Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the HRD practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Australia to understand the value that MNEs place on investment in their human capital, particularly managerial talent. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a representative sample of 211 MNEs operating in Australia, this paper…

This paper explores the implications for learning design in HRM education in the 21st century. An open systems perspective is used to argue the importance of establishing productive relationships between academia, professional associations, regulators and industry (resource inputs) to support the creation of optimal learning environments (the…

The joint supervision of Research Higher Degree (RHD) students by an industry and university supervisor is likely to increase in forthcoming years with a rise in the number of university-industry collaborations. Research students may become involved in these collaborative arrangements for a variety of reasons and may launch into their RHD without…

This presentation was made to a breakout session at the 2011 Skills Australia and Industry Skills Councils joint conference, "Putting Skills at the Heart of Economy". The paper addresses the challenge of measurement in workforce development planning and discusses the role of the various players in the labour and training…

It is widely accepted that the concepts and practices of management can only be of benefit when they are anchored to the contextual architecture of people, processes, structures, and technologies. The challenge of establishing a bridging program for providing managerial competencies to Australian Indigenous people has become a serious one for…

To what extent do local governments use vocational education and training as a staff retention strategy? Human resources personnel from a selection of councils around Australia believed that a lack of career development or training opportunities might cause an employee to leave their organisation. They had some reservations about the quality and…

There are theoretical and disciplinary field links between career development and human resource development, however interdisciplinary dialogue between the two fields has been essentially limited to one-way dialogue. This one-way dialogue occurs from within the human resource development field, due to the explicit inclusion of career development…

The purpose of this research activity is to understand further how large and small registered training organisations (RTOs) make decisions about the allocation of resources for developing their workforces. Six registered training organisations--four technical and further education (TAFE) institutes and two private providers--were selected for…

In the course of the author's doctoral study, he is exploring the strategic linkages between learning activities in the modern workplace and the long-term success they bring to organisations. For many years, this challenge has been the Holy Grail of human resource (HR) development practitioners, who invest heavily on training and professional…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the level of consideration given to unlearning during human resource development interventions and to identify the methods being used to reinforce training and development. Design/methodology/approach: A self-administered questionnaire was given to a convenience sample of employers in regional…

Informal workplace trainers help employees learn what they need to know and do in order to get their job done. Little is known about the actions of informal workplace trainers, who may be colleagues or supervisors. This study provides an empirical basis for actions undertaken by informal workplace trainers. A total of 350 Australian enterprises…

The ageing of the Australian population and its implications are now well-established on the Australian public policy agenda. Part of this interest is in its impacts on the Australian workforce. It is less well known that different segments of that workforce have quite different age structures. The academic sector has one of the oldest workforces…

This document reports the findings of seven case studies undertaken as part of a larger research project on the measuring and reporting of intellectual capital, being conducted by an Australian research team. The case studies aimed to investigate in more detail the approach of seven Australian organizations and enterprises to the recording and…

Purpose: To investigate how modern or traditional are the current roles of South Australian HRD practitioners in the context of present-day work organisations. Also, how are their roles related to the organisational context in which they operate? Design/methodology/approach: The study is a replication of two prior qualitative empirical studies…

Despite increased attention to learning within the workplace and investigation into the distribution and nature of learning-related activities, how these trends have impacted the role of human resource (HR) professionals has been less extensively examined. Studies examining their role indicate that HR development (HRD) positions name traditional…