In a time of COVID-19 pandemic, stay healthy, connected, productive, and learning: words from the editorial team of HRDI

摘要

As we are preparing this scheduled issue of Human Resource Development International (HRDI) in the Spring 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, we feel that it is our responsibility to start a dialogue with our readers, authors, and peers. In an effort to guide this discourse, we want to use this editorial to highlight a few challenges that present close relevancy to the field of human resource development (HRD); then, to discuss what might be the roles of HRDI scholarly community in learning, building resilience, and leading in this time of crisis. The pandemic of COVID-19 has drastically changed the way we work, communicate, and socialize and left us with the challenge of making significant changes in a matter of days on an extraordinary scale. Social distancing guidelines put forth by our respective governments and public health officials have resulted schools and business closures that have left many of us flustered and had to cope with the level of changes that are unprecedented. Online learning and working from home are ways to mediate a modicum of normalcy for many but others might not be as 'lucky'. For some industries such as manufacturing and hospitality, the work could not be conducted online or from home, unless your business is considered 'essential', some workers have lost their jobs because of the pandemic. In the U.S. alone, a total of 3.28 million people filed for unemployment insurance in the week ended 21 March 2020, according to the Bloomberg News (Pickert 2020). The impact of COVID-19 Pandemic is extensive and has presented enormous challenges to individual workers, organizations, communities, nations, and the world as a whole.