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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the supervisor behaviours that employees found to be helpful and unhelpful in facilitating training transfer. The study aims to provide rich qualitative data from the employee's perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilises a cross‐sectional design. A case study and a qualitative interpretivist approach were used to interpret the employee's responses. In total 24 semi‐structured interviews were conducted and responses were analysed with the aid of NVivo.FindingsThe results suggested what supervisors did prior to, during and after course attendance was critical to training transfer. Supportive behaviours prior to the course included motivating, encouraging and setting expectations. Practical support provided during the course signalled the value that the supervisor placed on the course. Meetings held after the course provided the best opportunity to support transfer. Transfer was maximised when participants experienced a positive role model and when supervisors showed interest in their experience of the course, encouraged and sponsored new initiatives, and involved them in decision‐making. The main perceived hindrances to training transfer were culture, policies and a lack of encouragement.Originality/valueThis is a qualitative study in a field of inquiry dominated by quantitative approaches. The results highlight the employee's perspective concerning what they found to assist in training transfer. This methodology is rarely evidenced in the extant literature.

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of mixed methods research across several business and management fields and to gauge the level of acceptance of mixed methods within these fields.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology employed for this study involved synthesizing the findings from six large‐scale methodological scans of business and management discipline journals in seven fields: marketing, international business, strategic management, organizational behaviour, operations management, entrepreneurship and human resource management.FindingsThe study finds that quantitative studies dominate all seven fields (76 per cent of empirical articles) followed by mixed methods (14 per cent of empirical articles) and qualitative studies (10 per cent of empirical articles). In applying the framework for acceptance levels, it would seem there exists minimal acceptance of mixed methods across these fields.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has limitations related to the coverage of different disciplines and differences in sample sets. More extensive research is planned for the future and will involve an expanded mixed method prevalence rate study across additional business and management fields.Practical implicationsThe growing use of mixed methods has practical implications for research training and capacity building within business schools. The study points to the need to develop research capacity through the introduction of postgraduate courses in mixed methods and advanced research skills training for existing researchers.Originality/valueMixed methods is a relatively new and emerging methodological movement. This paper attempts to gauge the use and level of acceptance of mixed methods across a diverse range of business and management discipline areas.

Although still in its early stages, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR), which involves a broad range of artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning technologies, will fundamentally change the way many of us work and relate to one another. Driven by technology, this transformation presents a range of challenges, as well as opportunities, where we might expect Human Resource (HR) professionals would lead the way. However, little is currently known in relation to how prepared HR professionals in Australia are to ready their organisations for this new era of work and associated resourcing. Consequently, this paper goes some way towards closing that gap. Specifically, the study reported here sets out to explore the levels of preparedness amongst Australian HRM professionals for the impact of the FIR on organisations, workplaces, jobs and skills, as well as on their own professional roles and competencies. The study utilised a sequential mixed methods research design with two phases, the first was qualitative focus groups (n = 5) followed by a quantitative online survey of selected senior HR practitioners (n = 150). The findings indicate that, while most believe that FIR technologies might be useful for their organisations and assist with improving job performance, increasing productivity and making jobs easier for employees, contrarily many did not intend to use them in the foreseeable future. Marginal support was also evident in relation to the potential contributions of FIR technologies to HR process enhancement and overall HR effectiveness. Most respondents were also not impressed with the lack of current Australian government FIR strategies and policies.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate which sociocultural and work conditions have the potential to change international graduates’ career mobility intentions and encourage international graduates to stay in the host country when the initial intention was to leave the host country after graduating. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via a web-based survey from international graduates and analyses suggest 129 (20 percent) of respondents changed their initial career mobility intentions. Data were analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Findings Although previous studies report some pull–push factors such as attractive payment rates and work experience as being important in attracting potential workforce participants, these factors have no influence on changing the career mobility intentions of international graduates. In contrast, the work environment (WE) seems to be a strong condition for changing career mobility decisions. Results also reveal that the influence of sociocultural conditions on initial career mobility intention is more complicated than work conditions and varies from case to case. Practical implications The present study adopts the theoretical assumption that migration and mobility is a transition that forms over time and the findings suggest that international graduates’ global career mobility intentions depend on the WE. Therefore, government, higher education and industry development policy makers need to take this factor into account if they are interested in attracting and retaining global talent. Originality/value The majority of previous studies have focused on which push–pull factors encourage the recently graduated international student workforce to move or stay in a country while the current study argues which conditions have the potential to change initial career mobility intentions.

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