Impacts of physical disability on an individual's career development

[Abstract]: Despite ‘career’ becoming a somewhat nebulous term, career development remains a proactive and dynamic process aimed at meeting the needs of both the organisation and the individual. Although the limited literature deals with disability in general, rather than specific physical disabilities, it does suggest the relationship between career development and disability is complex and individuals with a physical disability still face discrimination through stereotyping and perceptual generalisations. There are several other issues relating to physical disability and career development which are identified from this paper as requiring further investigation. These include confidence and self-esteem issues associated with having a physical disability, attitudes towards careers and who is perceived as being responsible for career development, and whether having computing skills reduces the gap between inability and independence. In particular, these are considered from the perspective of individuals who have a physical disability that confines them to a wheel chair

HRD - the shapes and things to come

There has been limited critical review and development of Human Resource Development (HRD) theory in the past two decades. It is change, and especially the rate at which change occurs, that largely influences the HRD hybrid that any organisation adopts. This paper will systematically consider the professional discussions in a number of countries to trace HRD through four key phases: the 'duet', the 'trio', the 'quartet' and concluding with the 'orchestra'. In the past, Human Resource Development (HRD) was often polarized as focusing primarily on either performance or learning - a 'duet'. The relationship between HRD and change was then developed once the integral nature of work to both performance and learning was recognised - a 'trio'. A significant addition to the exploration of learning at work then came about when authors tackled the issue of quality - a 'quartet' of learning, performance, work and quality. However, the future of HRD now lies squarely in the need for the profession to embrace fully the inextricably interrelated paradigms of movement (where people have developed from); change (and especially the rate of change); dynamism (provided from leadership); harmony and unity (resulting from cohesive partnerships) - the 'orchestra'

Does coaching work without mentorship in management development?

It has been a decade since Karpin highlighted areas that Australian managers needed to improve and identified that they lacked the softer human skills and this needed to be addressed. The terms coaching and mentoring are often synonymous with each other when referring to development programs within organisations. However, the established distinction recognises mentoring as a longer-term guidance and development strategy whereas coaching aims to achieve increased performance in the short-term. Mentoring may occur in a formalised, structured setting or as an informal, unstructured career and personal development arrangement. However, the lack of interventions, based on peer mentoring, may be a contributing factor that restricts the improvement in Australia’s managers. One conclusion is that coaching does not work without mentorship in management development

Conceptualising managerial and leadership wisdom - how many wise managers and leaders do you know?

The term ‘wisdom’ is used frequently in terms of managerial and leadership functioning and development. However, when asked ‘How many wise managers and leaders do you know?’ most people struggle to firstly name people and secondly, to explain what ‘wise or wisdom’ means because they tend to consider wisdom from a particular paradigm – philosophical, spiritual, cultural, psychological or ethical. This conceptual paper raises different perceptions of the meaning of ‘wisdom’ before broadly critiquing literature that deals with wisdom in terms of philosophical, spiritual, cultural, psychological and ethical constructs. This leads to summations that wisdom is largely contextual –someone might be considered wise in one context but not in another – and that a knowledgeable person is not necessarily a wise person. However, wisdom appears to comprise elements of knowledge, integrity and compassion. The paper then discusses wisdom as an ethical construct in management and leadership and concludes with a conceptual discussion of the vexed question ‘can wisdom be developed?

Usefulness and reliability of online assessments: a Business Faculty's experience

The usefulness and reliability of online assessment results relate to the clarity, specificity and articulation of assessment purposes, goals and criteria. Cheating and plagiarism are two frequent and controversial issues that arise and there is a view that the online assessments mode inherently lends itself to both these practices. However, reconceptualising practice and redeveloping techniques can pave the way for an authentic assessment approach which minimizes student academic dishonesty. This article describes research which investigated online assessments practice in a business faculty at an Australian university and proposes what might constitute good, sustainable practice and design in university online assessment practices

Meeting some challenges of learner diversity by applying modal preference and learning needs to adult learning

Learners’ needs have always been a factor that university teachers should take into account when designing or delivering subject matter. In this paper, some design and delivery strategies are outlined and preliminary assessments of their effectiveness are made. The strategies focus upon the feasible implementation of sound pedagogical and andragogical principles within a framework of modal preference and adult learning needs. The authors did not implement identical strategies in their respective subjects, but had a common objective: to improve learning and assessment outcomes by recognising the different learning needs of different students

HRD - much more than just training!

[Abstract]: Despite the enormous impact of change on human resource development, it is still largely considered as being 'that part of human resource management that deals with training and development'. This presentation will propose that not only is HRD much more than training and development, but that change is the main reason a need for HRD exists. It will then argue that by using a conventional paradigm framework for static change environments and a contemporary paradigm framework for dynamic change environments, we can categorise specific characteristics that influence how HRD is approached within organisation

Chronological age determination for adopted children

This paper has been prepared as a submission to the Queensland Intercountry Adoption Unit regarding policy development for requests to amend a child’s date of birth. The paper focuses on issues of chronological age determination and some psychological and social issues that emerge in relation to adoptive parents request for an amendment of a child’s age. Although there is a strong delineation made between chronological (biological) and developmental age assessments, this paper does not specifically address the intricacies involved in developmental age assessments. Rather, the focus is on available tests and their validity for estimating chronological age

Developing a sequential framework for mentoring student project teams in a business school: A case study

The use of an academic mentor and a sequential framework may improve both the functionality of student project teams and enhance the learning outcomes by building learning partnerships between the mentor and the team, and between the team members. The sequential framework has several phases: Establishing the ground rules, Team dynamics, Feedback and information sharing, Personal autonomy, Reaffirmation, Personal and professional growth outcomes, and Debriefing. This framework removes many of the personal dynamics that create detractor tensions within teams and enables a higher level of team functionality towards achieving negotiated outcomes. These outcomes will involve personal outcomes (leadership, co-ordination, tolerance etc) that develop throughout the mentorship as well as professional outcomes (that are usually imposed by course assessments). Desired levels for professional outcomes can be negotiated and established at the commencement of the mentorship, although reaffirmed during it. Professional outcomes typically culminate in some form of team presentation or report. A team debriefing enables closure and provides the mentor with informal evaluation of the mentoring arrangement

Graduate attributes: innovative knowledge management or a quality aberration?

Expectations of what constitutes competent and capable graduates from Universities and Colleges have been reported in a number of significant reports in Australia, eg. Mayer, Finn and Karpin. However, until recently there have been few significant attempts to use graduate attributes as either a knowledge management strategy or quality process in Australian Universities. This paper outlines and discusses the development of generic graduate attributes at an Australian University as a first stage to using competency profiling as a leadership strategy for 'knowledge' management. It also draws attention to the possibilities for knowledge management by focusing on quality processes to develop specific competencies, at discipline levels. This is done by the use of generic graduate attributes as the primary focus for a detailed audit of the attributes being developed, as well as auditing the teaching and assessment strategies being utilised to attain those attributes. Four relevant educational leadership theories are then identified and discussed in terms of the situational issues that are raised in the paper. Those theories are strategic leadership, organisation-wide leadership, educative leadership, and teacher centred leadership