Human Resource Development Category

New eyes

March 9, 2025 When the wheels touched down in Baton Rouge on the evening of February 22nd, it marked my return from my second trip to DC in 2025. I had also been to Southeast Asia twice since the year began. While travel can bequeath “new eyes,” as Marcel Proust famously wrote, it can also […]

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Is it spring yet? Updates on a full winter.

March 9, 2023 In my mind’s eye, winter is supposed to be the calm part of the year where I stay indoors and store up energy for a busy spring. Not this year. The year 2022 turned into the year 2023 while we were in Pittsburgh visiting family. I flew there with the kids while […]

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Recent work in Southeast Asia

19 January 2022 I’ve been fortunate to continue academic work in Southeast Asia despite (or because of) the global pandemic. Some of this has been the result of publishing my book, Developing human resources in Southeast Asia: A holistic framework for the ASEAN Community, which came out in September and has given me additional visibility […]

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HRD in Southeast Asia – 25 May 2021

Hi all, Apologies for the hiatus. I wrapped up my book manuscript on Developing Human Resources in Southeast Asia on May 1 and have been playing catch up. That said, there has been a lot going on in the world of HRD in Southeast Asia in the last couple of months. Labor protections for gig […]

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HRD in Southeast Asia – 26 February 2021

Hi all, Lots of exciting things happening in the world of HRD in Southeast Asia. First of all, last week was the Academy of Human Resource Development annual conference, which was held virtually this year. I spoke on a panel coordinated by Gary McLean on HRD contextualization in Vietnam. I also presented a paper along […]

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HRD in Southeast Asia – 27 January 2021

Happy New Year, everyone. I’d like to share a series of posts related to human resource development (HRD) in Southeast Asia and ASEAN as a newsletter of sorts to collect updates, articles, thoughts, and resources related to HRD in the region. The advice to “write what you’d like to read” is my inspiration. As one […]

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Finding Meaning at AHRD in Louisville

Last week was the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) International Conference in the Americas in Louisville, KY. What a great conference! I’m so thankful for our warm and rigor-focused community in the Academy. This was my 4th AHRD conference in the Americas but it was my first time attending as a full-time faculty member […]

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What the heck is employee engagement?

We live in the age of personal branding where everyone is trying to find their niche, make their mark, and create something never before seen. Academia is not immune to this annoying tendency. A somewhat recent trend has revolved around the idea of engagement in the workplace. It seems there is a tangled list of […]

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Controversies That Shaped the Field of Human Resource Development

The title of this post comes from a recent article by Darlene Russ-Eft at in the Association for Human Resource Development‘s (AHRD) journal Advances in Developing Human Resources, or “Advances” for short. I thought it was worth reflecting on the controversies that shaped the field of HRD because they tend to resurface throughout my reading […]

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Conference: Asia-MENA AHRD Conference 2016

8 November 2016 This weekend I returned from nine days in Morocco for the 2016 AHRD Conference in Asia and MENA. The conference itself was November 2-4 in Ifrane, Morocco, which is known as the Switzerland of Morocco. In the picture above (courtesy of Dollaya Hemmapattawe who is far left in the picture), a group […]

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