Jessica Li

Beyond SERVQUAL: The competitive forces of higher education in Singapore

The paper explores the influences of service quality in higher education and how they contribute to the overall performance of a higher learning institution in Singapore. It draws on the underpinnings of SERVQUAL, and discusses the dichotomy and interrelation between customer perception and expectation in response to current tertiary contexts. Based on an actual framework of a Singapore higher learning institution, the paper further examines three key aspects of service standards: customer orientation, course design/delivery, and support services. Qualitative methodology was employed and data were collected by means of structured in-depth interviews with 12 academics of the institution. Our findings reveal that the way students are perceived will have a direct influence on the learning dynamics that occur both inside and outside the classroom. More importantly, service quality needs to be evaluated on the basis of the integrated experience of students supported by a network of learning spaces created to promote dialogue, inquiry, and reflection. At the core is the collective effort of all individuals that function as active carriers of change.

Workplace Learning: The Roles of Knowledge Accessibility and Management.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how knowledge management systems have been used by the studied organizations to improve knowledge accessibility and knowledge sharing in order to increase workplace learning.Design/methodology/approach – The study relies on a qualitative multisite case study method. Data were obtained from five organizations at a southern state in the USA. Multiple interviews, onsite observation, and documentation analyses were conducted at each studied organization. Data analysis used open coding and thematic analysis. Results were triangulated based on multiple data sources.Findings – The findings revealed that the learning environment of an organization is important for workplace learning. All studied organizations share a need for a conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge in order to facilitate effective informal learning in the workplace. This research concludes that engineering the learning environment through effective knowledge management should be a cohesive eff...

A Systematic Approach to Engineering Ethics Education

Engineering ethics education is a complex field characterized by dynamic topics and diverse students, which results in significant challenges for engineering ethics educators. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a systematic approach to determine what to teach and how to teach in an ethics curriculum. This is a topic that has not been adequately addressed in the engineering ethics literature. This systematic approach provides a method to: (1) develop a context-specific engineering ethics curriculum using the Delphi technique, a process-driven research method; and (2) identify appropriate delivery strategies and instructional strategies using an instructional design model. This approach considers the context-specific needs of different engineering disciplines in ethics education and leverages the collaboration of engineering professors, practicing engineers, engineering graduate students, ethics scholars, and instructional design experts. The proposed approach is most suitable for a department, a discipline/field or a professional society. The approach helps to enhance learning outcomes and to facilitate ethics education curriculum development as part of the regular engineering curriculum.

Exploring the Contribution of Virtual Worlds to Learning in Organizations

Despite the growing interest of business executives, there is limited academic research on the contributions of virtual worlds to learning in organizations. We address this limitation by using a recently developed typology of virtual world capabilities to investigate the potential contributions of virtual worlds to learning in organizations. Recognizing that learning occurs at three levels within the organization, we proceed to develop a theoretical framework that relates virtual world capabilities to learning at each level. Our research contributes to the field by integrating multiple theoretically anchored dimensions and offering a framework that should serve as a building block for research on, and use of, virtual worlds in learning interventions in organizational settings.

Asian women in top management: eight country cases

This article is a by-product of an innovative session of the 2014 Asia Chapter of the Academy of Human Resource Development conference, Seoul, South Korea, where eight female researchers with roots in eight Asian countries (in alphabetical order: China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand) presented on the topic of Asian women in top management. In this article, we present these presenters’ perspectives on the topic, including their current state of working conditions and balancing of personal and professional lives. We asked them the following three questions: (1) Do traditional values/religious beliefs limit or liberate women in management? (2) How have social views on the role of women in management changed in your country? (3) What organizational and social changes are necessary for women to advance to leadership positions? We also encouraged them to go beyond answering these three questions. Additionally, we discuss convergence (commonalities) and divergence (differences) across these eight Asian countries.

The importance of recognizing generational differences in hrd policy and practices: A study of workers in qinhuangdao, china

Amid the success of becoming a market economy and a member of the World Trade Organization, the response to Chinas economic reform is not the same across generational cohorts. The Cultural Revolution (CR) cohort, a by-product of the history of contemporary China, has been left behind. Based on the results of 384 highly structured interviews, this study found that the CR cohort sampled was the least satisfied with Chinas recent economic reform. The study calls for future research and collaboration among HRD scholars and practitioners to address generational differences and specifically the needs of the CR cohort.

Understanding Talent Development and Implications for Human Resource Development: An Integrative Literature Review

As the topic of talent development (TD) gets more popularity in practice of organizations and among human resource development (HRD) professionals, the need for understanding the nature and the scope of TD activities increases. The aim of this article is to help this understanding through an integrative review of literature. As part of this article, the definitions of and the perspectives toward talent-related activities in TD literature have been analyzed and a comprehensive definition for TD is suggested. Moreover, four major themes within TD literature have been identified: (a) issues related to career development, (b) the influence of contextual factors, (c) the relationship between TD and attraction and retention of talents, and (d) issues of diversity in the context of TD. Based on our findings, some of the gaps in the literature are presented. The potential actions that HRD researchers and practitioners can take to address these challenges will be suggested and discussed.

In pursuit of learning: sensemaking the quality of work life

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore how employees make sense of their work context and its influence on their learning orientation to improve their quality of work life. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative data drawn from a dynamic online discussion that spanned three years were used in the content analysis. A total of 137 MBA participants from a university in the southwest of the USA contributed to the online forum. Findings – Perception of work-life context influences the cognitive intent of employees in such a way that they change their learning orientation and develop learning strategies to improve their current work conditions. These strategies are in turn influenced by their sensemaking of the context to determine their quality of work life. Research limitations/implications – The study illuminates the relationship between learning and context through the theoretical perspective of sensemaking. It extends the concept of learning orientation as operating at the individual and group le...

Young Faculty Job Perceptions in the Midst of Chinese Higher Education Reform: The Case of Zhejiang University.

Chinese higher education is undergoing fundamental changes to meet the demand of producing high quantity and quality college students. These changes have significantly impacted the work lives of Chinese faculty members. This study investigated Chinese young facultys job perceptions using four variables: intrinsic motivation, job burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover. The findings revealed that surveyed faculties had high intrinsic motivation, relatively high professional efficacy, and low turnover. However, they showed job burnout as indicated by emotional exhaustion and they demonstrated moderate intrinsic satisfaction and low extrinsic satisfaction. The study proposed that a healthy academic environment is needed for sustainable scholarship development.

Understanding the Corporate University phenomenon: a human capital theory perspective

Corporate Universities (CU) have become a global phenomenon in organisations. This study investigated the CU phenomenon through the lens of human capital theory. Combined with a reflexive approach, we conducted a comprehensive review and analysis of literatures in economics and Human Resource Development (HRD). We found that, different from existing CU literature, as a HRD operational entity, the CU and the traditional university were rooted in different skills contexts. Theorising the CU phenomenon is to theorise HRD. We further explored an alternative model to understand the CU phenomenon. Implications for HRD research were also discussed.