Research problem: Entrepreneurial passion has been shown to play an important role in venture success and therefore in investors' funding decisions. However, it is unknown whether the passion entrepreneurs personally feel or experience can be accurately assessed by investors during a venture pitch. Research questions: (1) To what extent does entrepreneurs' personal passion align with investors' perceived passion? (2) To what cues do investors attend when assessing entrepreneurs' passion? Literature review: Integrating theory and research in entrepreneurship communication and entrepreneurial passion within the context of venture pitching, we explain that during venture pitches, investors make judgments about entrepreneurs' passion that have consequences for their investment decisions. However, they can attend to only those cues that entrepreneurs outwardly display. As a result, they may not be assessing the passion entrepreneurs personally feel or experience. Methodology: We used a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design. For our data collection, we surveyed 40 student entrepreneurs, video-recorded their venture pitches, and facilitated focus groups with 16 investors who viewed the videos and ranked, rated, and discussed their perceptions of entrepreneurs' passion. We conducted statistical analyses to assess the extent to which entrepreneurs' personal passion and investors' perceived passion aligned. We then performed an inductive analysis of critical cases to identify specific cues that investors attributed to passion or lack thereof. Results and conclusions: We revealed that there was a large misalignment between entrepreneurs' personal passion and investors' perceived passion. Our critical case analysis revealed that entrepreneurs' weak or strong presentation skills led investors either to underestimate or overestimate, respectively, perceptions of entrepreneurs' passion. We suggest that entrepreneurs should develop specific presentation skills and rhetorical strategies for displaying their passion, yet at the same time, investors should be wary of attending too closely to presentation skills when assessing passion.

The Problem In the 21st century, globalization is key. Therefore, assessing and developing global leadership competencies is an important topic in human resource development (HRD). Global leadership competencies encompass personality traits, knowledge, and skills, as well as behaviors. While there has been a plethora of scholar-practitioner literature identifying global leadership competencies, there has been far less focus on assessing global leadership competencies and how these competencies are developed. The Solution We attempt to address this gap by examining the state-of-the-art literature on global leadership assessment and development from several disciplines, including HRD, management, and leadership. With regard to global leadership competency assessment, our goal is to synthesize the literature and provide HRD professionals with a systematic method for identifying instruments that measure core global competencies. With regard to global leadership development, our aim is to provide a framework for understanding how global leadership competencies can be developed. The Stakeholders The identification and categorization of various instruments that measure global competencies, as well as a framework that outlines methods to develop these competencies, will benefit human resource (HR) professionals and HRD practitioners.

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Growing employee voice increases the likelihood that employees will engage in discretionary efforts to share potentially useful information, express opinions, or concerns about work-related issues to their supervisors and other leaders in the organization. We develop a conceptual model and a series of propositions to examine and analyze the underlying mechanisms that enhance employee voice. Specifically, we identify linkages and connections between human resource development (HRD) practices, organizational social capital (OSC), and the role of CEOs as facilitating environmental or situational mechanisms that have implications on voice behavior. HRD can play a key role in helping employees foster social capital, leading to employee voice in the organization. When CEOs extend their existing internal social networks, and engage in conversations with workers, this dialogue serves as a visible artifact and reverberates across the organization. Our propositions move beyond framing employee-related voice outcomes as a result of either HRD practices or CEO influence. Rather, we postulate an outcome of their interdependent interactions. Implications for HRD research and practice are discussed.

Based on prior literature, this article offers a reconciliation of the core roles of nonprofit boards and aligns these role‐sets with organizational theories. A survey instrument was developed and validated to measure each of four role‐sets (monitoring, supporting, partnering, and representing) to assess whether emphasis on specific roles affects board members’ perception of performance. Our study of nonprofit boards in a midsized midwestern city found that balance across the role‐sets was associated with effective organizational performance. Furthermore, when board members describe any of the four role‐sets as deficient, they perceive the organization as less effective. The results of the study provide practitioners with a validated survey tool that provides nonprofit boards with a method to identify which roles their board emphasizes.