AHRD Excellence in Scholarly Practice Awards

Welcome to the information page for the AHRD Excellence in Scholarly Practice Awards. It contains information to help you plan for your submission, and also explains how and when your submission will be reviewed.

About the award

The awards are given for excellence in applying scholarly HRD theory and research to practice in a manner that brings measurable improvement to an organization and/or has the potential to advance the field of HRD. This is the first year of the awards..

What and who we recognize

The awards recognize HRD projects or interventions that exceed a total of 50 people days of work effort, and that have been completed within the last two calendar years or are still underway. The 2010 awards will not recognize work that finished before January 1, 2008.

Submissions must come from named individuals (i.e. not a whole organization). A submission can name one or more people, but each must have had a substantial contribution to the project or intervention. In addition, a submission must contain the name of at least one AHRD Full Member with an active membership status at both the time of submission and at the time when the award winners are announced. (Note: non-members can join at www.ahrd.org.) No individual can be named in more than three submissions per calendar year.

Organizations described in the submission must be named (i.e. cannot be anonymous). However, those submitting control how much organizational information is shared outside of the review process by drafting an abstract that AHRD uses on its website if the submission is selected as an “Award Winner” (see details below).

Submission process & timing for 2010

The Award has clearly defined criteria and a submission must contain information for each specific criterion. Each section of the submission form has a word count limit. Typically, complete submissions are in the 4000-8000 word range. In addition, submissions require names of two referees (see the submission packet for further details).

Key dates for 2010 are:

• 5pm Pacific Time, March 31, 2010: submissions deadline
• June 15, 2010: Decisions announced to those who submitted
• June 30, 2010: Decisions announced to AHRD membership and placed on AHRD website
• February 2011: Award winners are recognized at an awards ceremony at the AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas, which will be held in Chicago.

Download the submission form. (Word document)

The review process

Submissions are blind-reviewed by a panel of leading AHRD scholars. All submissions are reviewed by at least two academics and at least two scholar-practitioners. All reviewers have been published in refereed HRD journals and have been a member of AHRD for at least three years. See below for a list of the reviewers.

The review process consists of two stages, both of which are blind (i.e. the reviewers are not given any information about the organization or the names of those who submitted):

• Stage 1 – every submission is assessed by four reviewers to identify those who meet or exceed the required standard. Those selected are “Award Finalists”.
• Stage 2 – all “Award Finalists” are reviewed by a panel of six reviewers (three academics and three scholar-practitioners) to determine the top three, which become the “Award Winners.”

Review criteria

Submissions are reviewed against four main criteria:

• The organization – this covers:
• Organizational setting
• Process used to determine the organizational need and appropriate HRD response
• Organizational need
• History of relevant past interventions
• Key stakeholders, and roles and responsibilities
• Evidence of the positive and sustained results, and impact on the organization

• Research – this covers:
• Organizational information used in determining the HRD response
• Extent of use of published research, theory and other scholarly HRD information
• Specific research and theory used, with details on how it influenced design, development and implementation

• Quality of the practice – this covers:
• Goals and objectives of the HRD project/intervention, and metrics used to track impact
• Design
• Implementation.
• Outcome and results

• Implications – this covers:
• Lessons learned
• Implications for HRD research, theory and researchers
• Implications for HRD practice and practitioners
• How implications have been shared with HRD practitioners and researchers

Award outcomes

Award Winners are recognized at the following year’s AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas, receive a plaque, and are listed on the AHRD website together with an abstract of their submission.

Award Finalists are recognized at the following year’s AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas, receive a certificate, and are listed on the AHRD website.

Academic Reviewers for 2010:

• Dr. Shani Carter (Rhode Island College)
• Dr. Terry Carter (Virginia Commonwealth University)
• Dr. Donna Dickson (Rochester Institute of Technology)
• Dr. Holly Hutchins (University of Houston)
• Dr. Bill Kahnweiler (Georgia State University)
• Dr. Marijke Kehrhahn (University of Connecticut)
• Dr. Rachelle Lehner (Emory University)
• Dr. David McGuire (Queen Margaret University, Scotland)
• Dr. Wendy Ruona (University of Georgia)
• Dr. Sally Sambrook (Bangor University, Wales)
• Dr. Jim Steele (George Fox University)
• Dr. Greg Wang (University of Texas – Tyler)

Scholar-Practitioner Reviewers for 2010:

• Dr. John Bing (Chairman, ITAP International)
• Dr. Allan Church (VP, Talent and Organization & Management Development, PepsiCo)
• Mr. Jeffrey Keefer (Project Manager, Instructional Design, Visiting Nurse Service of New York)
• Dr. Martin Kormanik (President & CEO, OD Systems)
• Dr. Michael Leimbach (Vice President, Research, Wilson Learning)
• Dr. Tim McClernon (Managing Partner, People Architects)
• Mr. Jason Moats (Training Manager, Texas Engineering Extension Service)
• Dr. Hallie Preskill (Director, Strategic Learning and Evaluation Center, FSG)
• Dr. Cathy Sleezer (Manager, Employee Development, Baker Hughes)
• Dr. Tom Shindell (Director of Organization Development, Texas Education Agency)
• Dr. Lisa Weinberger (Director, North America Training & Education, Tennant Company)