Search results

The aim of the article is to provide the text of an interview with Dr R. Wayne Pace

Gareth Bell interviews R. Wayne Pace, founding president of the Academy of Human Resource Development, and author of Human Resource Development: the Field.

Few people have been as prolific in the field of human resource development as Dr R. Wayne Pace. He is author of over 30 books and 100 articles, specializing in human resource development, organizational change, and organizational communication. He has also served as corporate advisor to training and development consultancies QuickKnowledge, Anchor Point Institute, and STS International.

The article provides an interview with one of the most respected figures in the field of human resource development, who gives his views on the challenges HR practitioners are faced with today.

This paper argues that increases in workplace learning may occur concomitantly with ways in which knowledge is managed in an organization, and knowledge management effectiveness may be a function of how successfully an organization is able to put a technological infrastructure into place. It describes the phases in a strategy for implementing knowledge management procedures and processes and argues that an appropriate mix of technological equipment is pivotal to both knowledge management and enhanced workplace learning. The paper suggests that the cultivation of a climate and culture that support and encourage knowledge sharing and learning to occur may be more important than any of the technological advancements to assure enhanced workplace learning.

One of the primary goals of organizations in a free enterprise system is to be competitive. Although the measures of competitiveness may appear different for manufacturing and service organizations or for government and religious organizations, in order to be competitive, any organization must provide products and services for which customers or clients are willing to pay a fair return or price. In the long run, in a free enterprise system, competitiveness is measured by the ability of the organization to stay in business and to protect the organization's investments, to earn a return on those investments, and to ensure jobs for the future.

The purpose of this article is to show the foundational place that communication theory and its practice occupies in functioning work systems.

This paper defines the word communication in terms of the creation and interpretation of displays, describes what it means to have a theoretical foundation for a discipline, identifies and elaborates on the development driving force of human resource development (HRD), presents and explains a model of a work system in which HRD functions, and elaborates on the role, function, and place of communicative acts in the maintenance of the work system and the work of HRD professionals.

The article posits that communication theory underlies the processes and activities of both scholars and practitioners of HRD. Finally, it argues that courses in communication theory and organizational communication are essential in the preparation of both scholars and practitioners.

Research on the vagaries of communication in work systems may need to focus on identifying the causes of more easily identified symptoms. Researchers must be constantly alert to the changing role of communication as both a symptom and a cause of effective and ineffective work system functioning.

Since human resource development is applied, practiced, and used predominantly in work systems, sensitivity to the fundamental role that communication plays in work systems may allow HRD practitioners to take a communicative perspective in analyzing and solving problems.

This article directs readers to the main, fundamental issue in organizations and highlights the central role of communication in the functioning and development of both the human resources and the work system.

With the rapid growth of the video and VCR market since the 1980s, librarians have increasingly used videos for staff training and development, as well as for instructional purposes. As a medium, video provides a potentially stimulating and accessible alternative to other training approaches. In many training and instructional situations, video can clarify technical procedures, step‐by‐step, using such functions as slow motion and replay. For training programs emphasizing soft skills development (including communication, supervisory, and management skills), video can enhance role playing and behavior modeling. It can also provide opportunities for self‐observation and evaluation through the taping of simulated or actual interactions.

Kevin Au graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a BBA and earned his Ph.D. in management/international business at the University of British Columbia. He co-founded the CUHK Center for Entrepreneurship and has been an associate director. He also serves as associate director of the MBA programme. His research interests are international management, entrepreneurship, family business, social network and cross-cultural research methodology. He has published dozens of academic articles, cases and book chapters, and served on the editorial boards of several academic journals. He has provided consulting and training for the government and business corporations. His clients include the Central Policy Unit, Hong Kong Cyberport, Ove Arup and a number of business startups and family businesses in Hong Kong.

This paper aims to introduce the concept of consumer-based brand value (CBBV), a change in the perspective of brand-equity and brand value from one where the brand is considered separately from other brands. The purpose of this paper is threefold: highlighting the theoretical difference between brand equity and brand value (Raggio and Leone, 2007); conceptually linking brand equity with brand value and then with brand competitiveness; and demonstrating a straightforward method for scholars and practitioners to measure brand value and then to forecast and simulate brand competitiveness.

On a sample of 190 postgraduate students, the authors apply the conjoint analysis and best-worst scaling to illustrate our CBBV model. Following Keller (1993), the authors operationalise brand equity as the outcome of consumers’ internal mental processes, in the form of brand preference, and show how preferences data can be transformed into estimates of brand value in the form of price premium. Finally, the model allows market share simulation based on manipulation of branding and brand features.

The paper is more a conceptual piece, highlighting the distinction between brand equity and brand value. It also demonstrates a relatively new measurement technique for transforming measures of brand equity, in the form of brand preferences, into estimates of brand value. The paper used airlines as a service-provider example, but the technique can be applied to many hospitality and service environments.

The study demonstrates how brand equity drives brand value via consumer utility, and proposes a CBBV–competitiveness chain. The authors convert individual consumer preference data to brand value with subsequent preference-based market segmentation, and estimate competitiveness in two ways: market share ceteris paribus and price premium for brand indifference. They also demonstrate how market simulation can be performed so that it allows forecasting of competitiveness (market share) based on product attributes that affect brand value.

The CBBV–competitiveness chain constitutes a (new) mindset in the marketing of hospitality, tourism and other services. The study provides a method to measure and test the components of this model and determine brand competitiveness. It used airlines in the example, but the method can be applied to many different settings such as, for example, hotel management group (Starwood, Accor, Intercontinental, Hilton). The authors show how the method allows for benefit-based market segmentation, market-share forecasting and estimation of price premium.

The CBBV chain provides a conceptual link between brand equity, brand value and brand competitiveness. When equity and related constructs are often conceptualised as relative to competition, they are rarely actually measured in that manner. The study shows how brand equity measured as preferences can be transformed into brand value and competitiveness relative to the competition. The combination of conjoint analysis and best–worst scaling is relatively new to the hospitality and services industries. The authors show that these tools can be applied to these industries without depending on costly software or high-priced consultants.

This paper aims to explain the empirical relationship between competitiveness and economic growth in a globalizing world. In recent times, the advanced economies have experienced a slowdown of growth, whereas the BRICS countries continue to experience high growth. The authors explore the following question: Does competitiveness of nations’ degree of competition explains this differential in growth? The authors explore competiveness and growth in a macroeconomic perspective for the large economies in the OECD and BRICS countries.

The authors use dynamic panel data modelling technique to find the relationship between competitiveness and economic growth. This technique enables to control heterogeneity problem of this group to some extent. The focus variable of this study is annual GDP growth rate for the period 2007-2017. The proxies for measuring competitiveness in this paper are trade as percentage of GDP, product market regulation, unit labour cost and global competitive index. Innovation prevalence of foreign ownership, efficiency, competition, state of cluster development, venture capital availability, extent of market, research and development expenditure as percentage of the GDP mergers and acquisitions and multifactor productivity are the control variables.

The authors find that the degree of competitiveness competition is less likely to impact economic growth in the OECD countries because they have more or less similar competitive environment. Innovation, extent of market and state of cluster development and venture capital availability explaining growth differential. Increased competition is likely to affect growth negatively. This explains the oligopolistic structures of the world economy. However, the BRICS countries vary significantly in competitive environment. This is the reason of volatility in their growth. The conclusion is that competitiveness is important for sustained growth. Competitiveness is, however, an outcome of a set of policies, not a policy itself.

Productivity data for OECD and BRICS countries are not available. Various series are not comparable. OECD countries have discontinued yearly unit labour cost series, and high frequency series are available but no such series for BRICS exists.

First, this paper proposes that wage growth, measured by the unit labour cost growth rate, is an important determinant of competitiveness amongst the nations. Wage growth is falling short of productivity growth in the OECD countries. This has implications for the long run sustainability of growth, skill development and inequalities in the region. Since 2011, world economic recovery is slow. Wage growth is imperative for generating sufficient private demand in the OECD countries. Second, this paper provides evidence that competitiveness is important for explaining growth in the OECD and the BRICS countries. However, it also highlights that competitiveness can be measured effectively by the trade differential or with the help of unit labour cost. Unaligned real effective exchange rate in terms of unit labour costs is the real cause of the problem.

Research in this area is still in infancy. This research finds that how competitiveness affects growth. A more competitive nation can sell more, but not necessarily grow rapidly. In development process, growth comes first, and at the latter stages, countries have to introduce effective reforms for competitiveness. This is the effect of competitiveness on growth by comparing various indexes.