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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare internal and external job mobility (quits and promotions) as separate mechanisms for workers improving earnings and job fit. Design/methodology/approach: The authors sample the core workforce from the British Household Panel Survey, estimating the effects of quits and promotions on two sets of outcomes. The first is subjective; satisfaction with work, pay and hours. The second is objective realities about the job; gross monthly pay and weekly working hours. The authors use linear fixed-effects estimation to control for individual heterogeneity. Findings: Quits and promotions are distinctly different mechanisms for improving earnings and job fit. Quits improve measures of job fit (satisfaction with work, pay and hours) but have little effect on earnings. Internal promotions bring earnings growth but have little effect on job fit. The findings shed light what drives "voluntary" mobility; internal mobility may be driven by higher "reservation wages" and career progression, while external mobility may be driven by job matching and the need to find more appropriate work. Social implications: Researchers should treat mobile labour markets with scepticism. The growth of "boundaryless careers" may closer resemble a release valve for poor working conditions in a varied market than a growth in new opportunities for earnings and career progression. Originality/value: Studies of job mobility overwhelmingly focus on the effects quitting without explicitly comparing this mobility to promotions. This omission gives an incomplete picture of mobility. Bringing promotions back into the discussion, helps to understand why workers commit to internal careers and firm tenure. The paper shows that quits and promotions yield distinctly different outcomes for core workers, despite both mobility types being labelled "voluntary". Thus, the authors show that inequality in earnings and working conditions is closely tied to access to the "life-chances" of mobility; those who are able to pursue promotion are rewarded objectively; those who quit for a new employer seek a better job fit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Workplace thriving is a psychological state that promotes employee health and development. In addition to presenting a useful instrument that captures the nature of a thriving work life in China, the purpose of this paper is to investigate important factors that influence one's thriving status within this national context. Design/methodology/approach: Using diverse approaches across different samples, Study 1 contextualized the content of a workplace thriving scale (WTS) to fit the Chinese context. Study 2 tested the effects of learning goal orientation, exploration at work and role ambiguity on workplace thriving, employing a mediation model. As a supplement, Study 3 examined the test–retest reliability of workplace thriving. Findings: Study 1 confirmed that in the Chinese setting, workplace thriving is a higher order construct represented by both a sense of learning and a sense of vitality. Study 2 found that learning goal orientation and exploration at work fostered thriving, while role ambiguity reduced thriving. Also, exploration mediated the relationship between learning goal orientation and thriving. Study 3 verified that the WTS was reliable over time in the Chinese setting, further increasing the reliability of results from Studies 1 and 2. Originality/value: By rigorously and formally contextualizing the concept/construct of workplace thriving in China, this paper is informative for future research on thriving at work in Eastern cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Addressing low performers has been an important issue for government. The purpose of this paper is to examine what practices of performance management are effective in reducing the proportion of low performers in the US federal government. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted the binary logit regression analysis and multinomial regression analysis. Findings: Analyzing the Merit Principle Survey 2016, the authors found that the dismissal of low performing employees and the formal performance improvement plan (PIP) is the most effective in reducing the proportion of low performers. To the contrary, the within-grade-increase did not have a significant influence on the proportion of low performers. Moreover, using the performance appraisal for the purpose of reassigning employees to the position that better match employees' talent increased the number of low performers in work units. Research limitations/implications: Research limitations are as follows. First, the performance measure for this study was the percentage of employees rated as unsuccessful. Second, the pseudo-R2 indicated that the proposed model explained only the small, albeit significant, portion of the total variance in employee performance. Lastly, this study used a cross-sectional research design that may impede the validity of inference of causalities. Practical implications: According to a recent news article (Rein, 2018), Trump signed an executive order that limits the stable benefits associated with government employment such as, limiting pay associated with union work and negotiating more stringent union contracts. These measures are largely aimed at eliminating low performing employees rather than attempting to improve their performances through carefully designed training programs. Although removing low performers may be an option, the results indicate that providing assistance in order to develop employee knowledge and skills through the PIP have a comparable impact on reducing low performers. Originality/value: These findings imply that the use of performance evaluation for developmental or sanctioning purpose is more effective than reassignment or incentive purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the instrumental use of social capital regarding career growth within an organization, focusing on the mediating role of perceived competence mobilization and the moderating role of two situational variables: perceived external prestige and job insecurity climate. Design/methodology/approach: Relationships among the constructs are predicted based on relevant literature, and are tested using survey results from 324 employees working in 14 leading corporations in Korea. Findings: Results show that social capital positively influenced, via perceived competence mobilization, each of two career growth dimensions (i.e. the personal efforts to develop a career and the experience of being rewarded by the organization). In contrast, moderated path analysis indicated that perceptions of external prestige and job insecurity climate failed to moderate the indirect effect of social capital on career growth. Practical implications: In light of the instrumental use of social capital and the ensuring mechanism of competence mobilization, a detailed understanding of this effect on career growth cannot only neutralize the fears of brain drain, but is also helpful in providing possibilities for building new career development strategies. Originality/value: Although social capital has become an influential concept in social sciences, little evidence has been presented on the above relationship, particularly from the perspective of careerist orientation. This may be the first research examining how and when the influence of social capital becomes instrumental with respect to career attainment within an organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test hypotheses regarding the importance of employee preferences in explaining sticky floors, the pattern that women are, compared to men, less likely to start to climb the job ladder.Design/methodology/approach The authors use original data obtained using a survey and a vignette study in which participants had to score the likeliness with which they would accept job offers with different promotion characteristics.Findings The main findings are that young female professionals have a less pronounced preference for more demanding and less routinary jobs and that this effect is mediated by the greater risk aversion and anticipated gender discrimination among women. No gender differences were found in the relative likeliness to apply for jobs that involve a promotion in terms of job authority.Research limitations/implications The vignette method assumes that artificial settings with low stakes do not bias results. Another limitation follows from the focus on inter-organizational promotions among young professionals, which raises the question to what extent the results can be generalized to broader settings.Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on gender differences in careers by measuring the impact of employee preferences on gender differences in career decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of nurses' experience of the fulfilment of their psychological contract on their intention to leave the nursing profession and to consider employee engagement as a mediator between the fulfilment of the psychological contract of nurses and their intention to leave their profession.Design/methodology/approach The authors used a quantitative, cross-sectional research design. In total, 1,039 Australian nurses completed an anonymous online survey conducted via the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation website. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.Findings The fulfilment of promises related to interesting job content and social atmosphere were negatively associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession, and these relationships were mediated by engagement. The fulfilment of promises related to career development, financial rewards and work–life balance were not associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession.Research limitations/implications To ensure professional nurse retention, it is necessary to not just promise nurses interesting jobs and a supportive social atmosphere, but to manage nurse perceptions regarding the fulfilment of these promises.Originality/value Although there has been extensive research on nurse intention to leave their current job, the important area of nurse professional turnover has received less attention. The research highlights the importance of fulfilling expectations and promises related to interesting nurse job content that encourages nurse responsibility and autonomy as well as promises of a social atmosphere that includes co-operative relationships and good communication with colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the current role of foreign foundations in the cross-border mobility of Russian elite scientists. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is based on a combination of a quantitative survey (December 2004-February 2005) of former Russian Humboldtians and qualitative research (expert interviews in 2005 and in 2012, respectively) of Russian alumni of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation (Germany). Findings – For Russian elite researchers participating in academic mobility, in 2000s it is rather cross-border mobility’ brain circulation’ rather than “brain drain” a dominant form of academic mobility typical. Even in 2000s, western foundations still played a significant while twofold role – promoting emigration of for a small part of Russian elite researchers, on the one hand, while and getting access to top-level labs, etc. and to international academic chains of excellence for the majority of them, on the other. Coming back to the home country, affiliation with foreign foundations reduces the dependence of Russian elite researchers on hierarchical structures within the national state science system and promotes project teams and network forms of interaction their career. However, Russian scientists dependence on foreign funding affect both the scope of research and their academic status (mostly – second-level positions within research projects, etc.). Among the reasons to for leave leaving Russia it is primarily the desire to remain have closer access to their academic community and the equipment to do on the top level in research. The paper formulates some measures to foster incentives to stay in Russia and respectively to support re-emigration of elite researchers, in form of world class research labs and strengthening the motivation of senior researchers to work in the home country. Research limitations/implications – Research limitations consist in using of only one of the alumni networks of several western foundations database. Originality/value – The paper is unique as regards the empirical results; its value consists in their organizational, social and political implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Employees older than 55 years of age have a much lower share in training than other employees. The purpose of this paper is to propose that one of the reasons for this phenomenon that has not been taken into account so far is that their training is less effective. Design/methodology/approach - This paper shows that training of older employees indeed is less effective in the self-assessment of training participants. Training effectiveness is measured with respect to key dimensions such as career development, earnings, adoption of new skills, flexibility or job security. Besides age a broad range of explanatory variables is included as covariates in a large linked employer-employee data set. Findings - The paper finds that main reason for the differences in training effectiveness during the life cycle is that firms do not take into account differences in training motivation. Older employees get higher returns from informal and directly relevant training and from training contents that can be mainly tackled by crystallised abilities. Training incidence in the more effective training forms is, however, not higher for older employees. Given that other decisive variables on self-assessed effectiveness such as training duration, financing and initiative are not sensitive to age, the wrong allocation of training contents and training forms therefore is the critical explanation for the lower effectiveness of training. Originality/value - This paper therefore shows to human resource managers why old employees rate training effectiveness lower and indicates what can be done in order to improve training effectiveness of old employees. It uses a large and detailed data set entailing more than 6,000 employees from about 150 establishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze how long-run unemployment of former apprentices depends on the size of their training firm and their ability.Design/methodology/approach The authors use a large administrative data set that follows graduated apprentices during their working life. They show that training in large and medium-sized firms is associated with considerably less unemployment. This, however, may simply be the result of sorting processes, i.e. larger training firms with higher wage levels attract and choose the most able young workers. Therefore, the authors use a proxy for ability to estimate and control for the impact of ability on long-run unemployment. They assume that rank-order tournaments for the most attractive training positions take place and take into account an institutional peculiarity of the German training system, the empirically observable regional immobility of apprentices. Accordingly, they use a region-specific ranking based on training plants’ size or median wages, respectively, to proxy for apprentices’ ability.Findings The negative association between training plant size and long-run unemployment is muted but still statistically well determined even after controlling for the rank of an individual’s training firm in the local plant size distribution or the local wage distribution, respectively. Thus, the rank itself is a predictor for long-run unemployment of apprentices. The fact that the position in the local size distribution matters conditional on plant size shows that there is a local competition for training places.Practical implications Lacking mobility may increases aggregate unemployment, as mobility reduces the risk of unemployment.Social implications The results imply that supporting regional mobility of young workers, e.g., by informing them better about existing mobility subsidies and dormitories for apprentices and by creating additional mobility incentives is warranted.Originality/value This is the first study to investigate long-run unemployment of former apprentices. Furthermore, the authors develop new variables to proxy for ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify whether work-family spillovers significantly affect company managers’ determination of career goals by examining the importance of gender and formal mentoring to these managers.Design/methodology/approach The study sample consisted of 4,222 Korean managers compiled from a large-scale data set (Korean Women Manager Panel) that was collected by the Korea Women Development Institution in two waves (2009 and 2011).Findings Positive work-family spillover is positively related to managers’ career goals, whereas negative work-family spillover is negatively related to such goals. In the presence of positive work-family spillover, formal mentoring is more effective in helping male managers establish and develop career goals.Research limitations/implications The mentoring programs company managers are willing to engage in should be consistent with the gender role. Mentoring programs for female managers are moderately related to the importance of positive work experiences in establishing and developing their career goals. Therefore, to promote the career success of female managers, companies and societies must take actions to change the female managers’ perceptions of their management potentials.Originality/value Gender and formal mentoring programs influence the salience of company managers’ work and family roles, which determines the relationship between positive and negative work-family spillovers and career goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to present an e-learning system that integrates the use of concepts of virtual learning environments, personal learning environments, and social network sites. The system is based on a learning model which comprises and integrates three learning contexts for the adult learner: the formal, instructional context, the personal context for learning management, and the social peer context. The paper outlines how the Open University of the Netherlands (OUN) implemented this model in the OpenU system and has piloted this system within the field of a MSc Program in the learning sciences. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper describes the design and development of an integrated e-learning system following an ADDIE-based strategy and shows how the resulting system has been piloted. Findings -- The result of the design and development process is an integrated e-learning system that was piloted with the OUN. Research limitations/implications -- The limitations of the paper are that the paper reports only on the learner perspective. The paper does not report on the implication for faculty and staff. Additionally, a key question that needs further research is how the integrated approach will affect learner dropout rates. Originality/value -- The value of the paper is that it provides an integrated e-learning approach, bringing together the personal, formal as well as informal context into one system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this tri-sectoral comparative study is to analyze the scope and content of vocational training policies, and their practical implications and outcomes for employers and employees at three French-based companies, one in the pharmaceutical sector, the second in the consultancy and information technology sector, and the third in the automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a qualitative study and relies on a cross-fertilization of methods valorizing the triangulation approach: in-depth informal interviews with different categories of personnel, participant and non-participant observation, and documentary investigation. Findings – Our results show that though the three companies investigated rank as training friendly organizations both in terms of the level of financial investments and training densities, these statistical regularities mask significant qualitative differences. The focus, goals, opportunities and outcomes of training policies at the three firms share few common attributes. The paper goes on to propose a typology identifying three types of training organisations: skill up-dating, learning, and capability enhancing. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates that product specificities and the technology associated with it matter less than the system of work organisation and the mode of management in determining the scope and content of training programmes as well as their outcomes in matters of professional development. Whereas researchers have invariably monopolized the term of learning organizations to designate service-sector corporations, staffed by highly skilled workforces, operating at the core of the knowledge economy, our findings shows that even neo-taylorist industrial firms can justifiably qualify to be learning organizations. Finally, the paper proposes a comprehensive analytical grid to facilitate further qualitative research in the field of vocational training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the French reform of employees' access to lifelong learning by addressing the issue of the relationship between corporate training policy and employees' capability to aspire for learning. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation is based on the French linked employer-employee survey DIFES1, which allows for responses from employees and human resource management to be analysed together. From a mixed ascending hierarchical clustering, the paper highlights the different ways in which the reform was applied within firms, and identifies capability-friendly backgrounds. From bivariate probit models, it examines what factors affect employees' capability to aspire. Findings – First, the results identify 10.5 per cent of French firms as capability-friendly. Second, it reveals that the capability to aspire is even more influenced by the environment as shaped by the corporate training policy than by professional pathways, occupational groups and other determinants, whilst training experiences themselves have no influence. Third, it raises the key issue of capability for voice as a matter of fundamental importance. Research limitations/implications – Because of the cross-sectional nature of the survey, the research is not able to address the temporal dynamics of the capability to aspire, how it evolves over time. Practical implications – In contrast to political pronouncements attributing employees' lack of aspiration to a personal inclination, the results show how corporate training policies may increase employees' capability to aspire for training by making it a collective issue and provide insights to combat adaptive preferences. Originality/value – The research provides, for the first time, an understanding of the relationship between corporate training strategies and the capability to aspire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationships between promotion, development, and recognition opportunities at work and organizational commitment, and whether these relationships are moderated by the job opportunities employees have in other organizations.Design/methodology/approach An opportunity model of organizational commitment is developed based on social exchange theory and several streams of opportunity research. Factor analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses are carried out to test the hypotheses using data from 550 white-collar employees.Findings The results of the analyses show that opportunities for development and recognition are predictors of organizational commitment, that job opportunities employees have in other organizations negatively moderate the relationship between recognition opportunity at work and organizational commitment, and that promotion opportunity does not predict organizational commitment.Research limitations/implications Future researchers could study the issue in the context of other cultures using data from multiple sources.Practical implications Employers who seek to increase their employees’ organizational commitment are advised to divert their energies from struggling to create promotion opportunities for their employees to creating opportunities for development and recognition.Originality/value The study explores the under-researched concept of opportunity at work and connects several streams of opportunity research by drawing on social exchange theory as a theoretical framework. The model is the first to address the effects of opportunity and alternative opportunities on organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide better understanding of women's career advancement to top management and their future aspirations to become entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach – The paper's approach is qualitative research hermeneutic phenomenology. Findings – Women's career experiences predisposed them to find an alternate route, entrepreneurship, despite having achieved top management. Research limitations/implications – Understanding factors that successfully contribute to the development of women entrepreneurs from a career development perspective is a critical endeavor for any type of organization. This qualitative research is limited to US for-profit organizations. Originality/value – The value of this paper is that it provides a unique way to look at the career development for women from those who reached top management and their motivations to become entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the hypothesis of effort-based career opportunities as a situation in which profit maximising firms create incentives for employees to work longer hours than the bargained ones, by making career prospects depend on working hours. The paper aims to test some implications of this hypothesis using UK data. Design/methodology/approach - The empirical analysis uses the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and panel data estimators to investigate the existence of a robust correlation between working hours and workers' expected probability of promotion in the current job. Findings - The analysis shows the existence of a robust positive correlation between working time and workers' expected likelihood of promotion in the BHPS data even when controlling for several individual characteristics and for workers' unobserved heterogeneity. Research limitations/implications - Although the paper uses panel data, the BHPS does not allow for the identification of the firms in which individuals work, and therefore to control for firm fixed effects. Employer-employee datasets would have allowed a better assessment of the hypothesis. Originality/value - The paper provides a theoretical explanation for the empirically observed positive association between working time and expected promotion probability and, unlike previous papers that used pooled OLS estimates, it exploits the panel structure of BHPS data to control for individual unobserved heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence promotions of medical staff from registrar to consultant in the Scottish NHS. Design/methodology/approach - The paper addresses the question of what determines the incidence of promotion, concentrating on the impact of experience, effort and the choice of specialty in promotion outcomes. A unique panel data set is used that contains individual level information on all NHS hospital doctors in Scotland from 1991 to 2000. Probabilities of promotion are decomposed by specialty into the part attributable to the mean characteristics of the doctors in each specialty and the effect of belonging to a specialty itself. Findings - The paper estimates a panel model of promotion and identifies specialty effects on promotion. Effort in the two years before promotion is shown to have an influence on promotion probabilities. Specialties are found to exhibit considerable differences in their rate of promotion over and above the differences explained by the characteristics of the doctors in them. Originality/value - The paper examines the promotion of medical staff from registrar to consultant in the Scottish NHS during the 1990s. The paper concentrates on the impact of experience, effort and medical specialty on the probability of promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - There is now a large amount of literature on gender wage differentials, but only a few studies have examined why men and women end up in different jobs and at different levels. This paper aims to study the extent of differences in career mobility between men and women. Design/methodology/approach - The issue is analysed with the help of event history analysis based on Swedish event history data. Findings - The authors find that differences do exist in career mobility between women and men. Women's chances of getting a better job are about half those of men. However, when analysing employees with more than 12 years in education, the difference between men and women is smaller. Part of the difference between women and men is explained by family-related factors. Women spend much more time in family-related non-market activities and these factors also have a negative effect on their chances of career mobility. Originality/value - This paper is useful to those wishing to examine the extent of differences in career mobility between men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Paper examines and discusses the developments in the field of career management, bringing in the international Perspective. In particular the Paper explores career management practices in 108 Indian organizations. A factor analysis Procedure suggested five groups of Practices: formal Planning, formal active management, developmental, career stages and assessment. These are found to be associated with certain organizations, and cultural characteristics. The research has both theoretical and Practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse how company policies and strategies affect career development opportunities. Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal approach is used, combining quantitative and qualitative data. Panel quantitative data have been used to classify different career paths, and biographical interviews conducted to identify the effects of company policies on these career paths. All the employees interviewed were working in two service organisations in Barcelona (Spain): a retail company and a public transport company. Findings – The results of the analysis show that the combination of new organisational methods, along with the human resource policies developed by the companies, reduces the opportunities for promotion and also actors' degree of control over transitions. Thus, career development is mainly marked by individual characteristics (educational credentials, age and gender) which are difficult or impossible to transform, and to a much lesser extent by the resources (mostly internal training) companies provide. Originality/value – The article uses the capability approach as an analytical tool to address three specific company policies: those related to work organisation and working conditions; training; and appraisal and promotion. These policies are placed in a longitudinal perspective as a way of assessing their role in the development of workers' careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the contexts in which part-time academics pursue their professional development practices at one Lebanese higher education institution. Design/methodology/approach – A case-study was carried out at the Western Oriental University (WOU) (a pseudonym) where 23 part-timers and three full-timers (ex-part-timers) were interviewed. To triangulate the data, four of the participants were asked to participate in diary writing. In addition, document checking was carried out. The part-timers were chosen to represent the wider population of part-timers at the University. Thus, they were chosen to illustrate particular factors characterizing part-timers, such as gender, seniority, educational standing, number of work sites and type of part-time choice. Thematic and discourse analysis were used to analyze the data and investigate the contexts and their impacts on the professional development practices carried out by the participants under study. Findings – Analysis revealed that professional development efforts are greatly curtailed for the part-timers under study by the unfortunate circumstances of part-time work in general, coupled with the more specific country situation and particular university practices. Professional development practices which are essential for securing "lifetime employability" of the participants seem, as a result, to be seriously abridged, making them insecure – both in the short and long run. Originality/value – Reflecting upon the practices taking place at the WOU could be used to give an idea about the difficulties encountered by other part-timers at other universities in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The paper's aim is to examine how the relationships between career commitment, organizational commitment and intentions to leave, an indicator of worker well-being, were moderated by ease of movement and sector affiliation. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consisted of 340 knowledge workers (107 low-tech, 233 high-tech), that anonymously filled in a structured questionnaire, that included measures of organizational commitment, career commitment, perceived ease of movement, sector affiliation and intention to leave. Findings – Analysis of the questionnaires showed that organizational commitment, unlike career commitment, is related to intentions to leave regardless of other personal or structural considerations. By contrast, ease of movement and sector affiliation moderated the relationship between career commitment and intentions to leave. Practical implications – Understanding the differences between career commitment and organizational commitment, employers, especially in the high-tech sector, should advance employees' organizational commitment. Originality/value – The intention to leave one's present place of work is a widespread phenomenon, particularly among knowledge workers. Although organizational commitment as an antecedent variable appears in many turnover intention models, career commitment has been investigated much less frequently. The current study attempts to fill this gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore business students' views about using ePortfolios at Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne. It also examines the extent to which students present ePortfolios to prospective employers in applying for jobs. Design/methodology/approach - This paper draws on the literature on ePortfolio use and the role of ePortfolios in the recruitment process together with results from an online survey of Professional Development students about the use of ePortfolios and the PebblePad platform. Findings - An analysis of online responses examines student views about the usefulness of ePortfolios, the PebblePad platform, and the relevance of an ePortfolio assessment task. The findings suggest that few students use or expect to use ePortfolios beyond the assessment requirements and highlight students' polarised views about the usefulness of PebblePad. Research limitations/implications - VU's Business Faculty needs to adopt a whole-of-course approach to embedding ePortfolios in the curriculum. Practical implications - At VU, ePortfolios are promoted to students as a personal learning system and as a creative means of communicating their employability skills. The findings suggest a need to review how ePortfolios are used, promoted and assessed in VU's programs. Originality/value - EPortfolios offer a structured, digital space where students can present evidence of employability skills and reflective capacity. While VU's Business students develop an ePortfolio to showcase their skills in one mandatory subject, ePortfolios must be better promoted as offering a medium for students to develop, store, and creatively present themselves to potential employers in a whole-of-course approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to report on evaluation studies of principles of course design for interactive multimedia learning materials. Design/methodology/approach - At the Defence Academy of the UK, Cranfield University has worked with military colleagues to produce multimedia learning materials for courses on "Military Knowledge". The courses are part of Officer Career Development training for junior officers in the army. The courses were developed following clearly defined course design principles believed to be best suited for the delivery of resource-based learning materials. Evaluation studies included focus groups, interviews, questionnaires and observation studies. Findings - The overall findings suggest that the course design principles are indeed regarded by students as supportive of effective learning. Originality/value - The findings of this research are being fed back to MOD colleagues with the view to discussing how the course might be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the interplay between individual and organizational human capital investments may impact on immigrant career success Design/methodology/approach- Analysis is based on the 2003 Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (WE$) in order to determine the impact of training (both self-funded and employer-sponsored) and other human resource practices (such as training expenditure per employee, membership of a team, and job rotation) on employee career outcomes. The most basic estimate is a linear function based on immigrant and non-immigrant sub-samples of the WES. Findings- A positive relationship was found between employers' investment in training and development (as indicated by their, training expenditure per employee), and objective career success indicators (wage and promotions) for non-immigrants but not for immigrant professionals (IPs). Practical implications - The topic is timely, given the growing need to explore the relationship between the existing labour shortages emerging under the forces of globalization and the talent flow of internationally mobile and experienced professionals. In particular, as organizations strive to become more global, their ability to integrate and leverage the international expertise, language knowledge and networks that IPs bring with them is paramount. Originality/value - The study is original and makes a unique contribution because it combines the individualistic and organizational perspectives concerning the stock and flow of human capital with regard to immigrant professionals. While most research to date has focused on the individualistic approach and on capital investments made by the immigrant, the study addresses the equally important organizational perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the role of career-enhancing strategies (CESs) as mediators of the relationship between situation-centred characteristics (e.g. career prospects) and subjective career success. CESs included self-nomination, networking behaviour and consultation with mentors. Subjective career success was measured using two criteria, intrinsic job success and perceived career success. Questionnaire data was collected from 283 full-time support personnel in the UK Results provided partial support for the mediating role of CESs between situational characteristics and subjective career success. Specific CESS played a mediating role in the relationship between specific situation-centred variables and intrinsic job success. Self-nomination and networking played a mediating role between career prospects and intrinsic job success. Networking also played a mediating role between security and intrinsic job success. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, together with avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]