Handbook of Human Resource Development

Neal F. Chalofsky

• Publisher: Pfeiffer
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781118454022
• eBook ISBN: 9781118839898
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Human Resource Development Relies Upon a Strong Educational Foundation

In the Handbook of Human Resource Development, Neal Chalofsky, Tonette Rocco, and Michael Lane Morris have compiled a collection of chapters sponsored by the Academy of Human Resource Development to address the fundamental concepts and issues that HR professionals face daily. The chapters are written and supported by professionals who offer a wide range of experience and who represent the industry from varying international and demographic perspectives. Topics addressed form a comprehensive view of the HRD field and answer a number of key questions.

• Nationally and internationally, how does HRD stand with regard to academic study and research? What is its place in the professional world?
• What are the philosophies, values, and critical perspectives driving HRD forward?
• What theories, research initiatives, and other ideas are required to understand HRD and function successfully within this field?
• As the industry grows, what are the challenges and important issues that professionals expect to face? What hot topics are occupying these professionals now?

The Handbook's insight and guidelines allows students and HR professionals to build a fundamental understanding of HRD as an industry, as a field of research, and for future professional success.

PART I
FOUNDATIONS OF THE DISCIPLINE OF HRD

Chapter One
Psychological Foundations of HRD

Thomas G. Reio, Jr., and Laura C. Batista

Florida International University

Psychology is one of the major theoretical foundations for HRD (Chalofsky, 2007; McGuire & Cseh, 2006). HRD research undergirded by psychological theory has been instrumental in exploring and testing the links between learning, performance, and change and many other variables (e.g., affect, job satisfaction, mentoring, motivation, turnover, profit) in organizations at individual, team/group, and organizational levels (e.g., Ferguson & Reio, 2010). HRD research into organizational behaviors, including employee motivation, is strongly supported by psychological theory. Exciting new research supported by psychological theories has also extended our understandings of gender, ethnic, and cultural similarities and differences in the workplace, allowing for increased sensitivity to issues of diversity and inclusion. The research, in turn, has informed more expert HRD practice in training and development, career development, and organization development activities. The focus of this chapter will be to explore the psychological foundations of HRD and its association with the major research and practice issues and trends in the field.

Innovation, based on the creative development of new products or processes, requires attendant change in workplace procedures and the training of workers to manage these procedures (Stubblefield & Keane, 1994). Thus, the more organizations invest in research and development to generate innovation and growth, the more they need to invest in training and development to maintain it. Recognizing that HRD is an applied, interdisciplinary field, theories from a number of disciplines have lent themselves to guiding better HRD research and practice to support such activity (Chalofsky, 2007).

Swanson (1995, 2001) proposed that the theoretical foundations of HRD could be best represented by systems, economic, and psychological theories within an ethical frame. In a Delphi study of HRD subject-matter experts, McGuire and Cseh (2006) found at least partial corroboration of Swanson’s work, as systems and psychological theories were found to be foundational supports in HRD, but not economic theory. Ferguson and Reio (2010) also found economic theory in the form of competitive advantage to be useful for understanding HRD’s link to high performance systems. In a more expansive view, Chalofsky (2007) also supported economic theory as being foundational to HRD, along with sociology, anthropology, management, physical science, philosophy, education, and psychology theories.

As “HRD is . . . primarily concerned with people’s performance in workplace organizations and how those people can strive to reach their human potential and enhance their performance through learning” (Chalofsky, 2007, p. 437), HRD centers then on the learning and development of individuals, groups/teams, and organizations. This learning and development is enriched through improving learning opportunities and providing processes for learning and development and positive change that serve the purpose of improving performance. Psychological theory provides a key foundation for the field of HRD, as it explains the development of employee mental processes and behaviors (Passmore, 1997).

Acknowledging the contributions of systems and economic theories for informing the HRD field (Ferguson & Reio, 2010; Lynham, Chermack, & Noggle, 2004), the focus of this chapter will be exploring the psychological foundations of HRD. In the following section we will review key psychological theories and their respective links to HRD practice: behavioral, humanistic, Gestalt, and developmental.

FOUNDATIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES AND HRD

Behavioral Psychology and HRD

A main focus of behavioral theory has been the observable change of behavior. Behavioral theory is also known as learning theory, and it remains one of the most widely accepted classes of theories in the field of psychology (Yang, 2004). In this perspective, knowledge and skills are thought to be an accumulation of each individual’s personal experiences with his or her environment. The accrued knowledge and skills and learning are useful in turn to inform better performance of daily tasks at home, school, and work. In addition, change in the behavioral tradition is not a reflection of being in a certain stage, as in cognitive development theory; rather, it is steady and incremental. We present the two most studied behavioral theories in the context of HRD: operant conditioning (e.g., Skinner) and social learning (e.g., Bandura) and how they are linked to HRD practice.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning theory regards learning that occurs via rewards or punishment for an individual’s behavior (Skinner, 1938). Immediately following a random or accidental behavior (the operant behavior), reinforcement can occur when the behavior is experienced as being satisfying or pleasurable, resulting in strengthening the behavior. There are positive and negative types of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement occurs when a desirable behavior (e.g., mentoring a newcomer without being asked) is accompanied with adding something that would be experienced as satisfying, such as giving the worker public recognition for engaging in this prosocial behavior. In contrast, negative reinforcement occurs when a desirable behavior is accompanied by taking away something that would be experienced as satisfying, such as a manager taking away mandatory Saturday work because of voluntarily serving as a mentor. In both situations, the reinforcement will strengthen the operant behavior, that is, make the voluntary mentoring behavior more likely to recur.

As for punishment, there are two types: presentation and removal. Presentation punishment involves adding something one does not like due to engaging in an undesirable behavior (e.g., incessantly “surfing the web” rather than being attentive in management training class), such as publicly embarrassing the web surfer in class. Removal punishment involves taking away something that one wants because of engaging in an undesirable behavior (like consistently being late to a management development course), for example, temporarily dismissing the individual from the management development program. In both cases, the punishments will likely decrease undesirable behavior by taking away something the individual desires, in this case career development.

Operant conditioning principles are particularly useful for shaping and increasing learning, behavior, and performance. In essence, by controlling the consequences of an employee’s behavior, the HRD professional and manager can shape an employee’s behavior. In the training classroom, better learning and performance have been associated with taking a behavioral, mastery learning approach (direct instruction is another). Mastery learning entails setting a pre-specified mastery level, such as earning an 80 percent on a learning module quiz, and allowing the learner to repeat the quiz or an equivalent at his or her own pace until mastery has been demonstrated. Such an approach involves setting clear learning objectives, deciding what constitutes acceptable mastery of stated objectives, setting well-defined goals to attain objectives, formative assessment, reinforcement of learning through feedback, and summative evaluation of success in terms of achieving learning and performance objectives (Bloom, 1971). Instructor use of such structured procedures has been shown to increase the likelihood that most learners will achieve a predetermined mastery level, but less so in fostering higher-order learning related to critical thinking and creativity (Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2004). Outside the classroom and more relevant to the typical day-to-day activities of an employee, consistent sloppy dressing behavior could be shaped by linking sloppy, inappropriate dress to a reinforcement or punishment consequence. One means a manager might try to increase the likelihood of appropriate dress might be offering sincere praise each time the employee dresses as desired (positive reinforcement); another means might be taking away something desirable like free parking privileges for a month (removal punishment).

Social Learning

Social learning theory focuses on how individuals acquire personality characteristics and social skills through observational learning or modeling. Thus, unlike operant conditioning, learning can be vicarious, with no direct instruction or shaping being required. Further, learning is no longer merely an observable change in behavior; one can learn much, but without necessarily demonstrating it. In this type of learning, the learner observes a model performing some kind of desirable behavior (making a compelling presentation) and, from close observation, subsequently learns to perform the behavior as well. The model can be either live or symbolic, that is, observed through various media like movies, books, and the Internet. The observer may or may not imitate the behavior, depending on the interest in the behavior being performed, the competence and status of the model, and gender-appropriateness. The imitators also must pay attention to the behavior being modeled, remember the information, produce the behavior, and have the motivation to perform the behavior themselves in the future. Trainers, for example, by keeping the information being taught interesting, can increase a learner’s motivation to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Foreword
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors
• Preface
• Introduction: The Profession and the Discipline
• Part I: Foundations of the Discipline of HRD
• Part II: Issues and Perspectives on HRD
• Part III: Developing the Workforce
• Part IV: Managing the Workforce
• Part V: HRD in the Organization
• Part VI: Managing HRD
• Part VII: Innovative Applications
• Part VIII: Future Directions
• Name Index
• Subject Index
• End User License Agreement