frequently considered with regard to implementing online learning systems.
Findings
This paper contends that many of the practical reasons for implementing online learning (accessibility, power equalization, and cost reduction) have fatal flaws.
Research limitations/implications
This paper suggests that researchers broaden their perspectives beyond the assumption that using online learning is the goal to be achieved with regard to teaching and learning HRD. Both traditional and critical perspectives of online learning should be more thoroughly explored through empirical research.
Originality/value
Few conceptual or empirical works challenge the unquestioned hegemony of the appeal of online learning, especially within the field of HRD. This reflection will hopefully serve as a catalyst for research that challenges unquestioned assumptions about online learning as a cutting edge innovation for teaching and learning HRD.
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Jamie L. Callahan, Michael G. Hasler and Homer Tolson
Folk theory and empirical studies generally indicate that women tend to be somewhat more expressive than men. The present study seeks to determine whether there are gender‐related…
Abstract
Purpose
Folk theory and empirical studies generally indicate that women tend to be somewhat more expressive than men. The present study seeks to determine whether there are gender‐related emotion‐expressiveness differences among senior executives and to explore the extent to which there are emotion expressiveness differences by organizational position.
Design/methodology/approach
The levels of self‐reported expressiveness among senior organizational leaders (781 males, 669 females) were examined. Differences by gender and position were explored using ANOVAs.
Findings
In several key positions, including CEOs, males reported themselves to be significantly more expressive than females. However, differences between male and female expressiveness were not observed for certain executive positions. Further, both males and females reported statistically significant low levels of expressiveness.
Research limitations/implications
Professionals charged with addressing conflict within organizations may find themselves handling socio‐emotional aspects of leadership if executives are not fulfilling this responsibility. Further, organizational initiatives, such as organizational learning, may be hindered if executives do not engage in managing the emotional aspects of leadership. Finally, the reasons for gender‐role reversal found in the present study should be explored in future research.
Originality/value
This study adds to the literature on gender, emotion, and leadership. There are two primary contributions of the present study. First, female executives tend to report themselves as less expressive than male executives; this is in contrast with research that suggests that women are better at emotional expressiveness than men. Second, executives are, in general, not focusing on the socio‐emotional dimensions of leadership, which is a well‐accepted element of successful leadership.
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Jun Hee Kim and Jamie L. Callahan
– This article aims to develop a conceptual framework delineating the key dimension of the learning organization which significantly influences learning transfer.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to develop a conceptual framework delineating the key dimension of the learning organization which significantly influences learning transfer.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual framework was developed by analyzing previous studies and synthesizing the results associated with the following four relationships: the learning organization and learning transfer; the learning organization and organizational performance; the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) and learning transfer; and the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) and the LTSI.
Findings
This paper developed the learning transfer framework of the learning organization, which emphasizes the significance of leadership for learning on facilitating learning transfer in the learning organization.
Research limitations/implications
First, empirical-analytical research needs to be accumulated to verify the conceptual framework developed in the present paper. Second, instruments to measure the learning organization need to incorporate the learning transfer concept. Last, organizations need to focus on leadership for learning to increase learning transfer if the organization does not have enough resources to develop all dimensions of the learning organization.
Originality/value
This article contributes to the literature by producing a conceptual framework that isolates leadership for learning as a key dimension of the learning organization that specifically influences learning transfer. The pivotal dimension of leadership for learning was extracted through investigating the numerous empirical-analytical studies.