Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 27, Issue 4

Our Viewpoint for this issue, by Kevin Young, calls our attention to the learning needs of older workers. With many people feeling compelled (due to falling pensions and rising longevity) to stay in employment beyond the normal retirement age, the article makes a strong case for organizations to continue to invest in their development. One statistic that startled me – of 503 CEOs interviewed, 92 per cent said they did not invest in development for employees over the age of 60. How would your own CEO respond?

And talking of CEOs, what would you say are the key capabilities they need to have in this “post financial crash” era? Jim Tapper shares some intriguing research on the skills required of European leaders. New arrivals in the “top ten” make for very interesting reading: dealing with ambiguity; managing vision and purpose; managerial courage; perspective;listening. The full list is well worth checking out.

Swati Panda and Shridhar Dash also take a look at the attributes required of leaders but in the context of securing investment from Venture Capitalists for a new business in India. Against a backdrop of poor governance practices and fraud in Indian entrepreneurial ventures, this case study calls for a shift away from contractual mechanisms towards a focus on trust and reputation.

Moving on to learning strategies, what technological platforms do you use or plan to use within the next 12 months? New generations of mobile devices are reshaping the way people (and particularly younger people) use technology and are thereby creating challenges and opportunities for L&D professionals. André Wigley shares an exciting case study on how one global organization,Jaguar Land Rover, is making the most of new “mobile” ways to get the right information to the right person at the right time.

Our last authored article comes from Sheng-Tao Fan who brings us a literature review exploring the field of “applied theatre in corporate training”. Examples are given of its use in areas such as leadership development, emotion management and creativity and team building and the author calls for research to ascertain the degree to which behaviour changes back in the workplace.

Our review articles start with “Flexible work – but is it fair?”which looks at various forms of flexible working and some of the problems that can arise when implementing policies, albeit with good intentions. For instance,how can your business maintain a sense of fairness for employees with no caring responsibilities: those for whom there can be a feeling of bearing the brunt of other people’s concessions?

“Happiness and productivity in the workplace” provides a summary of the contribution that can be made through transformational leadership, including a useful checklist of some of the behaviours that need to be exhibited.

Finally, we move from “transformational leadership” to just plain“bad leadership”. It has long been recognised that people don’t leave good organizations, they leave bad managers and in “Rotten apples in the top jobs”, we are reminded of the human and financial cost of poor behaviour and skill level of senior leaders. Do you have managers with some of the behavioural traits of “John” and, if so, are you doing enough to challenge and support them to change?

Anne GimsonBased at Strategic Developments International, UK. E-mail: anne@stratdevint.com