Constructing Professional Identity - the Experience of Work Based Learning Candidates

Previous research into professional identity has argued that training institutions shape professional formation. This research focuses on professionals who have undertaken a work based approach and explores the interrelationship between practitioners’ own narrative of professional identity and that encoded within the narrative of the standards of a professional HR/HRD body. The findings begin to question the traditional understanding of the inter-relationship between the narrative of the professional body and individual HR/HRD practitioner narratives of identity suggesting that neither the professional body nor the mainstream educational institution are the major players in the development of professional identity

Development Assessment Centres: Practice Implications Arising from Exploring the Participant Voice

This qualitative phenomenological study explores the short-to-medium term personal impact of Development Assessment Centres on UK healthcare managers. The study identified overarching themes relating to personal performance impact, enabling and disabling factors in Centre design, trauma and safety implications, and behavioural adaptation. Practice implications arising focused upon three key areas. Firstly, Centre design should equally enable both introverts and extraverts and provide conscious consideration toward behavioural adaptation amongst participants. Secondly, there is a need for adequate follow-up support to enable participants to continue to learn from their experience, whilst also mitigating any potential risk toward long-term trauma caused by such deeply personal experiences. Finally, where assessment and reward form an output from any Centre, judgement should be limited until a thorough de-brief has been undertaken with the participant to explore causal behavioural responses, as opposed to basing decisions on observed behaviour alone

Confluent Learning: Using a Design Approach to Develop Cognitive Abilities and Enhance Affective Capacities Through Change Management Curriculum

Purpose The aim of the study is to explore the role of confluent learning in supporting the development of change management knowledge, skills and attitudes and to inform the creation of a conceptual model based upon a priori and a posteriori knowledge gained from literature and the research. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts qualitative approach based on reflective inquiry methodology. There are two primary data sources, interviews with learners and the researchers’ reflective journals on learners’ opinions. Findings The confluent learning approach helped to stimulate affective states (e.g. interest and appreciation) to further reinforce cognitive gains (e.g. retention of knowledge) as a number of higher order thinking skills were further developed. The instructional design premised upon confluent learning enabled learners to further appreciate the complexities of change management. Research implications/ limitations The confluent learning approach offers another explanation to how learning takes place, contingent upon the use of a problem solving framework, instructional design and active learning in developing inter- and trans-disciplinary competencies. Practical implications This study not only explains how effective learning takes place but is also instructive to learning and teaching, and human resource development (HRD) professionals in curriculum design and the potential benefits of confluent learning. Social implications The adoption of a confluent learning approach helps to re-naturalise learning that appeals to learners affect. Originality/value This research is one of the few studies that provide an in-depth exploration of the use of confluent learning and how this approach co-develops cognitive abilities and affective capacity in the creation of a conceptual model

Doctoral Supervisor: Coach, Mentor or Master? Developing an Alternative Paradigm for Doctoral Supervision

This working paper is the second in a series of working papers presenting the on-going findings from a longitudinal research project grounded in exploring the experience of doctoral supervision and developing practice. In the first paper and phase one of this research study, Cook, Nichol and Loon (2014) explored the existing context for doctoral supervision and, drawing from literature on the problematic nature of doctoral supervision and coaching and mentoring, considered the value of drawing on coaching and mentoring models in formulating alternative paradigms for doctoral supervision. This paper reports the findings of phase one, a mixed methods study of experiences of doctoral supervision with supervisors and students in one UK university business school, from which the Collaborative Action Doctoral Supervision conceptual model emerged. The paper also introduces phase two, a collaborative action research study with doctoral supervisors and students who are applying, reflecting on and developing further this doctoral supervision model. We are aiming to answer the question of whether the use of coaching and mentoring in doctoral supervision enables the transfer and sustainability of learning from the doctoral supervision session to outside the experience and improves the quality. Is the doctoral supervisor coach, mentor or master? Key words Doctoral supervision, coaching, mentoring, collaborative action research

Adopting Coaching for Doctoral Supervision: Opportunities and Challenges for HRD

Coaching has become a popular form of HRD intervention. One HRD context, which has yet to embrace this, however is that of doctoralsupervision. Although the relevance of coaching to doctoral supervisionhas been noted, research into it remains very limited, and thereis a lack of clarity on how it could be implemented and the skills it would require. This reflects a broader lack of pedagogical thinking about doctoral supervision in universities and consequent paucity of HRD interventions to support it. This article addresses these gaps through reporting on stage one of an on-going research project which assessed the applicability of an existing model of coaching, to doctoral supervision. Building on Cook’s model, a new Collaborative Action for Doctoral Supervision model of coaching is proposed that identifies for supervisors and students individual and shared responsibilities and skills required for effective supervision. The article argues that a shift in HRD in relation to doctoral supervision will be necessary if the benefits of adopting this coaching model are to be realized

Invaluable but Invisible: an Initial Investigation of Chinese Graduate Skill Development and Subsequent Skill Use

Measures of impact of Higher Education have often neglected the Chinese student view, despite the importance of these students to the UK and Chinese economy. This research paper details the findings of a quantitative survey that was purposively distributed to Chinese graduates who enrolled at the University of Worcester on the Business Management degree between 2004-2011 (n=49). Analysis has been conducted on their skill development throughout their degree, their skill usage in different employment contexts, the value of their degree, and gender differences in skill development and usage. Discrepancies between skill development and usage, between males and females, and with previous research findings are discussed. Future research directions are also specified

Working Self Concepts: the Impact of Work Based Learning On Self Identity Amongst Senior HRM/HRD Practitioners

This paper explores the experiences of senior HRM/D managers and strategic line managers who have engaged with a Work Based Learning (WBL) programme, and builds on earlier work by Nichol and Williams (2012) who explored the professional identity of HR/HRD practitioners. The paper seeks to understand the personal impact of this combination of work place yet externally derived learning process on self-identity since this will have lessons for the learners, for the organisation, and for providers of such programmes. The basis of this qualitative, interpretive, paper is a series of one-to-one semi-structured interviews with senior practitioners from across the public, private and not-for-profit spectrum. Analysis and interpretation are guided equally by themes arising from the data and by a priori knowledge of existing theoretical frameworks. The concepts of self-identity operate at multiple levels, which Lord and Brown (2004) refer to as the Individual, Interpersonal and Collective levels of our ‘Working Self Concept (WSC)’. Their model demonstrated how successful leadership processes occur indirectly through follower self-identities, and this current research adapts that model to argue that the WBL process similarly needs to align with participants’ self-identity in order to ensure success. There is evidence of positive impacts on self-views at all levels with affective and behavioural changes that enhanced performance as a result of engagement in WBL. Increased confidence in their own value to their respective organisations, and improved belief in the legitimacy of their accumulated knowledge skills and experience enabled them to further contribute to organisational goals