The rise of neuroscience in organisations: implications for human resource development
Creators: name: KOSTOS, Carmel
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 350503
subject: Human resources management
classificationCode: 350709
subject: Organisation and management theory

description: The discoveries of neuroscience research linking the brain to life in organisations has become increasingly popular, thereby prompting professional associations that support human resource development (HRD) practitioners to promote, and engage in, such endeavours. Yet, this enthusiasm has appeared despite scarce academic literature linking the field of neuroscience with HRD, and limited empirical evidence supporting claims about the potential of neuroscience research to inform HRD theories and practices. In this pioneering thesis, I intend to fill this gap, by investigating the rise of neuroscience in HRD practice discourse.

The aim of my research was to uncover both scholar and practice perspectives to understand the extent to which findings from neuroscience research are gaining traction and prominence to influence the HRD practice of facilitating learning in organisations. Hence, the research involved two strands of research, with each involving separate, qualitative research methods and associated procedures and its enquiry spanned the disciplines of HRD, neuroscience and organisation research. In Strand One, I employed critical discourse analysis (CDA) to a corpus of scholarly opinion articles to understand scholar's perspectives on the emergence of neuroscience as an influence on understandings in organisational behaviour, a central concern for HRD. In Strand Two, I employed thematic analysis to transcriptions of semi-structured interviews with a cross-section of the HRD practice population to understand how research from neuroscience is perceived as an influence on facilitating learning in organisations.

The results from Strand One were used to guide the data collection and analysis undertaken in Strand Two. Findings from both strands of research were compared and integrated using thematic synthesis to form meta-inferences. Until now, however, no studies have empirically investigated HRD practitioners' perspectives on a relationship between HRD and neuroscience. Hence, this thesis represents the first empirical investigation to determine a more thorough explanation of the extent to which findings from neuroscience research are perceived to be gaining traction and prominence to influence the HRD practice of facilitating learning in organisations.

My findings provide empirical evidence to support claims by the HRD professional association, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), that there is a growing awareness of neuroscience among HRD practitioners. As well, my findings add to literature that reports an emerging trend to apply neuroscience research approaches to organisational phenomena. Further, results of Strand Two qualitative interviews support ongoing contention that HRD is grappling with a reputation that lacks credibility in the eyes of stakeholders, which interview participants characterised as 'soft', 'fluffy' and 'touchy feely'. These results also reveal that the scientific explanations emerging from neuroscience had appeal to HRD practitioners because they were viewed as best-practice, appeared to attract stakeholders' interest and provided 'hard' evidence to justify HRD's propositions - all of which subsequently enhanced HRD's reputation. Finally, my findings reveal the role of HRD professional associations in channelling translations of research from neuroscience into HRD practice discourse through professional development and publications. This finding lends weight to earlier conjecture about the major role HRD professional associations play in defining the accepted discourse of the profession.

This thesis has implications for understanding the way in which HRD practitioners engage with and theorise about new influences emerging in practice discourse. It does not suggest that findings from neuroscience research cannot inform HRD practice, but merely underlines that the body of empirical evidence to support this claim is yet to be established. As such, I provide an empirical example of the way consultants, professional associations and for-profit organisations package academic research into 'products' to sell to organisations, acting as a defacto 'wholesaler' between the academic domain and HRD practitioners. Thus, my research contributes to the ongoing scholarly debate about the nexus between academic research and HRD practice, and in doing so, provides further evidence that a gap persists between HRD academia and HRD practice.