Featuring scholarly and practitioner insights from HR and people leaders, industry experts, and researchers.

In this HCI Webinar, I will talk with Rebecca Homkes about why uncertainty is the defining leadership skill of this decade. Dr. Rebecca Homkes is high-growth strategy specialist and the founder of a boutique consultancy firm, advising CEOs and executive teams focused on growth and success through uncertainty. She is a Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Lecturer at the London Business School (LBS) Executive Education, Advisor and Faculty at BCGU (Boston Consulting Group), and previous Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE)’s Centre for Economic Performance. Dr. Homkes is also the director of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) global Active Learning Program (ALP); a former partner with GrowthX, a Silicon Valley investment ecosystem and innovation consultancy; and the faculty lead of fintech scaleup accelerators. A global keynote speaker, she is a member of several advisory boards, directed the joint McKinsey & Co and LSE Centre for Economic Performance Global Management Project from 2007-2014 and has regularly been featured in Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fortune, and Forbes.

This research examines the deepening disconnect between academic research and professional practice within applied psychology and business management. It argues that misaligned incentive structures, such as an institutional obsession with elite journal rankings, discourage scholars from pursuing studies with practical utility. This systemic failure has led to a research integrity crisis and a decrease in public trust, as practitioners often find academic findings irrelevant or inaccessible. To bridge this gap, the research advocates for engaged scholarship and design science, which emphasize collaborative knowledge co-production between researchers and industry leaders. Furthermore, the research proposes restructuring institutional rewards and adopting open science practices to ensure that rigorous scientific standards coexist with real-world impact. Ultimately, the research calls for a sustainable knowledge ecosystem where theoretical elegance is no longer prioritized at the expense of solving complex societal challenges.

This research examines the deepening disconnect between academic research and professional practice within applied psychology and business management. It argues that misaligned incentive structures, such as an institutional obsession with elite journal rankings, discourage scholars from pursuing studies with practical utility. This systemic failure has led to a research integrity crisis and a decrease in public trust, as practitioners often find academic findings irrelevant or inaccessible. To bridge this gap, the research advocates for engaged scholarship and design science, which emphasize collaborative knowledge co-production between researchers and industry leaders. Furthermore, the research proposes restructuring institutional rewards and adopting open science practices to ensure that rigorous scientific standards coexist with real-world impact. Ultimately, the research calls for a sustainable knowledge ecosystem where theoretical elegance is no longer prioritized at the expense of solving complex societal challenges. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This research examines the deepening disconnect between academic research and professional practice within applied psychology and business management. It argues that misaligned incentive structures, such as an institutional obsession with elite journal rankings, discourage scholars from pursuing studies with practical utility. This systemic failure has led to a research integrity crisis and a decrease in public trust, as practitioners often find academic findings irrelevant or inaccessible. To bridge this gap, the research advocates for engaged scholarship and design science, which emphasize collaborative knowledge co-production between researchers and industry leaders. Furthermore, the research proposes restructuring institutional rewards and adopting open science practices to ensure that rigorous scientific standards coexist with real-world impact. Ultimately, the research calls for a sustainable knowledge ecosystem where theoretical elegance is no longer prioritized at the expense of solving complex societal challenges. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Abstract: The persistent gap between academic research and professional practice represents one of the most pressing challenges confronting applied psychology, business education, and related professional fields. Despite decades of scholarly attention and mounting institutional pressures to demonstrate societal impact, the divide between knowledge producers and knowledge users has widened rather than narrowed. This article examines the systemic failures within the contemporary research ecosystem that perpetuate this disconnect, drawing on developments in research assessment, evidence-based practice, and responsible science. The analysis reveals how perverse incentive structures, methodological orthodoxies, and narrow conceptions of rigor have inadvertently privileged theoretical elegance over practical utility, whilst simultaneously fueling a research integrity crisis. Building on frameworks including engaged scholarship, evidence-based management, and design science, this article proposes evidence-informed organizational responses for closing the practitioner-researcher gap. The article concludes by outlining pathways towards a more sustainable knowledge ecosystem—one that values both scientific rigor and real-world impact, whilst maintaining the public trust essential to the legitimacy of professional expertise. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Rebecca Homkes about why uncertainty is the defining leadership skill of this decade. Dr. Rebecca Homkes is high-growth strategy specialist and the founder of a boutique consultancy firm, advising CEOs and executive teams focused on growth and success through uncertainty. She is a Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Lecturer at the London Business School (LBS) Executive Education, Advisor and Faculty at BCGU (Boston Consulting Group), and previous Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE)’s Centre for Economic Performance. Dr. Homkes is also the director of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) global Active Learning Program (ALP); a former partner with GrowthX, a Silicon Valley investment ecosystem and innovation consultancy; and the faculty lead of fintech scaleup accelerators. A global keynote speaker, she is a member of several advisory boards, directed the joint McKinsey & Co and LSE Centre for Economic Performance Global Management Project from 2007-2014 and has regularly been featured in Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fortune, and Forbes.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Luis Garcia about personalized adaptive workplace learning and assessment. Luis Garcia is a seasoned international executive with over 25 years of experience in technology, digital media, and education. He specializes in driving new ventures and products to rapid growth by building effective teams that harness innovation, technology, and creativity to solve complex problems. He is the president of PETE, an Orlando-based tech startup that offers a suite of cost-effective and customizable solutions that enable organizations to deliver personalized workforce learning at scale. The PETE team is dedicated to harnessing the power of AI to help organizations of all sizes optimize their training initiatives, spanning from onboarding to regulatory compliance, product knowledge, technical skills, and more, without hiring additional training resources.

This research explores a fundamental shift in human resources, moving away from traditional administrative departments toward AI-accelerated operating models. Major consulting firms and industry leaders are advocating for a role architecture that prioritizes strategic workforce design, data fluency, and human-machine collaboration. By automating routine tasks and redistributing responsibilities, these new frameworks aim to increase organizational agility and operational efficiency. However, the research cautions that simply dismantling HR without building managerial capability and ethical AI governance can lead to significant legal risks and decreased employee well-being. Ultimately, the research emphasizes that sustainable transformation requires proactive redesign based on business outcomes rather than reactive cost-cutting.