Capella University Organizational Perspectives - Human Capital Management Resources - Human Capital Research

Boomer Workers…Work or Retire?

For a better retirement, workers should stay on the job a little longer, according to studies reported in a NY Times article, For a Good Retirement, Find Work. Good Luck. Stereotypes about older workers still persist.  Like most stereotypes, they are accurate in only a small percentage of cases, but can influence choices managers make.The article suggests a need to change attitudes towards older workers as well as tax and Medicare policies to favor delayed retirement.

Adult learners may have longer work-life in mind when they study for bachelors’ and graduate degrees. This article did not discuss the impact of mid-life career change into entrepreneurial, freelance, or service options such as starting a small business, consulting, writing or teaching, or joining the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps.

As a manager and/or adult learner, what do you think? How do these issues impact your organization or your career?

E-Collaboration and Global Talent Management

To successfully align talent and strategy, today’s leaders need a “global mindset.” In the cross-cultural, multi-lingual workplace where dispersed workers collaborate online, communication skills are needed at a new level. Dr. April Wall and Theresa Rich discuss their research on these questions in chapters they contributed to the forthcoming Handbook of Research on Electronic Collaboration and Organizational Synergy. The Handbook explores studies of electronic collaboration across organizations, or inter-organizational collaboration, and within organizations, intra-organizational collaboration.

April’s chapter, “Collaborating on Leadership Development: Using Technology Enhanced Collaborative Leadership Development” discusses inter-organizational collaboration while Theresa’s chapter, “Globalizing A Function Within A Company” examines intra-organizational collaboration. Both agree that online collaboration and virtual teamwork are essential to contemporary business operations. Updated leadership attitudes and skills are needed to engage and motivate talent across the organization.

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Meet April Wall

April Boyington Wall is a management consultant specializing in customized training, facilitation, mediation, and coaching for private sector, government, and nonprofit organizations across Canada and the United States. She teaches and mentors doctoral learners in Organization and Management in the School of Business and Technology.

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Meet Theresa Rich

Theresa Rich receives her doctorate from Capella University in 2008. Her dissertation is titled Becoming the Boss Whisperer: An Examination of the Relationship between Employee Follower Behaviors and Supervisor Satisfaction with Employee Performance.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: Distributed Leadership; Online Communities

A special issue of Human Technology: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Humans in ICT Environments will focus on Distributed Leadership & Online Communities. It will be edited by Niki Lambropoulos and Dr. Leslie Gadman of London South Bank University, London, UK.

Distributed Leadership and Online Communities Leadership refers to top down, bottom up, and distributed management. The key objective is to look into the importance of online communities in participatory decision making in companies and organizational and governmental institutions. The editors hope that contributions to this issue will go beyond the current state of the art by looking at future prospects and emerging applications.

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a manuscript or a 2-page manuscript proposal no later than July 31, 2008. All will be notified by August 31, 2008 about the status of their proposals. Full rough drafts are expected to be submitted by November 30, 2008 for blind peer review.

Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) to:

Niki Lambropoulos
Researcher, Online Community Architect & Business Analyst PhD student at the Centre for Interactive Systems Engineering London South Bank University London, UK e-mail: niki@lambropoulos.org

For more information see:
The Human Technology Journal site and
the editors’ facebook page.

Human Capital Analytics Report Available

How can organizations measure the value of their people and quantify intangible assets such as human capital? The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) convened a Symposium on Human Capital Analytics in October, 2007, to explore these questions. Human capital analytics are defined as: “metrics that are analyzed to create value” and lead to sound business decisions.

Symposium participants discussed uses, limits and opportunities and human capital analysis by human resources professionals. The report is now online.