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As a result of an almost inextricable combination of socio‐economic, technological and cultural developments, a number of trends have become discernible in recent years in the Netherlands, both in the management literature and in organisational practice which are of structural importance to the position and content of personnel policy and management in profit and non‐profit organisations.

To date, managing intellectual capital has focussed on maximising possibilities to create knowledge, while minimising chances of losing knowledge. However, effective intellectual capital management should consider another dimension: orphan knowledge. Orphan knowledge relates to questions such as: Do organisations “unlearn” things or forget things and repeat past mistakes? Do some organisations unnecessarily duplicate equivalent activities within different areas of the organisation? If orphan knowledge exists, then organisations need to understand their potential for creating orphan knowledge. This paper defines orphan knowledge, and provides evidence of its potential by developing various scenarios and relating case‐study analysis from a sample of Australasian organisations. Indications are that even in organisations considered current “best practice” in managing intellectual capital, there is a medium to high potential for orphan knowledge to be created. Future research will determine whether different knowledge types, namely explicit versus tacit knowledge, have differing potentials for knowledge orphaning. Further research will consider the chief knowledge officer’s role in preventing and recovering organisation orphan knowledge.

The paper aims to report initial empirical research that examines UK employees’ perceptions of the changing nature of work since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to consider how the financial context may have constrained HRD practice and more sustainable approaches.

Focus group research was facilitated through collective group discussion. Through template analysis of the findings, thematic analysis was undertaken to extend prior research. Themes used by Hassard et al. (2009) in terms of the changing nature of the workplace between 2000 and 2008, were used to provide new data on HRD realities.

Participants reported diminishing personal control over changes within the workplace and a cultural shift towards a harsher work climate. HRD was considered as silenced or absent and associated solely with low cost-based e-learning rather than acting in strategic role supporting sustainable business objectives.

Whilst providing only indications from employee perceptions, the research identifies a weakened HRD function. The key contribution of this paper lies with empirical evidence of post-GFC constraints placed upon HRD strategies. It further identifies whether alternative development approaches, mediated by organisational learning capabilities, might emancipate UK HRD.

This paper engenders a debate around the status of HRD within the UK organisations, further to the global financial crisis (GFC), where HRD might be viewed as at a juncture to argue a need for a shift from a financialised mode for people management towards one of greater people focus.

This research provides initial findings of the impact of the economic climate. It considers new approaches which might resolve expiring HRD through more sustainable practices.

Human resource management (HRM) theory has transitioned in recent decades towards “human capital” and “human assets” frameworks that emphasize strategic choice and “investment”, which are concepts borrowed from strategic management, accounting and economic theories. This paper aims to explore the perspectives of strategic human asset management theory, which involves strategic agility and knowledge management.

The research was based on semi‐structured interviews with 30 senior executives of multinational firms in Canada and the USA in 2009, following the global financial crisis. The qualitative findings were analyzed using the NVivo software (version 8) package.

The research findings suggest that many North American multinational firms recognize the value of this new interpretation of HRM and are attempting to implement it through “strategic human asset management” in their own firms. The paper concludes with some practical recommendations for line managers and HR professionals in their human assets management imperatives.

The generalizability of the findings is limited by the relatively small sample size and qualitative nature of the study. However, they provide some interesting implications for HR professionals who wish to transform their role into that of a strategic business partner through innovative human asset management strategies.

The paper builds on previous research by exploring the applications of the concepts of strategic human asset management, strategic agility, and knowledge management within the context of US and Canadian multinational firms.

Businesses have to go through constant innovations on management, and innovation principles must be acquired through constant learning. Learning principles are realized through knowledge and wisdom sharing with colleagues, clients, and others in such learning activities as instruction, sharing, and self‐study. Such knowledge and wisdom sharing activities include study circles, on the job training, and technology exhibitions. Different learning activities such as survival learning, benchmark learning and leading learning are subject to different sharing mechanisms. Moreover the mastery of each sharing function is fundamental to enhancing the performance of knowledge management in a learning organization.

The intellectual capital (IC) paradigm appears to be stuck at a crossroads of relevance. This paper aims to explore a way forward by examining the power of IC narratives. The prevailing use of narrative as an explanation for the reasons underpinning an organisation's management of IC is too narrow since narrative can have an emancipatory impact. This enhanced view of narrative allows the opportunity to explore how narrative may be used to understand and mobilise IC both inside and outside organisations and thus improve its relevance as a working discipline.

An analysis of three case studies is presented, each offering different insights on the emancipatory potential of IC narratives.

In order to progress IC beyond the crossroads of relevance, organisations should not blindly implement “frameworks” or “guidelines” that seek to measure and control IC as if it were any other asset (or liability). Instead organisations may benefit from considering how the development of IC fits with the strategic intent of the organisation and be proactive, thinking beyond “accepted” practice to create new insights through critical reflection.

The paper is novel because it extends the understanding of how IC can be utilised by providing exemplars of a failed IC implementation as well as two cases where the implementation of IC has brought benefits. Thus, we see IC in action, rather than from a distance.

ProMES, a method for the measurement and feedback of performance data is related to the concepts of goal setting and feedback (Locke, 1991; Locke and Latham, 1990), and to the concept of self‐control (Bandura, 1991). The result is a model for self‐management: the “accepted control loop”. Whether practical applications of the ProMES method will lead to “accepted control loops” is believed to depend on the course of the development process. The ProMES method requires the explicitation of values. At the same time, the development process offers possibilities to test to what extent these values are consistently translated into behaviour. Depending on the results of these tests, one of three reactions to the ProMES method is more likely to occur: “acceptance”, “compliance”, or “rejection”.

The aim of this paper is to draw a conceptual bridge between the intellectual capital (IC) and corporate sustainability (CS) literature to investigate how firms mobilise their IC in order to implement sustainable development into their business practices.

A case study of the Australian property and construction sector was undertaken and the results are discussed.

The finding offered in this paper is that in order to progress beyond the efficiency phase of CS, firms need to shift from justifying the business case for sustainability, to understanding how to mobilise their IC to progress towards a more ecological sustainable and socially equitable enterprise. Ongoing evolution, with regard to the approach adopted for the management of IC, is also helping to drive organisational change towards more sustainable business models. Each category of IC plays a role with regard to operationalising CS into practice and supporting organisational change. The identified roles include motivating, supporting, implementing and performance.

In relation to the interview data collected it is generally limited to the views of the senior management and as such may not reflect the views of the employees of the organisation.

This paper adds to the conversation of the third stage of IC research, based on the proposition that the performative approach to IC can help move business beyond the eco‐efficiency stage of corporate sustainability and in doing so improves the relevance and usefulness of the IC concept for business organisations.

This chapter investigates the relevance and necessity of leadership and authentic leadership roles in organisational change in the modern VUCA world. He argues that authentic leaders need to learn to adapt to the increasingly VUCA environment, asking: Can they? Do they? If so, how? Authentic leaders need to evaluate not just the metrics behind success or failure but also their leadership traits and behaviour during organisational change to determine whether adjustments may be warranted. Taran provides an inspiration list of categories for leadership and authentic leadership self-refection. He calls for in-depth case studies of authentic leadership in response to VUCA circumstances that could be largely descriptive producing a body of data against which new theories can be tested and refined.

The distinction between discussing human capital (HC) and its actual measurement is the presence of indices and equations to substantiate the belief of measuring intangibles. The chapter makes a concise mention of research precedents, deriving leads for the foundation of HC. The chapter aims to provide clarity on the concept of HC measurement and bring to light the tools that can confer tangibility to intangibles. It argues that the measurement of HC is an achievable idea; furthering that a systematic review into the inter-disciplinary studies can offer viable solutions to the challenge of measuring intangibles. The chapter while discussing the contention makes a vivid mention of Bhutan’s gross national happiness (GNH), Happiness Seismograph, Cobb–Douglas model and others to make an impression on the minds of the reader.