First Read of Gubbins and Rousseau (2015) and RL Conference 2014.
Friday, 18 Apr 2025, 10:11
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Edited by Alfred Anate Bodurin Mayaki, Saturday, 19 Apr 2025, 12:35
Reading Gubbins and Rousseau (2015), the first thing I realised is its very critical of Government's perception of University funding, which reminded me of a few interesting examples where I had encountered first-hand how research and practice are mutually disaggregated. Then I recalled when I attended a 1-day workshop held by Recruitment Leaders Connect. Bill Boorman was the instructor for the day leading us through the presentation, bless his socks. He was a great speaker nonetheless.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sat next to Howard and Billy, who each were presenting two contrasting bits of information. Howard, how recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) was the next big thing in recruitment. and Billy who was a 360 recruiter, was outright promoting the contingent agency recruiter grind.
This then reminded me of Gubbins' and Rousseau (2015) who in their paper mention this coupled concept of translational research - where research on theory informs interventions and outcomes in practice. What's so important about this. What does it represent? How does it apply to my example of Howard and RPO at the conference I attended? and HRD in practice, more generally?
The truth is I don't yet know and I can only guestimate because there are various factors at play. Race, level of experience, cultural competences, differences and significances across time between RPO and agency work. But what I do know is (academic) research can be seen to inform events such as Recruitment Leaders Connect - to an extent. If you believe I am talking rubbish, I am not. All you have to do is watch UChicago's YouTube video on how to write academically to understand that academia can be a very self-centered profession that occasionally misses and ignores its various audiences.
As Gubbins and Rousseau (2015: 110) put it in their article: "Bennis and O’Toole (2005) argued that business schools emphasize research that speaks to the concerns of academics, while ignoring the connections to problems of management practice. According to their logic, by ending the knowledge generation process with articles that only other academics read, business schools are on a path to their own irrelevance."
I'll aim to complete Gubbins and Rousseau before I reflect conclusively on my opinion on these existential questions.
References
Gubbins, C., and Rousseau, D. M. (2015). Embracing Translational HRD Research for Evidence-Based Management: Let’s Talk About How to Bridge the Research-Practice Gap. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 26(2), 109–125. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21214
First Read of Gubbins and Rousseau (2015) and RL Conference 2014.
Reading Gubbins and Rousseau (2015), the first thing I realised is its very critical of Government's perception of University funding, which reminded me of a few interesting examples where I had encountered first-hand how research and practice are mutually disaggregated. Then I recalled when I attended a 1-day workshop held by Recruitment Leaders Connect. Bill Boorman was the instructor for the day leading us through the presentation, bless his socks. He was a great speaker nonetheless.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sat next to Howard and Billy, who each were presenting two contrasting bits of information. Howard, how recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) was the next big thing in recruitment. and Billy who was a 360 recruiter, was outright promoting the contingent agency recruiter grind.
This then reminded me of Gubbins' and Rousseau (2015) who in their paper mention this coupled concept of translational research - where research on theory informs interventions and outcomes in practice. What's so important about this. What does it represent? How does it apply to my example of Howard and RPO at the conference I attended? and HRD in practice, more generally?
The truth is I don't yet know and I can only guestimate because there are various factors at play. Race, level of experience, cultural competences, differences and significances across time between RPO and agency work. But what I do know is (academic) research can be seen to inform events such as Recruitment Leaders Connect - to an extent. If you believe I am talking rubbish, I am not. All you have to do is watch UChicago's YouTube video on how to write academically to understand that academia can be a very self-centered profession that occasionally misses and ignores its various audiences.
As Gubbins and Rousseau (2015: 110) put it in their article: "Bennis and O’Toole (2005) argued that business schools emphasize research that speaks to the concerns of academics, while ignoring the connections to problems of management practice. According to their logic, by ending the knowledge generation process with articles that only other academics read, business schools are on a path to their own irrelevance."
I'll aim to complete Gubbins and Rousseau before I reflect conclusively on my opinion on these existential questions.
References