Reframing HRD: insights from research on the development of exemplary managers

This article questions the common wisdom of the HRD profession by comparing it to the results from six studies on the important developmental and learning experiences of successful managers. Managers in the studies tell us that although planned formal and informal employer‐based training and school‐based training contributed to their development, much of their learning occurred outside of the areas of planned institutional control. Instead such factors as challenging job experiences and assignments, relationships with peers and bosses, learning in the community, family upbringing, personal life experiences, characteristics of the organisational environment, and specific strategies for learning from experience were named as contributors. According to these findings, we are investing all of our targeted resources in only apart of managerial learning and development. Weargue that it is difficult to address these other areas because we view humans as a resource to control for the purpose of maximising profit and enhancing economic development. The result of this reductionistic view of human resources is that our practice is neither cost nor time effective. The implications for HRD practice and research are discussed.     

Banking on the Present: The Ontological Rhetoric of Neo-Classical Economics and Its Relation to the 2008 Financial Crisis

This essay performs a rhetorical criticism of neo-classical economics, with particular attention to its methodological influence on a number of faulty mathematical models that lay at the epicenter of the 2008 financial crisis. Going beyond Goodnight and Green's mimetic conception of economic rhetoric, which positions rhetoric as a site of mediation between symbolic and material spirals, we argue that the rhetoric of neo-classicism is best understood as an “apparatus” that attempts to suture two ontologically incommensurable conceptions of time that we term intensive and extensive. We further argue that the hinge of this rhetorical apparatus centers on a kairotic tactic of arbitrage, which theoretically posits, at the same time that it negates, ontological market failure. We end by exploring rhetorical alternatives to neo-classical economics that take the internally contradictory structure of arbitrage to its emergent conclusions.     

Physiological responses to maximal intermittent exercise: Differences between endurance‐trained runners and games players

Abstract

Six games players (GP) and six endurance‐trained runners (ET) completed a standardized multiple sprint test on a non‐motorized treadmill consisting often 6‐s all‐out sprints with 30‐s recovery periods. Running speed, power output and oxygen uptake were determined during the test and blood samples were taken for the determination of blood lactate and pH. Games players tended to produce a higher peak power output (GP vs ET: 839 ± 114 vs 777 ± 89 W, N.S.) and higher peak speed (GP vs ET: 7.03 ± 0.3 vs 6.71 ± 0.3 m s^‐1, N.S.), but had a greater decrement in mean power output than endurance‐trained runners (GP vs ET: 29.3 ± 8.1% vs 14.2 ± 11.1%, P < 0.05). Blood lactate after the test was higher for the games players (GP vs ET: 15.2 ± 1.9 vs 12.4 ± 1.7 mM, P < 0.05), but the decrease in pH was similar for both groups (GP vs ET: 0.31 ± 0.08 vs 0.28 ± 0.08, N.S.). Strong correlations were found between peak blood lactate and peak speed (r = 0.90, P < 0.01) and between peak blood lactate and peak power fatigue (r = 0.92, P<0.01). The average increase in oxygen uptake above pre‐exercise levels during the sprint test was greater for endurance‐trained athletes than for the games players (ET vs GP: 35.0 ± 2.2 vs 29.6 ± 3.0 ml kg^‐1 min^‐1 , P < 0.05), corresponding to an average oxygen uptake per sprint (6‐s sprint and 24 s of subsequent recovery) of 67.5 ± 2.9% and 63.0 ± 4.5% VO ₂ max respectively (N.S.). A modest relationship existed between the average increase in oxygen uptake above pre‐exercise values during the sprint test and mean speed fatigue (r = ‐0.68, P < 0.05). Thus, the greater decrement in performance for the games players may be related to higher glycolytic rates as reflected by higher lactate concentrations and to their lower oxygen uptake during the course of the 10 sprints.     

Accidental achievers? International higher education,class reproduction and privilege in the experiences of UK students overseas

To date, scholarship on international students has generally focused on flows from non‐western economies to the main English‐speaking destination countries (such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia). In contrast, we draw on a qualitative study of 85 UK students who have either completed or are considering undertaking a degree programme overseas. We found that, in opposition to a common image of ‘international students’, UK students are not overtly motivated by ‘strategic’ concerns. Instead, they are seeking ‘excitement’ and ‘adventure’ from overseas study and often use the opportunity to delay the onset of a career and prolong a relatively carefree student lifestyle. Despite these ostensibly ‘disinterested’ objectives, however, UK students remain a highly privileged group and their experiences serve only to facilitate the reproduction of their privilege. The paper calls for a more critical analysis of the spatially uneven and socially exclusive nature of international higher education.     

Close enough but not too far: Assessing the effects of university-industry research relationships and the rise of academic capitalism

Analysts assessing the impact of university-industry research relations (UIRRs) and increasing proprietary behavior on the part of universities often focus on single-indicators or adopt promotional or critical stances. However, assessing impacts of shifts toward a more proprietary university is inherently complex because of potential countervailing or mediating factors within working relationships. From interviews with 84 biological scientists at nine universities we find scientists view UIRRS and university intellectual property (IP) policies in complex and often conflicting ways. For example, university scientists believe UIRRs are valuable for increasing contact with scientists, but are problematic because working with industry can restrict communication among scientists. Also scientists believe university IP policies should shield their work from opportunistic behavior and at the same time be designed to attract industry partners. In addition scientists believe universities use their IP policies primarily as revenue raising vehicles and secondarily to address public good issues such as technology transfer.