THE SECOND ACADEMY PRACTICE GAP COMPARING AREAS OF FOCUS OF HRD PRACTITIONER PUBLICATIONS AND ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Abstract

In this study we compared contents of more than 900 articles from practitioner-oriented human resource development (HRD) publications (the Chief Learning Officer Magazine and the Training Magazine) and of more than 200 graduate courses taught in 10 leading HRD academic programs in the U.S. Our goal was to determine whether academic programs focus on content areas that are considered important by HRD practitioners. While the gap between HRD practice and research has been discussed in numerous academic articles, the gap between practice and teaching of HRD in academic programs remains largely unexplored. We identified three areas that are of high interest to HRD practitioners, but don’t seem to be adequately covered in academic programs: Leadership and leadership development; Organizational culture and ethics; and Social learning, social networking, and social media. We discuss each of the three areas, review related literature, and reflect on the reasons for the observed discrepancy between importance of these topics in today’s workplace and attention, paid to them in academic programs. Furthermore, we discuss how design of HRD programs could be changed to address identified gaps, and outline future research directions

Keywords

• Practitioner-oriented HRD publications, HRD academic programs, gap between theory and practice

THE SECOND ACADEMY-PRACTICE GAP: COMPARING AREAS OF FOCUS OF HRD PRACTITIONER PUBLICATIONS AND ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Abstract

In this study we compared contents of more than 900 articles from practitioner-oriented human resource development (HRD) publications (the Chief Learning Officer Magazine and the Training Magazine) and of more than 200 graduate courses taught in 10 leading HRD academic programs in the U.S. Our goal was to determine whether academic programs focus on content areas that are considered important by HRD practitioners. While the gap between HRD practice and research has been discussed in numerous academic articles, the gap between practice and teaching of HRD in academic programs remains largely unexplored. We identified three areas that are of high interest to HRD practitioners, but don’t seem to be adequately covered in academic programs: Leadership and leadership development; Organizational culture and ethics; and Social learning, social networking, and social media. We discuss each of the three areas, review related literature, and reflect on the reasons for the observed discrepancy between importance of these topics in today’s workplace and attention, paid to them in academic programs. Furthermore, we discuss how design of HRD programs could be changed to address identified gaps, and outline future research directions. 

Keywords

• Practitioner-oriented HRD publications

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