Hughes Wins Book of Year Award

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Claretha Hughes with an award honoring her recently published book.

Claretha Hughes, University of Arkansas associate professor of human resource and workforce development, received the R. Wayne Pace Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Human Resource Development.

The award is presented to the author of the outstanding human resource development book that advances the theory or practice of the profession. Hughes authored Valuing People and Technology in the Workplace last year published by Information Science Reference.

Hughes, who joined the faculty of the College of Education and Health Professions in 2004, spent 20 years working in corporate America and consulting for corporations. She noticed that, as technology and machines became a continually growing part of the workplace, the people who work around the machines, operate the machines and perform maintenance on the machines became undervalued.

In the book, she proposed a framework that will allow managers to get the most out of their workers by valuing them on the same level they value technology. The “Hughes Value Creation Model for Organizational Competitive Advantage” is based on five values: location, use, maintenance, modification and time, as well as three organizational perspectives: cognitive, behavioral and cultural.

Hughes also serves as director of the college’s Honors Program.