Claretha Hughes

“People as Technology” Conceptual Model: Toward a New Value Creation Paradigm for Strategic Human Resource Development

This article proposes a “people as technology” (PT) conceptual model that introduces five key values providing connections of human resource development and technology development: location, use, maintenance, modification, and time. The PT conceptual model provides a scheme for identifying how HRD and technology development may change and/or mediate the relationship between organization employees and leaders. The relationships between people and technology can be better managed through the cognitive, behavioral, and/or cultural perspectives of the organization, create five key values, and produce competitive advantage for organizations.The PT conceptual model provides a theoretical framework for further research and practical applications of management practices, training practices, HRD philosophy, and HRD strategies within organizations.

Valuing People and Technology in the Workplace: A Competitive Advantage Framework

People as Technology introduces a more proactive, strategic approach to bring employees into, and develop them within, an organization. Interpreting and accepting this concept requires managers to think of employees as they would think of technology. Technology, equipment, and systems are strategically aligned within organizations. Integrating the literature from strategic technology management, strategic human resource management, and human resource development and exploring how this integration can provide competitive advantage to organizations for better implementation of people and technology development initiatives is a potential solution.

Implementation Concerns of Scholar-Practitioners: A Pilot Study of the Link between Research and Practice

The challenge of combining research and practice in HRD has led to continuing debate on who are scholar-practitioners and how they integrate research and practice in the workplace. This qualitative collective case study provides insights from seven scholar-practitioners to help HRD professionals and researchers understand implementation concerns of scholar-practitioners. The findings reveal scholar-practitioners’ perceptions of their roles, the link between research and practice, and actions they took to overcome barriers and challenges related to integrating research and practice. This pilot study can serve as a benchmark for future studies regarding successful integration of research and practice in HRD.

American Black Women and Interpersonal Leadership Styles

American Black women bring different interpersonal leadership styles to Fortune and non-Fortune 500 organizations. Their interpersonal leadership styles are developed at home, within their community, through their educational experiences, and within society. They bring unique perspectives to the workplace. Organizations that recognize, respect, and value their different viewpoints have leaders who are contributing to the financial growth of their organizations. American Black women have career capital to offer to organizations through their self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and the leadership strategies that they understand and apply in the workplace. In addition they bring high educational achievement, practical skills, and analytical abilities that are useful when leading others. They bring a persistent work ethic, support for education and leadership development, and an enduring spirit of cooperation in the midst of undeserved, personal challenges to the workplace. They solve problems, help others succeed, enhance the workplace environment and organization culture, and help their organizations maintain competitive advantage in an evolving global economy.

Linking leader and gender identities to authentic leadership in small businesses

Purpose Women are starting businesses at unprecedented rates, yet little is known about the leadership of small business owners. Establishing new ventures may allow women to use their full abilities and benefit from a more level playing field. Business owners have the unique opportunity to lead and define their businesses based on their authentic selves, values and goals; therefore, they are more likely to be authentic leaders. Women in nontraditional industries may be challenged because the owner’s characteristics do not match those of the industry. When the enactment of one identity interferes with another identity, identity interference (II) occurs. Relational authenticity and role incongruity suggests that women founders must uniquely resolve II and find synergy among their gender and leader identities if they are to extend the boundaries of what it means to be a woman and an industry’s business leader. This research aims to determine whether gender and leader II was an antecedent or link to authentic leadership (AL). Design/methodology/approach Study participants were from 63 businesses in the USA states of California, Ohio and Maryland. Three leader models were established to determine whether owner gender functioned as a moderator: all genders (n = 155), women only (n = 75) and men only (n = 65). The individual owners and their employees were the units of analysis and structural equation modeling was used. Findings The findings revealed that II was an antecedent to AL, owners were AL and owner gender moderated AL and II. Research limitations/implications This study supports (Kernis, 2003; Gardner et al., 2005) the proposition that identity congruence is necessary for AL; the less interference found between gender and leader identities, the more authentic the leader. II functioned as an antecedent to AL. Moreover when the AL self’s subscales were examined relative to II, the components that were active varied dramatically based on leader gender. This suggests that addressing II and resolving the incongruence between what it mean to be a woman (or a man) and a leader contributes to the development of AL. Additionally, the AL boundary condition of relational authenticity was supported by this study; leader gender was related to the different amounts of AL (Eagly, 2005; Kernis, 2003). Support was found that AL was a dynamic process between leaders and employees. When authentic leadership questionnaire (ALQ) self (leader) and rater (employee) were compared, there was a significant amount of consistency between these ratings. For the all genders leader model, when ALQ self’s subscale was analyzed relative to the employees’ ratings, the leaders’ relational transparency was found to be active. The women only leader model revealed that AL was activated through internalized moral perspective suggesting they were able to tap into the hearts and minds of their employees. For the men only leaders, no relationship was revealed between ALQ self’s subcomponents and employee AL ratings. Relational authenticity suggests that this may be due to employees rating men owners more based on the experience and perceptions of men leaders in general and not these business owners in particular. Practical implications Leadership development professionals should address how II may help women examine who they are, how they work with others, and their values; decrease leader II by providing insight on how to manage potentially conflicting roles through examples of synergistic behaviors and benefits; and, build upon women owners’ ability to connect with their followers by sharing their goals and aspirations. Men owners may benefit by ensuring their employees know their business’ unique value proposition. Originality/value This research sought to link the identities of leader and gender to AL in the context of small businesses. It builds upon the AL theory of Avolio et al., (2004) and Jensen and Luthans (2006) who advocated using AL to study small businesses. This study determined whether business owners experienced interference between their gender and leader identities; II hindered the formation of AL and was an antecedent to AL; and the owner’s gender led to more or less AL and thus determined if leader gender moderated AL. The support for studying leader gender comes from role incongruity (Eagly and Diekman, 2005) and relational authenticity (Eagly, 2005; Kernis, 2003) which suggests that differences in how employees perceive AL may be a function of the owner’s gender. Added support comes from Jensen and Luthans (2006); they asked future studies to examine AL to determine the mechanisms behind gender differences in small businesses. Such research provides insight on the development of AL in theory and practice.

Impact of diversity on organization and career development

Her research focuses on value creation through the use of human resource development and technology development. She is interested in the impact of the value of people and technology (1) on teaching and learning processes and motivation, (2) on organizational culture, change strategies, and leadership, and (3) on technology in the workplace environment and employee behavior. Todays workforce represents individuals of various backgrounds and experiences. The influence of such individuals is becoming an important component in the workplace and researchers continue to explore the challenges of understanding the connection between employee profiles and the overall success of a company. Impact of Diversity on Organization and Career Development brings together a reflective discussion on the previous approaches and strategies of companies in relation to the paradigm shift in workplace equity of todays workforce. By examining both old and new strategies, the research included in this publication will present a unique approach for future company enhancement and employee success. This publication is an essential reference source for researchers, practitioners, managers, and students interested in the effects of multicultural representation on both a company and its employees through professional growth and advancement. Market: This premier publication is essential for all academic and research library reference collections. It is a crucial tool for academicians, researchers, and practitioners. Ideal for classroom use.

HRD in the Modern Era

One of the challenges of evaluating the modern era of HRD is that it is still ongoing. History, like high school relationships, is usually best judged with the perspective of longitudinal distance. The challenge is made all the more difficult when considering modern HRD in a similar manner to other eras contained in this text. While the pattern of interplay between philosophy, theory, and practice is more or less evident in previous eras, our own biases tend to interfere with our ability to “step out” of ourselves and evaluate our own philosophical assumptions. Because, that is what a consideration of the modern era requires. By reading this book you may have some role in the modern expression of HRD as a discipline, be it as a practitioner or theorist. If Gosney’s model of modern era theory and practice generation in HRD, proposed in chapter 1, holds true, then we are bound to our own current historical context.

Introduction to HRD History and Critical Thinking Theory

On Saturday evening, January 7, 2012, a TV commercial for the prescription drug Chantix depicted a loving wife expressing a desire to stop smoking for the benefit of her husband and children. A voice-over began describing the potential side effects of the medication. The side effects become starker, with the voice-over calmly suggesting, “If you notice changes in your behavior such as a powerful, overwhelming desire to kill the person you love most, call your doctor right away” (Saturday Night Live, 2012). The couple, upon hearing the escalating severity of these side effects, looked at each other in horror.

Diversity Intelligence and Leadership Development

For organizations to succeed they expect effective leadership techniques and characteristics to be used and displayed by their leaders at all times. The characteristics and techniques of leaders vary depending upon who the leader is and what the organization expects of them so that they can remain in their leadership roles. There is continuous debates regarding who is and what makes an effective leader. Bruce (2001) provided the following characteristics and techniques of effective leaders: Leaders are authentic; express their humanity; understand key competencies; plan for success; involve everyone in strategic planning; plan for succession; manage human capital; possess integrity, values, and intuition; build strong teams; are competent coaches; manage performance through communications; exercise influence; manage and build hope and trust in others; manage knowledge effectively; have vision; and create better ways to measure performance. There is no mention of diversity within these techniques and characteristics. It is assumed that effective leaders will use these techniques and characteristics to benefit all employees, including protected class group members. If they do not use their effectiveness to benefit all employees, how can they be considered effective leaders?

Implications for Future American Black Women Leaders and Mentors

American Black women are dedicated to their families and careers. They come from families that are supportive of their success and values education. They endure extensive barriers to their success, and continue to achieve in spite of the odds against them.