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As human resource development (HRD) research and practice has flourished, researchers have called for new theoretical perspectives that might be brought to bear on increasing the effectiveness of HRD initiatives (e.g. Nolan & Garavan, 2016). In this chapter, we suggest how optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer, 1991) could be applied to HRD. Optimal distinctiveness theory is a social psychological theory with roots in social identity theory that addresses individuals’ propensity to identify with groups. We present the results of an empirical study involving members of organisational work groups and discuss how HRD interventions could benefit from considering how individuals’ identification with a work group can be affected by optimal distinctiveness and the composition of the work group (age and functional backgrounds represented in the group). Based on these findings, we impart practical advice about composing work groups, including ensuring that young group members and those with few identities are placed in groups in which they share commonalities with other members and also maintain some distinctiveness from members. In addition, we discuss how the tenets of optimal distinctiveness theory have both research and practical implications for HRD.

As human resource development (HRD) research and practice has flourished, researchers have called for new theoretical perspectives that might be brought to bear on increasing the effectiveness of HRD initiatives (e.g. Nolan & Garavan, 2016). In this chapter, we suggest how optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer, 1991) could be applied to HRD. Optimal distinctiveness theory is a social psychological theory with roots in social identity theory that addresses individuals’ propensity to identify with groups. We present the results of an empirical study involving members of organisational work groups and discuss how HRD interventions could benefit from considering how individuals’ identification with a work group can be affected by optimal distinctiveness and the composition of the work group (age and functional backgrounds represented in the group). Based on these findings, we impart practical advice about composing work groups, including ensuring that young group members and those with few identities are placed in groups in which they share commonalities with other members and also maintain some distinctiveness from members. In addition, we discuss how the tenets of optimal distinctiveness theory have both research and practical implications for HRD.

Infrastructure investment and rural economic development: An evaluation of USDA's broadband loan program. Growth and Change 41(2): 165–91. Klosterman, R.E. 1990. Community Analysis and Planning Techniques. Savage, MD: Rowman ...

We use investment-level data to study performance persistence in venture capital (VC). Consistent with prior studies, we find that each additional initial public offering (IPO) among a VC firm’s first ten investments predicts as much as an 8% higher IPO rate on its subsequent investments, though this effect erodes with time. In exploring its sources, we document several additional facts: successful outcomes stem in large part from investing in the right places at the right times; VC firms do not persist in their ability to choose the right places and times to invest; but early success does lead to investing in later rounds and in larger syndicates. This pattern of results seems most consistent with the idea that initial success improves access to deal flow. That preferential access raises the quality of subsequent investments, perpetuating performance differences in initial investments.

Poverty also means dearth, and there certainly has been a dearth of attention in the organizational sciences to the organizations that grap­ple with the problem of poverty. Study of the causes and effects of pov­erty have been central to many of the behavioral and social sciences disciplines-with the glaring exception of the organizational sciences. Only recently have scholars from the range of organizational fields begun to bring their distinctive lens and knowledge to questions of poverty (e.g., Pearce, 2005, 2007; Spreitzer, 2007). Taking the positive organizational scholarship frame has been particularly valuable to this undertaking; with its focus on taking a positive stance toward par­ticipants, toward conflicts and barriers, and its emphasis on positive spirals of change, this framing has helped the early efforts to flower into a genuine movement, as is reflected in the mature research in the four chapters in Part V of this book. These works do not focus on changing organizations themselves, but on the organizations that are struggling to effectively change some of society's intractable problems. Organizations that address poverty struggle to be effective, and these chapters demonstrate the ways organizational scientists can help these organizations, as well as advance our organizational theorizing. There can.be no social change more positive than effectively addressing the ancient scourge of poverty.

The lack of a systematic behavioral framework for empirical studies of the influence of land use on travel raises questions regarding potential statistical bias. This article presents and assesses this debate in the language of economics to clarify the terms of the arguments and their underlying analytics. It also offers a discussion of modern empirical challenges and strategies. The article develops a general integration of land use into a travel demand framework, where land use potentially affects not only out-of-pocket and time costs of both travel and goods but also can affect travel utility directly. Thus it models built environment features that affect travel and consumer goods cost, in time and money, as well as quality with a view to study these issues in a great variety of settings. Finally, it discusses associated statistical challenges of this work and then develops an empirical model of path choice.

Vivid photographs, searchable hyperlinks, numerous cross references, an extensive resource guide, and a clear, accessible writing style make the Green Society volumes ideal for classroom use as well as for research.

In this paper, we perform an extensive review of relatively recent empirical research that relates new information technology to biased thinking. Based on this review, we develop a framework that suggests a number of implicit associations (i.e., unconscious linkages between phenomena, such as “women are nurturing”) that relate new information technology to a variety of attitudes held by both organizational decision makers and average users of such information technology (e.g., “new information technology is superior to older information technology”). In turn, our framework proposes a set of three underlying beliefs about new information technology (i.e., new information technology is mysterious, non-human, and complex) that may underlie the implicit attitudes and biased thinking we identified. These underlying beliefs suggest that biases related to new information technology are distinct, in important ways, from most interpersonal biases studied in organizations. Given these findings, we suggest an agenda for future research that may enhance our ability to understand and mitigate biases related to new information technology in organizational settings.

Whenever employers hire someone they put themselves at risk. They dependon employees to act in ways that help rather than hinder the organizationand to refrain from using the information they gain to harm theiremployers. This is because employees are hired to act for their employers,making decisions and carrying out responsibilities on their behalf. Althoughall employers have ways to monitor their employees, such monitoring isexpensive and narrow in scope except in the simplest and most physical ofjobs. In addition, as the number of employees grows, employers must trustsome employees to monitor the actions of others, which leads to the questionof who watches the watchers. In other words, every employee makesan employer vulnerable.

We inductively studied the sensemaking and sensegiving processes used by industry founders in the co-formation of organizational and industry identities in the emerging industry of Service Design. Our findings illustrate how the sensemaking and sensegiving processes that revolved around the new ‘Service Design’ label allowed the two sets of industry founders to forge both distinctive organizational identities and a coherent industry identity. The new label was, thus, used as a central ‘carrier’ for both holding meanings (in terms of distinctive principles and common practices) developed through sensemaking, and for transferring these meanings respectively to organizational and industry identities through sensegiving. These insights illuminate how industry founders can address the tension between organizational distinctiveness and industry coherence in emerging industries, and have important implications for theory and future research on identity co-formation and its underlying sensemaking and sensegiving processes.

The way we live and work has changed profoundly – and so has the set of skills we need to participate fully in and benefit from our hyper-connected societies ... Our new publication series, the OECD Skills Outlook, aims to provide that picture.

Vivid photographs, searchable hyperlinks, numerous cross references, an extensive resource guide, and a clear, accessible writing style make the Green Society volumes ideal for classroom use as well as for research.

First Results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey OECD, Statistics Canada. 250250250250250 both their health and emotional status using the extreme positive categories, whereas the larger group reports their physical and mental well...