The Problem
One of the most important emerging issues in the field of human resource development is how to effectively help organizations deal with the shifting demographics in the workforce. The largest generational cohort is nearing retirement, which will result in a loss of talent, experience, and expertise. The newest generation entering the workforce is substantively different. The next 20 years will likely see a shift to new ways of working, reflecting the values of the younger generation.
The Solution
Organizational cultures that will be able to retain employees across generations need to be developed. Each generation seems to be alike in one crucial area: their desire for workplace flexibility. Middle managers need to be incented and trained to accept a culture where they maintain accountability without power and control.
The Stakeholders
Human resource development practitioners and researchers have a role in developing interventions to change organizational culture to be more flexible, thereby potentially increasing retention of valued workers across the generations.
Three leadership styles are frequently discussed in the literature today: transactional, transformational, and most recently—transcendental. Managers may be able to put transactional, transformational, and transcendental leadership style theories into practice without inventing a new set of processes and procedures to achieve individual follower optimal performance and effect positive change and optimal individual performance within an organization. The management activities of coaching, counseling, and mentoring are articulating activities for transactional, transformational, and/or transcendental leadership styles.
The potential impact of the significant loss of skills and experience as the aging workforce approaches retirement is raising concerns. The shortage of workers will be driven by the beginning retirement of the skilled cohort of Baby Boomers followed by the much smaller Generation X workforce cohort. A qualitative study of the experiences of a set of retirees who have returned to the workforce provides an insight to the needs these retirees desire to have fulfilled for them to return to the workforce. The experiences of these retirees also provide insight into the human and social capital considerations organizations can use for planning and developing programs for the retention and recruitment of older workers to meet future workforce needs.
The Problem. This article addresses the global problem of human trafficking and provides an exploratory analysis of the need for, and possible approaches to, integrating the principles of Human Resource Development (HRD) to support a solution. The Solution.The solution focuses on the integration of HRD practices in the prevention of human trafficking. The origin of human trafficking, the history of its existence, definitions, and legislative discourse are reviewed. More precisely, the notion of National HRD (NHRD) and the connection to community development is explored within the context of the human trafficking phenomenon. The Stakeholders.The key stakeholders this article seeks to inform are service providers, nongovernmental organizations, community development and HRD practitioners, and first responders. Implications for HRD practice, theory and research, as well as recommendations for future research conclude this article.
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