Rama Hart

This study aims to examine participants' experiences with adopting a virtual reality (VR)-based curriculum and their perceptions of the curriculum's effectiveness. Recent studies demonstrated the efficacy of VR-based curricula for educational training. However, research on utilizing VR to promote understanding of educational inclusion remains understudied. We conducted a mixed-methods case study to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) survey, in-depth interviews, and a focus group. We identified several themes that pose challenges and create opportunities for the participants. The challenges include access, physical adjustment, avatar design, pacing, and human connection. We examined the promises from three additional categories: technology affordances, impacts, and human-centered design strategies. Overall, VR-based inclusive curriculum could contribute to positive learning and boost engagement. The research findings can contribute to an understanding of participant acceptance and perceptions of VR as a platform for learning about sensitive and inclusive topics.

This study aims to examine participants' experiences in adapting a virtual reality (VR)-based curriculum on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and their perceptions of the effectiveness of the curriculum and outcomes. Utilizing a mixed-methods case study approach, the research team collected quantitative and qualitative data using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) survey, in-depth interviews, and a focus group. We identified several themes that pose challenges and create -opportunities for the participants. The challenges include access, physical adjustment, avatar, pacing, and human connection. We examined the promises from three main themes: technology affordances, impacts, and human-centered design strategies. Drawn from Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and TAM to further analyze the data, we concluded that VR-based DEI curriculum could contribute to positive learning and boost engagement. We further provide specific recommendations for VR integration. The research findings can contribute to understanding participant acceptance and perceptions of VR as a platform for learning sensitive diversity, equity, and inclusion topics.

This case study tells the story of the Ford Motor Company’s assembly operations in Minnesota spanning nearly a century. During this time, the Twin Cities Assembly Plant navigated waves of change: Industrialization, wars, depression, labor unrest, and globalization. These external forces influenced Ford’s approach to business and management and what happened at the plant. In turn, the plant shaped the community in which it was embedded. This case provides a platform for students to explore the history of management thinking over the past century.

Given the unprecedented rise in global business, growing cultural diversity in micro and macro environments, and the complex issues of dominance, marginalization, and power, critiques of cross-cultural management are more important than at any other period in the young history of the field. Critiques of cross-cultural management are based subjective and radical change paradigms of analysis, and center on three main areas: the overreliance on Western models of management, oversimplification and generalization of cultural differences, and a lack of attention to power differences and structural inequality. This entry provides a high-level overview of the critiques and their relevance to cross-cultural management research.

The Problem.
Leaders and members of virtual teams do not always have the opportunity to seek training and development to overcome the challenges of being culturally and geographically distant, nor the serendipitous exchanges afforded by proximity to work associates who might provide mentoring for personal or professional guidance. How then might organizations and human resource development (HRD) professionals foster relationships that are supportive in nature, considered critical for many outcomes associated with individual and leadership development and virtual team success?
The Solution.
Drawing on the theoretical perspective that communication is constitutive of social, psychological and organizational realities, a conceptual model was developed through an interpretive study. The model highlights how informal developmental relationships emerge, what type of communication constitutes these relationships, and the impact they have on leaders and members of virtual work teams.
The Stakeholders.
The results of this study have implications for leaders and members who work virtually and for HRD professionals seeking strategies to create and improve informal developmental relationships through the medium of virtual work team communication. Opportunities exist for researchers to explore the effectiveness and outcomes of building developmental relationships in virtual contexts.

The problem and the solution. In this conceptual article, emotional intelligence (EI) is critiqued, particularly as a resource for leadership development. Ultimately, this article seeks to answer the question: What should human resource development (HRD) professionals know and reflect on as they consider the use of EI instruments and interventions in leadership development? The transmutation of emotions in organizations from negative and irrational to a positive attribute of successful leaders is traced, demonstrating how emotions have traditionally been mobilized in organizations to achieve instrumental goals. The following questions are explored: Is there one accepted model of EI? What are the instruments and measures for EI? Is there a definitive association between EI and leadership effectiveness? What issues are raised by generalizing EI abilities and competencies across cultures or in multicultural contexts? How might EI training enable leaders to abuse power D6more skillfully to achieve personal or organizational ends? In conclusion, suggested areas of concern for HRD practitioners are raised, and alternative ways to include increased awareness of emotions in leadership development are discussed.

This chapter aims at examining, through a case study, student perceptions of interactive learning activities based on the experiential learning model in Second Life (SL). Undergraduate students in an Honors Program reflected on their learning experiences in a blended learning course that took place both in person and in SL for four weeks. Student reflections on two main learning tasks: discussion about assigned readings and SL field trips which include simulating and gaming, were recorded in weekly journals. Sixty journal entries were the data source for coding. Student experiences of the learning tasks are predominately positive with some challenges. Positive views include: excitement, enhanced confidence, motivation for learning, and increased knowledge. Challenges were mostly due to technical issues. Instructor interventions, including ground rules for online conversation and tech support, were important in minimizing barriers to student learning in virtual worlds.

An increasing number of organizations have established presences in Second Life or virtual worlds for organizational learning. The types of activities range from staff training, annual meetings, to leadership development and commercial transactions. This chapter reviews relevant literature on how virtual worlds, especially Second Life, are utilized for organizational learning. The discussions include leveraging the affordances of virtual worlds for learning, integrating design principles of 3D immersive learning, and examining examples of actual workplace learning in virtual worlds. Specific emphasis will be placed on the translation of applicable learning theories into the pedagogical design of virtual worlds. Furthermore, the chapter examines student perspectives of an actual course on immersive learning that took place in Second Life. Student perspectives are summarized in six strands: challenging and informative learning, engagement, activity structures, transformation, collaborative and democratic participation, and new opportunities. The six themes are important factors for designers of 3D learning environments to ensure quality immersive learning experiences.

This paper reviews Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and its potential contribution to creating classrooms desired by all participants. It addresses the question of personal contribution to the creation of that which is identified by those responsible for its creation. A brief review of AI's history and the fundamental ideas behind its practice is followed by a detailed step-by-step approach of how it is applied to a graduate class in Leadership and Management Development. The exercise is situated in the context of student directed learning and the positive possibilities of this exercise in students' lives. Statistical analysis of a survey created from the identified outcomes is presented. The survey was administered on two occasions over the semester to measure the extent to which the class had accomplished the ideals, and a self-report of students' contribution to that achievement. Results show a significant relationship between those items that are deemed high priority for the course and students' assessment of achievement and their contribution to that achievement. Conclusions and implications are included with some questions posed for further research and practice.