Inspecting the Hierarchy of Life Roles

Abstract

Role salience is a reflection of the importance and value that people attribute to the roles central to their lives and identities. One pivotal aspect of role salience is individual responsibilities to organizational roles. Role salience has meaningful implications for employees and organizations. Understanding and acknowledging the importance of holistic treatment of role salience has the potential to affect organizational policies, HRD practices, and, ultimately, employee learning and performance. In this study, findings from a systematic review of the role salience literature are reported. Following a search of four Human Resource Development (HRD) journals, the PsycINFO database, and the Academic Search Complete database, 67 articles and papers were identified for inclusion in the literature review. The authors argue that role salience research has implications for HRD professionals; however, role salience has largely been ignored in the HRD literature. The authors speculate on why role salience has not been common in HRD literature and ways in which role salience perspectives and related applications can benefit HRD, organizations, and individuals.