Yu Kang Yang Trevor, Nanyang Technological University

Brian D. Blume, University of Michigan

Jason L. Huang, Michigan State University

Kenneth G. Brown, University of Iowa

Work-related learning is essential for organizational competitiveness, yet remains disconnected from human resource management scholarship. While learning research focuses on individual processes, HRM emphasizes organizational systems, creating a gap in understanding how learning can be strategically integrated into HR practices. This special issue aims to bridge that divide by examining learning processes across different levels and work contexts, positioning learning as a strategic mechanism central to HRM.

The special issue welcomes research on formal, informal, incidental, and self-directed learning in traditional, hybrid, and digital environments. Submissions should integrate learning with HR systems and strategy, adopt multilevel perspectives, address contemporary challenges such as artificial intelligence and hybrid work, and demonstrate practical relevance for organizations. Both empirical and theoretical contributions from diverse methodological approaches are invited, provided they maintain focus on HRM.

Appel publié par Human Resource Management. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Integrative approaches to learning systems and how HR systems can integrate formal, informal, and self-directed learning into coherent architectures aligned with business strategy
• Mechanisms linking learning and development initiatives to workforce agility, innovation, and firm performance
• Compositional and compilational processes linking learning across individual, team, and organizational levels
• Longitudinal and multilevel research designs tracing learning episodes across different levels of analysis
• Multidimensional learning criteria incorporating cognitive, skill-based, and affective outcomes
• Learning ROI evaluation through both immediate performance metrics and long-term indicators of adaptability, resilience, and innovation
• How organizations create, sustain, and transfer learning cultures through HR practices
• HR system characteristics facilitating or hindering learning transfer at individual and team levels
• Organizational learning climates and psychological safety influencing skill transfer
• Formal training, leadership development, and on-the-job learning effectiveness and long-term transfer
• Adaptive and AI-driven learning systems tailoring training content
• Sequencing of learning events affecting transfer outcomes
• Social learning interventions such as peer mentoring and communities of practice
• Proactivity, self-regulation, and learning motivation affecting continuous learning and career adaptability
• Exploration-exploitation tradeoffs during work-related learning
• Employee management of tradeoffs between work, nonwork, and recovery when allocating resources to self-directed learning
• Motivational processes sustaining self-directed learning in fast-changing environments
• Meta-cognitive awareness of learning strategies, habits, and biases
• HRM practices fostering sustained self-regulated learning cycles
• Relationships and interactions between formal, informal, and self-directed learning
• Emotions, personality traits, and workplace context shaping informal learning processes
• How digital technologies influence the experience, design, and delivery of learning opportunities
• Knowledge, skills, and abilities especially valuable in AI-mediated work settings such as data literacy and human-AI collaboration
• AI in predictive and generative algorithms, microlearning, and learning management systems affecting learning and organizational outcomes
• Co-learning experiences with AI systems such as chatbots and virtual coaches
• Trust, dependence, and resistance emerging when AI guides or assesses learning
• Contextual factors interacting with technologies to influence learning effectiveness
• Digital collaboration platforms fostering or fragmenting knowledge sharing and informal learning
• Obstacles and challenges faced by persons with disabilities, mid-career switchers, elderly workers, and non-standard employees in learning
• HR systems and public policy democratizing learning access and ensuring equitable capability development
• Employment status, industry type, and job level determining learning opportunities and outcomes
• Learning opportunities and self-assessment for vulnerable and non-affiliated workers such as gig and informal economy workers
• Equitable access to formal and informal learning for workers in small and medium enterprises or platform-based employment
• Learning technologies amplifying or reducing disparities in learning outcomes
• HR policies and public-private partnerships supporting continuous learning for displaced, older, or low-skilled workers
• Cognitive, motivational, and affective processes shaping engagement in work-related learning under conditions of high workload and continuous change
• Fluctuations in attentional control, working-memory capacity, and cognitive load influencing knowledge acquisition and transfer
• Job design features facilitating or undermining sustained cognitive engagement in learning
• Affective states such as curiosity, anxiety, and psychological safety influencing learning persistence and adaptability
• Insights from cognitive and neurocognitive research informing the design of high-quality jobs and HR systems supporting learning and psychological sustainability

Timeline

• January 31, 2027: Submission deadline