The transitioning of veterans, specifically as mature workers, from the "military world" to the "civilian world," and by extension, the civilian workforce is the ultimate career transition. Despite their motivation and resilience, veterans still encounter a multiplicity of challenges when transitioning to the civilian…

Research demonstrates that white privilege and racism have a direct impact on the success of businesses and the economy (Updegrave, Byrd, and Leuchter, 1989). Furthermore, organizations that are effective in integrating diversity experience increased organizational viability and profitability. Employees' intentions and actions of engaging in the…

Organizational life evokes joy, hate, anger, despair, curiosity, and esteem, yet as far as management is concerned, emotions are disruptive, dysfunctional, and derailing. In spite of managerial reluctance to embrace the emotional self as a relevant aspect of the worker, emotion makes everyone human, and organizations weigh on workers' emotional…

Refutes arguments against professional certification for human resource development, such as lack of common knowledge base, restriction of labor supply, and administrative/regulatory issues. Presents positive implications of certification for individuals, organizations, and the field. (SK)

Traces the development of adult education and human resource development, as well as the burgeoning of workplace learning. Raises issues related to nomenclature, knowledge base, professionalization, and the learning organization. (SK)

Human resource development (HRD) is an evolving system, a confluence of disciplines with its own professional identity. Understanding HRD as an evolving system enables professional practice and theory development to emerge within the context of existing taxonomies. (SK)

Without a solid theory and research base, human resource development will never become a valid field of study and a profession. The rise in academic programs with graduates trained in research may improve the situation. (SK)

A reflective practitioner is a problem solver who develops theories anchored in a practitioner's ways of knowing. Reflective practice is a significant means of contributing to the knowledge base of adult education and human resource development. (SK)

The purpose of human resource development (HRD) should be to improve individual performance so that it contributes directly to organizational performance goals. Performance-focused HRD has no room for blind application of interventions or poorly conceived programs. (SK)

A holistic approach to individual development within the context of a learning organization produces well-informed, knowledgeable, critically-thinking adults whose decisions contribute to organizational prosperity. From a systems perspective, valuing development only if it contributes to productivity is counterintuitive. (SK)

Human resource development has been framed within a market model with economic aims and purposes. Reconceptualizing it as a form of adult education, which has a democratic and social justice tradition, can better serve an emerging participatory, democratic workplace. (SK)

Professional licensure of human resource development practitioners is problematic for several reasons: lack of regulatory control, diversity of the field, divisiveness of licensure, inadequate evaluation procedures, and lack of need. A less formal approach emphasizing individual freedom, democratic peer review, and a free market is more…

Contrasts definitions of workplace learning and human resource development and addresses emerging issues that affect the field: professionalization, increased litigation, diffusion, technology, globalization, and reengineering. (SK)

Organizations learn when they embed new practices and values and make real changes. Organizational learning must address group tendencies toward helplessness and conformity. Individuals still bear responsibility for monitoring what is learned. (SK)

The lukasa, an African mnemonic device, illustrates the way in which individual meaning-making enables adults to interpret and shape organizational meaning-making. This may be limited by power abuses, lack of learning skills or developmental capacity, and the changing social contract. (SK)