Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe the emerging business discipline of organizational network analysis and its potential as a tool to guide efforts in creating awareness of where knowledge exists in an organization and how this expertise can be best tapped by an organization's workforce. Specific initiatives and activities that…

Human resource development is conceptualized here in terms of levels of action: representations, experience, relations, and communities. Functionality is taken as a hallmark of good human resource development in these. Yet reflecting on what works, and on innovations in human resource development, factors other than those associated with…

Current literature suggests that for sustained competitive success, organizations must have processes in place for continuous learning and adaptation. Any process, then, that appears to hinder agility should come under scrutiny. Examination of socialization theories revealed an intended outcome of perpetuating the organization's way of life, its…

The article presents a theoretical analysis of the concept of reflection. The author argues in favour of the necessity of conceiving the concept of reflection in a broad sense, and not using the concept in the meaning of introspection. To grasp reflection in its complexity and as a core process in organisational learning it is necessary to…

Coaching has received considerable attention in recent years as the responsibility for employees' learning and development has been increasingly devolved to line managers. Yet there exists little published empirical research that measures specific coaching behaviors of line managers or examines the linkages between line managers' coaching behavior…

An international comparison study investigated the organisation and management of continuing higher education (CHE) in Germany, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Austria and the United States of America. CHE is compared on the system level (boundaries between traditional study programmes and CHE, linking of CHE and vocational training,…

How to strengthen technician education to meet the needs of the biotechnology industry was the question before the 50 people who participated in the "Educating Biotechnicians for Future Industry Needs" conference from April 28 to 30 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The participants were from higher education, secondary schools, industry, government, and…

This report provides a developmental perspective on what competencies young people need to be ready for college, the workplace, and the transition to adulthood. National hand-wringing about the lack of preparedness of high school graduates for college and the workplace has catalyzed researchers, educators, and policymakers to define the skills and…

In the future, businesses will demand workers with higher-level skills and more education. Community colleges are key providers of career and technical training as well as traditional academic education. These colleges can also play important roles in the one-stop system created by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), through which a variety of…

This paper is concerned with the relationship between trade unions and learning in the workplace, particularly in relation to the enhancement of worker employability profiles. With the restructuring and modernising of the European steel industry as its context, this paper argues that the organisational and structural features of a sector have a…

This report on the nexus between postsecondary education and workforce development discusses the question of how California's colleges and universities address the state's need for a highly educated and skilled workforce. It includes a detailed review of the systems and their roles, and considers issues regarding how those roles are being carried…

Current business and educational environments are mandating the identification, building, and assessment of specific critical competencies for the workforce. However, traditional approaches to competency analysis are often slow, expensive, and backward looking. This article presents several new computer-aided approaches to competency analysis and…

Firms with the ability to provide superior customer service can accrue significant competitive advantage and research suggests that frontline service employees' (FLSEs) actions have a considerable influence on the success of service operations. Yet, the high level of customer defections consistently attributed to poor and indifferent service…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

This annual report shows the breadth and scope of the work achieved on behalf of the students across New Mexico. This document is a reflection of the commitment from the higher education and public education communities as well as that of the New Mexico Higher Education Department to further educational and professional opportunities for every…