Susan R. Madsen

Advancing Work—Life Integration in Individuals, Organizations, and Communities

The problem and the solution. Working adults report they experience greater challenges today in their ability to be productive employees, experience personal and interpersonal health and well-being, and make meaningful contributions as citizens to their respective communities. By better understanding work—life theory and research, human resource development professionals can contribute to the strategic development of policies, practices, programs, and interventions that appear to alleviate or ameliorate demands fostering greater work—life integration. Integration is a solution representing a holistic strategy including effective and efficient coordination of efforts and energies among all stakeholders sharing interest and benefits from workers being able to fulfill their personal, work, family, and community obligations.

Academic Service Learning Experiences of Compensation and Benefit Course Students.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of human resource students who had recently and successfully completed a service learning project for an undergraduate compensation and benefits course. Four specific themes or categories emerged from the 10 in-depth student interviews: pedagogical differences, student learning, personal benefits, and challenges and problems. Findings support the premise that academic service learning in human resource coursework is effective and beneficial for students. In fact, all felt that they learned and benefited more from this project or assignment than from any other they had undertaken.

Women and Leadership in Higher Education Current Realities, Challenges, and Future Directions

The Problem. There continues to be concern about the need to develop more women leaders in all sectors and industries in most countries around the world. This includes the need for more women to be positioned to take on critical leadership roles within higher education. The Solution. This preface article highlights the Issue’s overall problem, purpose, the approach used, and its relevance to human resource development (HRD) and practice. It introduces relevant literature and provides a brief introduction of each Issue article. The Issue in general explores various topics that directly influence the career decisions, challenges, experiences, and opportunities of women in postsecondary settings. Each article shares results of research studies or conceptual frameworks and also outlines specific implications for practice. The Stakeholders. This Issue will provide researchers and practitioners in various fields of study with foundations and strategic frameworks to be used for more reflective teaching, research, and practice around the topic of women and leadership.

Academic Service-Learning in Human Resource Management Education

As the scholarship of engaging students in the learning process becomes more important in institutions of higher education, the emerging pedagogy of academic service learning is becoming a focus in many schools of business. The author discusses this pedagogy in general and in a human resource undergraduate course specifically. In addition, she discusses selected findings gathered from in-depth student interviews about their feelings before, during, and after the experience and their motivations to do well.

Developing leadership: exploring childhoods of women university presidents

Purpose – Researchers argue that much of who we are is developed during childhood. Yet, little exploratory research has been conducted regarding the childhood experiences, activities, personalities, and perceptions of successful leaders. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with ten women university presidents to investigate perceptions and experiences related to the lifetime development of leadership skills, abilities, and competencies. The lived experiences of these women were investigated using the phenomenological research methodology so that “voices” could be heard and unique insights examined. This paper explores a portion of this research focused on childhood personalities, school and other activities, influential individuals, and significant events and challenges.Findings – Results support the growth‐task model of human development. As children, the presidents were generally obedient, reflective, observant, smart, self‐...

Leadership Development in the United Arab Emirates: The Transformational Learning Experiences of Women

To consider designing future efforts toward developing leadership programs for women in the United Arab Emirates, it is important to understand how these women learn and develop. Transformational learning theory provided a valuable theoretical lens to guide this study. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with women Emirati college students to investigate how their experiences have changed these women through important influences (e.g., individuals, support systems, activities, teaching methods), struggles and challenges (e.g., new environment, learning English), and internal processes (e.g., reflection, discovery of new roles and relationships). Implications for developing leadership programs are also outlined.

Work and Family Conflict: Can Home-Based Teleworking Make a Difference?

Research has shown that, when employees’ work-family conflict levels are reduced, performance in the workplace can increase. How to reduce these levels, however, is a complex task. The purpose of this empirical study was to investigate the differences in work-family conflict between full-time worksite employees and full-time teleworking employees (individuals who teleworked from home at least two days per week). Employees (n = 308) in seven for-profit companies in Minnesota were sampled and surveyed using a slightly revised version of the Carlson and Kacmar (2000) work-family conflict scale. The findings indicate that teleworkers had lower levels of overall work-family conflict as well as most of the other work-family conflict variables explored (i.e., strain-based, time-based, work interference with family, family interference with work)

The Current State of Female Leadership in the United Arab Emirates

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to research the state of affairs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the presence (or absence) of women in senior business leadership positions, and to investigate where they are located within organizations (e.g. board members, chief officers, vice presidents, top management, division or unit heads).Design/methodology/approach – This is a quantitative gender analysis of 954 organizations; based on data available from the Zawya database that tracks information about public and private companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.Findings – Women are still underrepresented in senior company and top department leadership positions, however, they are found slightly (but not significantly) more in departmental leadership, pseudo services and hospitality industries, and in smaller and public companies.Research limitations/implications – The database utilized did not contain completed company data; specifically any response variable; hence, the study was d...

Women and Leadership in Higher Education: Learning and Advancement in Leadership Programs

The Problem. Postsecondary institutions are struggling more than ever before to find qualified, effective leaders to move into key administrative positions. One reason for the continued lack of prepared leaders is that there still remain few women in higher education positioned to take on such critical roles. The Solution. This Issue overview introduces the importance of and connections among HRD, leadership development, higher education, and leadership programs for women in higher education. It highlights the Issue’s overall problem, purpose, the approach used, and its relevance to practice. Concerns around the shortage of women in leadership positions in higher education settings are introduced, and the unique features of this particular Special Issue are outlined along with a brief introduction of each article. The Stakeholders. This Issue will provide researchers and practitioners in various fields of study with frameworks to use in developing, evaluating, and researching leadership programs for women in higher education and beyond.

Women’s Leadership Development in Higher Education: Conclusion and Implications for HRD

The Problem. The intentional preparation of future leaders for higher education remains a critical need today in institutions across the globe. Many colleges and universities are now seeking to design programs that develop the leadership skills of faculty, staff, and administrators, and because of the shortage of women in leadership positions, special efforts need to focus on the development of women. Yet guidance and assistance are required to do so effectively and efficiently. The Solution. The purpose of this final article is to highlight a few of the particularly important findings across all articles in this Special Issue, offer some overall implications for leadership development and the HRD field, and provide tables of sample leadership programs for women in higher education at the national, state, and institutional levels. The Stakeholders. This article provides researchers and practitioners in various fields of study with implications toward more effectively developing, evaluating, researching, and implementing leadership programs for women in higher education.