University Forum for Human Resource Development Conference 2024
CONFERENCE STREAMS
Paul Lees
Kesiena Ebenade
Carla Caracol
This year’s UFHRD 2024 conference theme of “HRD in a Digital Age” resonates strongly within the Coaching and Mentoring stream.
This stream focuses upon how coaching and mentoring may be delivered in the Digital Age and the challenges and opportunities the digitalisation of coaching and mentoring might manifest. This ranges from the possible democratisation of these human resource development interventions and their practice, to dealing with the digital divide and the furious pace of technological advances. This is particularly timely and important considering the shift to digital coaching in organisations that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic (PWC, 2020). A myriad of terms is being used to refer to the digitalisation of coaching, such as e-coaching (Geißler, 2022; Ribbers and Waringa, 2015), digital coaching (Isaacson, 2021), online coaching and AI coaching (Clutterbuck, 2022). Digital coaching is an umbrella term for all technology-mediated tools and platforms used to support the coaching process, such as matching, management and administration, data analytics, tools for coaching conversations and robot coaches (Isaacson, 2021).
We hope that contributions to our stream will address some of the theoretical, empirical, and practical dilemmas of coaching and mentoring in the digital age and we welcome empirical, conceptual, and literature review-based contributions. Whether you are a master’s or doctoral student, a practitioner, a new career academic or an experienced professor, we look forward to receiving your abstract for our consideration. We warmly encourage submissions from a range of employment and national contexts. The following topic areas provide an idea of submissions that would be relevant to this stream:
• Creating clarity around the terminology of the digitalisation of coaching and mentoring
• The value of digital education, training and development in coaching and mentoring
• The effectiveness of digital coaching and mentoring tools and models across sectors and contexts
• The ethical challenges of digital and AI coaching and mentoring
• Widening access to coaching and mentoring through digital tools and platforms
• Handing over coaching and mentoring to the technology developers – promises and perils
• Digital leadership - managerial and workplace development
• Digital coaching and mentoring readiness
• The automation of coaching and mentoring using AI
• The impact of AI and digital practices on coaching and mentoring relationships
• The digital leader-coach
• Coaching the team/group digitally
Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and we would be delighted to answer any questions you may have about a possible submission to our stream.
Judie Gannon
Duminda Rajasinghe
Karine Mangion-Thornley
Vasco Santos
Marta Correia Sampaio
Thomas Garavan
Tricia Jolliffe
LJMU
Maria Asensio
ISCTE
The focus of this stream is Employee Engagement. This topic is a vital area of research of the HRD field given the importance of Training and Development in fostering a vibrant and inclusive culture in organisations, where employees feel energised and engaged. We hope that contributions to our stream will help to showcase current research in the area and illustrate how organisations can enhance their culture and encourage employees to fully engage in all aspects of their work. We welcome contributions of full papers or development / working papers. Empirical, conceptual, and literature review based contributions will all be welcomed. Whether you are a Masters or doctoral student, a practitioner, a new career academic or an experienced professor, we hope you will submit an abstract for our consideration. We encourage submissions from a range of employment and national contexts. The following topic areas give an idea of submissions that would be relevant to this stream.
• Innovative Employee Engagement Initiatives in the workplace
• Assessing and measuring effectiveness in Employee Engagement (links to productivity and job satisfaction)
• Understanding Employee Engagement and its relationship to organisational culture
• Employee Engagement and links to inclusive workplaces
• Understanding how technology and digitalisation impacts Employee Engagement
Please note that this list is not exhaustive and we would be delighted to answer any questions you may have about a possible submission to our stream.
Martin McCracken
Adetola Adekunle
Sónia Gonçalves
ISCSP
Stefanos Nachmias
Andrea Subryan
Nuno Nunes
Eduardo Tomé
Pallvi Arora
Inês Faria
Thiago Rodrigues
Heather Short
Michael Mustafa
João Leitão
Sarah Minnis
Kevin Rose
Christine O’Leary
Peter Greenan
Human Resource Development (HRD) plays a crucial role in helping organizations adapt to and thrive in the digital era. The term "transformational HRD" refers to a strategic approach that goes beyond traditional HR practices and embraces innovative methods to develop employees, foster a culture of continuous learning, and drive organizational success in the digital age.
Transformational HRD in a digital era involves a holistic approach that combines technology, cultural transformation, data-driven decision-making, and a focus on continuous learning and development.
In this regard this stream main topic is: Transformational HRD in a Digital Era, and the sub-topics are (but not limited to):
• Technologies for Workplace Digitalization
• Augmented Reality in the HRD
• Artificial Intelligence in HRD
• Employees Data Security
• Data Analytics in HRD
• Corporate digital Health Programs
• Corporate digital learning
• Digital transformation of HRD
We seek empirical and conceptual contributions by those involved in researching practice in public and private organisations. For more information about the stream, please contact:
Maria José Sousa: maria.jose.sousa@iscte.iul.pt
Javad Shahreki: javad.shahreki@mmu.edu.my
Isabel Pinto dos Reis: isabelpintodosreis@gmail.com
Maria José Sousa
Javad Shahreki
MMU / MY
Isabel Pinto dos Reis
João Rodrigues do Santos
ISEC
Paula Carvalho
ISEC