Critical theorists contend HRD has prioritized managerial interests over employee well-being. Some have advocated an ethics of care approach, emphasizing employee needs and well-being. However, there are few models to guide research on integrating care-oriented practices. We adopt a mutual gains perspective, proposing that HRD practices can enhance performance and employee well-being through employee-focused voice. HRD has overlooked voice, which is well-theorized in HRM. To address this gap, we conceptualize how key practices can foster employee-focused voice. We adapt and extend Nishii and Wright’s (2008) HR process model, integrate leadership styles, and develop propositions to guide studies on facilitating voice.

Purpose This study aims to explore the role of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owner-manager as an enabler of employee learning and discuss how digital transformation, as a key form of disruption, poses challenges and opportunities for enacting learning-oriented leadership. Design/methodology/approach The study is conceptual, drawing on literature on workplace learning and SME leadership. It applies Tynjälä’s 3-P model (presage, process, product) of workplace learning and the organisational agility perspective to analyse learning-oriented leadership in SMEs. Findings Four themes are used to describe factors that simultaneously create challenges and opportunities for workplace learning in SMEs: resource availability, limited access to formal training, the condition of “smallness” and relational dynamics. By using learning-oriented leadership, emphasising informal learning, leveraging digital tools and encouraging developmental learning cultures, SME owner-managers enhance their firm’s agility amid disruption. Research limitations/implications The paper lays the foundation for future research examining how learning-oriented leadership affects SME innovation and survival in dynamic environments. Practical implications The findings suggest that SME owner-managers can strengthen organisational adaptability by embedding learning in daily work, leveraging low-cost digital resources and intentionally shaping relational conditions that support informal learning. Originality/value The paper advances research by conceptualising learning-oriented leadership in SMEs under volatile conditions. It integrates leadership, workplace learning and agility perspectives into a novel framework that highlights the distinctive conditions of small firms and positions learning-oriented leadership as a strategic response to disruption.

Recent societal challenges highlight the importance of learning in organizations. Nurturing employee learning requires leaders who prioritize learning-oriented leadership. While many studies have used qualitative methods to study how this leadership is performed in daily work, there have been no previous attempts to synthesize this body of research. This paper presents a framework based on a review of 38 qualitative papers on how leaders facilitate workplace learning. The framework identifies two elements of leadership: direct leadership behaviors, which involve supporting, educating, making demands, and role modelling, and indirect leadership behaviors, which facilitate learning through building a learning climate, influencing work organization, freeing up resources for learning, and encouraging knowledge dissemination. The review finds that situational factors shape learning-oriented leadership, and that this leadership involves the deployment of activities located on a planned-spontaneous continuum to facilitate learning. Longitudinal studies across professional groups and contexts will deepen our understanding of this concept.

Purpose The aim of the study is to extend prior research on career identity formation by investigating whether individuals' participation in informal workplace learning activities positively relates to career identity. The study also examines whether work engagement significantly mediates the participation in informal learning and career identity relationship. Design/methodology/approach Using data from a survey of 313 individuals in Iran, the study developed and tested measurement and structural models and employed partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings suggest that work engagement substantially mediates the positive relationship between participation in informal learning and career identity. Furthermore, the learning potential of the workplace and the propensities of individuals to actively approach situations that provide them with opportunities to learn and seek feedback on their performance have positive although varying relations with levels of participation in informal learning. Practical implications Human resource management and career management specialists must be cognisant of the central role that employee participation in informal learning plays in strengthening their work engagement and career identity. Learning and development specialists should seek to create conditions in the work environment that are favourable to informal learning and work engagement. Originality/value Although the role of formal development programmes in career identity formation is well documented, studies that examine links between participation in informal learning activities and career identity are very rare. Furthermore, there are no known studies that examine the potential mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between participation in informal learning activities and career identity.

Contemporary organizations must be adaptive and agile as the environment changes. To respond to change, leaders must find ways of integrating learning into everyday work experiences. This invites the question: how do leaders facilitate individual, group and organizational learning? Several studies have examined relationships among leadership and learning and potential mediating and moderating variables. However, because this literature is extensive and fragmented it is difficult to discern what is known about how leadership contributes to individual, group and organizational learning. Accordingly, there is a pressing need to assemble and evaluate the existing studies. To address this limitation of the literature, this paper presents a systematic review and critique of literature in this field. Our review of 105 studies suggests that there are statistically significant relationships between different types of leadership and learning at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Furthermore, the findings indicate that these relationships are often mediated by other variables. However, little is known about moderators and boundary conditions. Based on the findings, it would be premature to say with certainty that leadership causally influences learning, since the empirical basis for such a claim is lacking. We outline the conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and empirical refinements needed to guide future research on learning-oriented leadership and advance this research trajectory. The findings of our review and our conclusions will be informative for researchers and practitioners.

This study addresses knowledge gaps relating to how small business owner/managers facilitate employee learning and how distinctive characteristics of small businesses affect employee learning. Data were collected through interviews with owner/managers and employees and observation of conditions in the physical, social, and organisational environments that might help or hinder informal learning. The findings provide a situated, context-sensitive, and triangulated account relating to two research questions. We find that owner/manager physical and social proximity to employees is a key facilitating factor. Proximity creates the potential for owner/managers to facilitate learning through modelling, provision of immediate feedback and guidance. The owner/manager's positive influence on learning stemming from their physical and social proximity to employees is accentuated by owner/managers employing management styles facilitative of learning. Our findings suggest that a "family-like" culture and the social cohesion in the businesses had enabling effects on employee participants' informal learning, while their lack of opportunities for formal learning would have inhibiting effects.

PurposeThis study aims to explore how human resource (HR) practitioners conceive of their practice, reveal challenges they grapple with in daily work and generate a conceptual framework of HR praxis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on interviews with HR practitioners in Sweden and a review of articles that examine aspects of HR practitioners' work.FindingsThe HR practitioners' work is fragmented and reactive, filled with meetings and affords few opportunities to work undisturbed. Operational tasks are prioritised over strategic work, and their work sometimes involves tasks that are not HR's responsibility. The nature of HR practitioners' daily work mimics the work of their main "customer", i.e. managers within the organisations.Practical implicationsThe HR practitioners were working mainly in the service of managers, which suggests that they have an internal focus. Consistent with current, prescriptive HR discourse, HR practitioners should adopt a multi-stakeholder perspective of human resource management (HRM) and a more external focus that is necessary to contribute to wider, organisational effectiveness. The findings could enrich what is taught in higher education by providing students with an account of the reality of HR practitioners' daily work.Originality/valueThe study provides a situated account of the daily work of HR practitioners, which is largely absent from the literature.

Informal learning (IL) in hospitality and tourism (H&T) is a significant contributor to improving individual and organisational performance. However, prior research in this field is fragmented and there is a need to assemble and evaluate these studies. This paper presents the first known systematic review and critique of the literature in this field. A filtered search resulted in 70 empirical studies published in ABDC ranked journals. Analysis of the studies revealed the following: (1) concentration of research in developed-country contexts, (2) limited exploration of theories that encapsulate both personal and work environment factors that might influence participation in informal learning, (3) lack of research designs that incorporate rigour such as multi-source data, mixed-methods, causality testing, or multilevel analysis, and (4) limited exploration of the antecedents and outcomes of employees’ engagement in IL activities. Drawing on these findings, the paper provides several suggestions for future research.

Purpose The strength-based approach is promulgated as a management practice that improves individual productivity and performance. This study's purpose is to explore the prospective applicability of the strengths-based approach to managing and developing employees in small businesses. The study focuses on four domains of practice: selection, training, performance evaluation and task assignment. Design/methodology/approach The study employed semi-structured, face-to-face interviews to obtain data. The units of analysis were managers and employees of small businesses. Eleven managers and 19 employees were interviewed. Data analysis involved thematic analysis with the NVivo 12 software program. Findings First, the small businesses used a strengths-based approach for employee selection during employees' temporary status of employment and in employee task assignment. However, managers did not employ a strengths-based approach to employee selection during selection interviews, training or performance evaluations. Second, the managers perceived strengths identification as a difficult task. Based on personal observations, they perceived employees' positive character traits, job-related skills and work-related efficiency as employee strengths. Practical implications This study informs managers about a potential alternative to the traditional weakness-based management practice. The findings and conceptual arguments suggest that a strengths-based approach can provide a cost-effective alternative to the resource-intensive approaches commonly employed to enhance employee productivity and performance. Originality/value The study provides the first empirical evidence on the prospective applicability of the strengths-based approach to small businesses and explores conceptually the suitability of the said approach to this context.

Purpose The purpose is to contribute to the debate on how job satisfaction might influence small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) employees' propensity to engage in innovative work behaviours. The authors examine the relations between job satisfaction and innovative work behaviour and each of its sub-dimensions: idea generation, promotion and realisation. Additionally, the authors explore the potential moderating effects of openness to experience and conscientiousness on the relations between job satisfaction and innovative work behaviour and each of the sub-dimensions of innovative work behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Paper-based questionnaires were used to collect data from employees in 28 SMEs located in the Aargau region of Switzerland. All the SMEs were part of the high-tech manufacturing industry. The authors’ hypothesized model was tested using hierarchal regression analysis on a sample of 125 employees. Findings Job satisfaction was positively related to innovative work behaviour and to each of its sub-dimensions: idea generation, promotion and realisation. Openness to experience moderated the relationships between job satisfaction and innovative work behaviour and job satisfaction and the sub-dimensions idea generation, idea promotion and idea realisation. However, conscientiousness did not moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and innovative work behaviour, nor between job satisfaction and each of the sub-dimensions of innovative work behaviour. Practical implications Findings demonstrate that supportive work environments in SMEs which help develop job satisfaction among employees can have positive effects on the discretionary performances of employees. Originality/value Studies that examine relationships between job satisfaction and innovative work behaviours in SMEs are extremely sparse. This study makes novel contributions to this line of inquiry by examining how job satisfaction relates to each of the three sub-dimensions of innovative work behaviour and by exploring the potential moderating roles of two important personality traits in these relationships.

External shocks have severely affected the aviation sector with detrimental impacts on airport service employees. Service-sector organizations tend to implement radical organizational change to survive and front-line managers face often-opposing demands. This study aims to shed light on how front-line managers cope by utilizing social exchange-based strategies during radical organizational change. This study uses an exploratory qualitative design and thematically analyses data obtained from 40 semi-structured interviews with senior managers, front-line managers and employees working for an airline services provider operating in a major international airport in Australia. The study finds that front-line managers employ several social exchange approaches to overcome the paradoxical challenge of facilitating change while maintaining current operations. We find evidence of four approaches that the front-line managers utilize that are based on social exchange: (1) building relationships with clients’ representatives; (2) utilizing relationships with experienced employees to facilitate radical organizational change practices; (3) rewarding employees in exchange for helping to manage personnel shortages; and (4) motivating employees by various morale-enhancing techniques. The study contributes to organizational sustainability and change research by developing a deeper understanding of the importance of social exchange in facilitating the work of front-line managers in the airport services sector.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of job embeddedness (JE) theory to employees in manufacturing SMEs in Central Java, Indonesia, and to qualitatively assess the transferability of the JE framework and its measure to these distinctive contexts. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 42 employees from 13 SMEs. The JE framework informed development of the interview questions, which focussed on participants’ lived experiences. Thematic analysis of the textual data was conducted. Findings Distinctive characteristics of SMEs, such as resource constraints and managerial informality, and cultural factors influenced employees’ perceptions of the forces that embedded them in their jobs. For example, participants perceived the psychological costs associated with severing ties with co-workers as a more salient embedding force than the material costs associated with leaving a job. Additionally, lack of job fit was not an important turnover determinant, because work was perceived as a duty or obligation, rather than a personal choice. Research limitations/implications The findings imply that the JE framework and its measure only partially explain why employees stay in manufacturing SMEs in Central Java. Accordingly, the original JE scale items would need to be significantly modified to accurately assess employees’ levels of embeddedness in Indonesian manufacturing SMEs. Originality/value Limited research has examined how SME owner-managers can retain key employees, particularly in Indonesia. This study contributes to an understanding of factors that embed employees in the cultural context of Indonesia and enhances our understanding of how JE theory operates in SMEs.

In the existing literature, there is a lack of consensus among scholars within different research disciplines on the meaning and particularly essential elements of a profession. Consensus would be beneficial to the ongoing debates relating to the notion of a 'profession', and related concepts such as 'professionalisation' and 'professionalism', within the new social systems and organisational work context. To address this limitation of the literature, this paper aims to develop and propose a multidisciplinary understanding of the meaning and essential elements of a profession. To accomplish this aim, we draw on the disciplines of psychology, management and sociology and integrate these diverse perspectives to extend prior theorisations. Implications of our integrative analyses for advancing profession-related research and practice are discussed.

Many sectors worldwide have been impacted by government restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, restrictions on travel have resulted in major losses for organizations operating within the aviation sector. This study aims to emphasize the challenges faced by these organizations while they implement turnaround management strategies. The study is based on 30 semi-structured interviews with frontline managers working for airline service providers in three different departments of an airport in Australia. The organization has implemented several turnaround management strategies to survive the crisis caused by COVID-19 restrictions, creating new challenges for its work environment. Our findings indicate that the frontline managers faced two main challenges during and after the implementation of turnaround management strategies. First, inadequate human resources, caused by a lack of personnel resources and poor leadership selection. Second, a lack of communication, caused by excluding frontline managers from the turnaround management planning stage; poor sharing of information during the implementation stage; inadequate direction of frontline managers; and a lack of feedback channels regarding the change process. Based on its findings, the study recommends building a frontline manager task force and creating a strategic communication plan for frontline and senior managers.

Employee participation in formal and informal learning is essential for the economic viability and competitive advantage of organizations. Therefore, assessing outcomes of competence development activities is important. However, this domain of human resources (HR) practice is often neglected because of factors that are not well understood. Accordingly, this article addresses the question: What factors enable and inhibit HR professionals in assessing outcomes of competence development activities and initiatives? To answer this question, we conducted a review of articles that examine assessment of outcomes of competence development activities. The primary purpose of the review was to identify and categorize enabling and inhibiting factors so that the factors can be better understood by researchers and HR professionals. We also call upon voices from the field, using quotations from HR professionals to illustrate enabling and inhibiting factors. Analysis and synthesis of the literature informed the development of propositions to guide future research.

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether participation in training and development (T&D) events is associated with employees’ affective commitment and propensity to enact innovative behaviours in small professional services firms. The study also investigates associations between both attitudes towards T&D and policy and practice supportive of T&D and levels of participation in T&D events. Design/methodology/approach Data from 203 employees in small professional services firms employing 50 or fewer staff were analysed using regression analysis and PROCESS macro. Findings Only policy and practice supportive of T&D was associated with participation levels. Participation in T&D events was positively related to affective commitment. Furthermore, employees who participated in more T&D events were more likely to enact innovative behaviours, while affective commitment mediated the positive relationship between number of T&D events attended and innovative behaviours. Contrary to expectations, neither participation in just training nor participation in just development was associated with either attitudes or behaviours. Practical implications The findings have important implications for small firms which tend to rely on wholly work-based experiences for the development of employees’ knowledge and skills. Such an approach to learning for work may inadvertently shape a workforce that lacks commitment to the organisation and that has a diminished capacity for innovative behaviours. Originality/value There is limited research on how T&D affects attitudes and behaviours in small firms. Large and small firms are fundamentally different, thus findings from studies in large firms may not extend to small firms.

Purpose There is an absence of research examining job embeddedness in SMEs. Results of job embeddedness studies may not apply to SMEs, because the process of managing a SME differs from that of the large firm. The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between on-the-job embeddedness, as well as each of its sub-dimensions, and turnover intentions; and group cohesion, on-the-job embeddedness and turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 147 employees in SMEs located in Perth, Western Australia and 350 employees from SMEs operating in four business centres in South Africa. After invariance testing, data from the two countries were combined to increase statistical power of the analysis. Findings On-the-job embeddedness and each sub-dimension were negatively related to turnover intentions. Group cohesion was positively related to composite on-the-job embeddedness. Findings suggest that while group cohesion on its own does not reduce turnover intentions, it does contribute to development of on-the-job embeddedness that, in turn, reduces turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications Future research should control for the effects of external influences on turnover intentions. Findings imply that managerial actions related to antecedents of group cohesion could foster the on-the-job embeddedness of employees. Originality/value This study is perhaps the first that tests the operation of on-the-job embeddedness in SMEs located in two countries. The conceptual arguments for links between each of the sub-dimensions of on-the-job embeddedness and turnover intentions are based on distinctive characteristics of SMEs and can serve as a theoretical foundation for future research on embeddedness in SMEs.

Small businesses are characterised by resources constraints; therefore, their managers need to know the exact nature of additional benefits, beyond knowledge and skill acquisition, that might accrue from employee participation in different types of learning activities. However, research that simultaneously examines the attitudinal and behavioural outcomes of opportunities to participate in formal and informal learning activities is sparse, especially in small businesses. The present study addresses this area of neglect by exploring associative relationships between opportunities for employees to participate in (1) formal learning activities and (2) informal learning activities and three important work-related outcomes: affective commitment, innovative behaviours, and work engagement. Data from 203 respondents in small professional services businesses were analysed and the results provide preliminary evidence that opportunities to participate in each type of learning activity are associated with differing outcomes. Opportunities to participate in formal learning activities were positively associated with heightened levels of affective commitment, work engagement, and innovative behaviours, while opportunities to participate in informal learning activities were positively related to work engagement. We provide suggestions for future research and outline practical implications of our analysis.

Assessing the Effects of Competence Development and Learning Activities : An Increasingly Important Task for HR Professionals?