Knowledge that Transforms

The widespread availability of the Internet has revolutionized the way organizations train their workforces. With e‐learning methods, learning can take place on‐demand, and trainees can be given greater control over their learning than ever before. This increased control has the potential to improve training effectiveness. However, the failure of many e‐learning programs suggests that organizations would benefit from a set of research‐based principles on providing learner control in e‐learning. In this article, we offer guidelines for preparing trainees for learner‐led instruction, the design of learner‐controlled training, and the creation of workplace conditions that facilitate successful learner‐led training.

Paradoxically, virtual teams are ubiquitous and often successful, contrary to most current communication theories'predictions. Media naturalness theory (Kock, 2001), an evolutionary perspective on communication and its principles of media naturalness, innate schema similarity, and learned schema diversity can be used to understand, study, and manage successful virtual teamwork. In particular, potential problems of trust and leadership in virtual teams are shown to be amenable to solutions rooted explicitly in an evolutionary context. From a media naturalness perspective, geographic distance and technological complexity are secondary to processes of adaptation, as humans remain the most complex and flexible part of the communication system.

Research findings from industrial and organizational psychology and other disciplines cast doubt on the simple assertion that a diverse workforce inevitably improves business performance. Instead, research and theory suggest several conditions necessary to manage diversity initiatives successfully and reap organizational benefits. This article reviews empirical research and theory on the relationship between workforce diversity and organizational performance and outlines practical steps HR practitioners can take to manage diversity initiatives successfully and enhance the positive outcomes.

The job demands‐resources (JD‐R) model was used to examine the relationship between job characteristics, burnout, and (other‐ratings of) performance ( N = 146). We hypothesized that job demands (e.g., work pressure and emotional demands) would be the most important antecedents of the exhaustion component of burnout, which, in turn, would predict in‐role performance (hypothesis 1). In contrast, job resources (e.g., autonomy and social support) were hypothesized to be the most important predictors of extra‐role performance, through their relationship with the disengagement component of burnout (hypothesis 2). In addition, we predicted that job resources would buffer the relationship between job demands and exhaustion (hypothesis 3), and that exhaustion would be positively related to disengagement (hypothesis 4). The results of structural equation modeling analyses provided strong support for hypotheses 1, 2, and 4, but rejected hypothesis 3. These findings support the JD‐R model's claim that job demands and job resources initiate two psychological processes, which eventually affect organizational outcomes.