Despite broad recognition of the importance of agility in the workforce, little research has been conducted on the organizational characteristics and initiatives that engender it. Rooted in organizational and cognitive theory, a study of 524 employees in India's manufacturing and service sectors proposes that workforce agility is the result of specific organizational practices and psychological empowerment. Contributing to both management theory and practice, the findings show that an environment that encourages teamwork has the most influence in promoting agility, followed by programs that address reward systems, employee involvement, organizational learning and training, and information systems. In addition, the study found that agility is fostered by the psychological empowerment variable of impact, followed by self‐determination, meaning, and competence.

Purpose Recognizing that very less number of research has been conducted on workforce agility, the current research aimed to examine the impact of organizational practices in the form of organizational learning and training, compensation, involvement, team work and information system (IS) on workforce agility. Influenced by the “Black Box” approach, the study also examined the role of psychological empowerment as a mechanism mediating the relationship between organizational practices and workforce agility. Design/methodology/approach The study has been conducted in selective Indian industries, representing manufacturing and service sector across public and private sectors. Quantitative and qualitative data have been collected from both executives and non-executives through reliable instruments validated in Indian context. Data have been analyzed using descriptive analysis, canonical correlation analysis and multiple regression. Findings Findings that organizational practices significantly related to workforce agility prove that organizational practices are capable of improving the agile attributes and behavior of the workforce. In detail, team work has the greatest influence on workforce agility, followed by Reward system, employee involvement, organizational learning and training and ISs. Further, the study result also proved the mediating role of psychological empowerment between organizational practices and workforce agility. Practical implications Organizations are to design practices related to organizational learning and training, compensation, involvement, team work and IS and implement them efficiently and effectively to enable agility within the workforce, as an agile workforce can only respond proactively to a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment. Further, the result also suggests that managers should design the organizational practices capable of enhancing psychological empowerment, as the combination can deliver better workforce agility. Originality/value The research is useful considering very less number of research on workforce agility.

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Purpose Research on training transfer in India in general and insurance sector in specific adopting case study method is largely absent. This study aims to address this gap by adopting a case study method to explore the relationship between work context, transfer design and training transfer in an Indian Insurance company. It also examined the role of transfer motivation as a mediating variable between work context, transfer design and training transfer. Design/methodology/approach Data have been collected from a public sector insurance company using a first ever vernacularly translated learning transfer system inventory (LTSI), following the translation and back translation process. Learning and development practitioners and academicians have been consulted and suggestions related to changing the language to be compatible with the insurance industry have been incorporated. Structural equation modeling (Amos 16) has been used to test the suggested model. Findings The significant positive relationship of peer support, supervisory support and opportunity to use and transfer design with training transfer can be attributed to the business context of the sample organization. Interestingly, the role of performance coaching and the mediating role of transfer motivation have been rejected. This study has proved the mediating role of transfer design. Originality/value This study is the first ever study on training transfer in Indian insurance sector adopting case study method. This study has used LTSI translated in an Indian vernacular language following the translation and back translation process.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Structured AbstractPurpose -This paper aims to study the relationship between high performance work system (HPWS) and organizational performance and to examine the role of HRD Climate in mediating the relationship between HPWS and the organizational performance in the context of the power sector of India.Design/methodology/approach -The empirical research paper has been conceptualized on the basis of extensive literature survey and examined through a case based approach. Data and information collected to examine strength of the proposed hypothesis in the context of a power based company in India.Findings -Agreeing with most of the research, HPWS is found positively related with organizational performance. The result doesn't agree with the HPWS research conducted in Asian countries. Taking clues from 'Black Box' approach, the role of HRD climate as a mediating factor has been studied. The result proved that HPWS influences organizational performance through a supportive development environment (HRD Climate) based on openness, confrontation, trust, authencity, proaction, autonomy, collaboration, and experimentation.Practical implications -Designing and implementing HPWS requires the organization to nurture and develop a suitable HRD Climate through development of organizational culture based on openness, confrontation, trust, authencity, proaction, autonomy, collaboration, and experimentation(OCTAPAC).Implications for HRD -HPWS practices such as group-based pay, decentralized participative decisions, self-managed work teams, social and family events, and appraisal based on team goals along with OCTAPAC culture can significantly contribute to the transfer climate by influencing both peer and supervisor. It can significantly contribute to training motivation by influencing both career and job attitudes; and organizational commitment of trainees.

PurposeRecruiters’ decision to use recruitment methods (RMs) depends on several expected outcomes such as number applications, quality of applicants, speed of filling up vacancy, post joining job performance, absenteeism, commitment and satisfaction of the applicants. RMs may vary from each other in terms of its capability to communicate different type of information. The current research aims at exploring recruiter's intention to use RMs like job advertisement (JA), online recruitment (OLR) and social media in reference to several recruitment outcomes (ROs). Further, the role of information credibility and sufficiency (ICS) on recruiter's intention to use has been studied.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 242 recruiters from the manufacturing and service sector of India. The survey instrument consists of RMs, recruitment outcome and credibility and satisfaction that are identified following the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used for a simultaneous assessment of overall and specific elements of measurement validity and reliability. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the hypothesized model.FindingsThe result shows that RMs significantly relates with ROs. In detail, social media recruitment (SMR) significantly relates with pre ROs and post ROs; OLR significantly relates with pre ROs and post ROs and JA significantly relates post ROs. Only JA insignificantly relates with pre ROs. The result also supports the hypothesis that ICS acts as a mediator between the influences of RMs on ROs.Research limitations/implicationsThe result of the study has important theoretical and managerial implications. The theoretical implication is explained from the perspective of signaling theory (ST) and elaboration likelihood model (ELM) theory.Originality/valueThe study is unique as multiple RMs have been studied with reference to both pre and post ROs using the data collected from the recruiters.

Purpose The purpose of this paper, systematic literature review, is twofold: to identify the factors influencing graduate job choice and to propose a theoretical model that can be useful for future research. Design/methodology/approach Thematic analysis of the literature available till June 2020 has been reviewed using electronic databases such as ABI/INFORM Complete, EBSCO, Emerald Insight, ProQuest, SAGE Journals, Science Direct (Elsevier), Scopus, Springer Link, Taylor and Francis Online, Wiley Online Library. Findings Out of more than 5,000 studies, 14 studies were found addressing the issue of career choice among graduating students. The thematic analysis result explored five themes such as internal factors, external factors, interpersonal factors, institutional factors and socio-demographic factors that can be considered critical for graduates’ career choice decision. Details of the subthemes are also identified. Research limitations/implications Implications for practitioners have been suggested from the internal factors, external factors, interpersonal factors, institutional factors and socio-demographic factors’ perspectives. The study result can be useful for conducting future research using quantitative data on graduate job choice. Originality/value This is the first attempt to present a comprehensive picture of past studies on graduate job choice and exploring the factors influencing graduate job choice.