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This paper seeks to address the recent challenges in the international human resource development (HRD) research and the related methodological strategy.

This inquiry is based on a survey of literatures and integrates various comparative research strategies adopted in other major social science disciplines.

Based on comparative strategies found in other disciplines, the authors propose a framework to advance comparative HRD research and theory development.

The proposed framework emphasizes methodological consistency in HRD research and improving the relevance and rigor in theory development. It also highlights the required qualities of comparative researchers.

This is an initial effort in analyzing the emerging comparative HRD literature for an alternative framework to advance methodological research on HRD theory building.

The aim of this paper is to review published conceptual and research papers within the field of international, comparative and cross‐cultural HRD.

The paper's approach is a targeted literature review focusing on papers within the mainstream HRD journals, as well as a small number of non HRD journals.

The literature review revealed that international, comparative and cross‐cultural HRD is an emerging subfield of study. In general the authors were able to categorise the literatures into the three trajectories specified. However, they noted contradictions and confusions within the literature.

The paper is solely theoretical in nature; however, it does identify gaps for further research. The authors highlight specific research questions within each trajectory as well as proposing a global HRD construct.

The paper is particularly valuable to scholars interested in theorising and researching international, comparative and cross‐cultural HRD. It sets the scene for the special issue on the three trajectories, and identifies possible avenues for future theorising and research.

Early in the 1990s, at the University of Twente it was felt that research was needed on the content of human resource development (HRD) jobs in Europe. In the USA such studies had been initiated by Nadler in the early 1980s. Studies that built on his work were “Models of excellence” and “Models for HRD practice”, both undertaken by the American Association for Training and Development (ASTD). The International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction studied the qualifications needed by training managers, training instructors and training evaluators. The only research done in Europe, as far as we know, was a large‐scale study by the Training & Development Lead Body, carried out in, and concentrating on, the UK. The University of Twente aims to contribute to a description of the HRD field in Europe by describing job profiles of European HRD practitioners in terms of tasks as well as roles. Additionally, a comparison between the role analyses in the USA and European countries is made to check the validity of the US‐roles for Europe. The outcomes will be helpful in defining job profiles and (in a later stage) developing standards for HRD practitioners, both of which are important elements in the development of a profession. The outcomes can be used by HRD practitioners in their individual development.

The paper aims to examine the relationship between human resource development (HRD) and organizational and national competitiveness and identify research opportunities for Chinese human resource management (HRM) scholars.

Literature and document review.

HRD and innovation is not only critical for economic development, but also for political, technological, socio-cultural and environmental developments. The state and organizations, particularly multinational corporations, play an important role in developing human resources and their capability in innovation. Through a brief review of recent HRD national policies and MNC organizational practices, the paper presents a number of research topical areas, including HRD national system and policy formation and related mechanisms, national and organizational HRD program evaluations, comparative HRD research, and international agencies' involvement in national HRD system in relation to MNCs' efforts in developing human capital.

This essay presents research opportunities in Chinese HRD and innovation that may not only contribute to the HRM literature, but also inform HRD policy formation, implementation, and evaluation, as well as organizational practices.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis based on a review of the existing literature with respect to the variations in training practices and attitudes across national cultures.

A content analysis technique was adopted with a comparative cross‐cultural management perspective as a backdrop to address the occurrence of differences in practices and attitudes across various national cultures.

Most of the extant literature remains distant from providing a systematic and analytical repertoire on the subject. In efforts to bridge this gap, a synthesis of the literature has been elaborated, identifying a range of variations that have been grouped around the following categories: importance of organizational training; access to organizational training; different types of training provided to employees; actors involved in organizational training; and organizational support for training.

The heterogeneity of the literature impeded the use of a theoretical training management framework for the present review.

Organizations operating overseas and HRM/HRD practitioners should consider the complexity of diverse cultural differences, while managing employee training in culturally diverse settings. Nations ought to be aware of training practices abroad to observe trends and changes caused by globalization, as they may influence the shaping of national training practices and regulations. From a theoretical point of view, it is important to undertake conclusive research by further examining training practices and attitudes through the various national cultures with the objective of better circumventing the differences and by highlighting their prominent characteristics and implications.

The present contribution is the first documented synthesis of the literature on the subject.

The aim of the paper is to present the findings of a definitional review and comparative study of HRD definitions. It also reports the results of comparing and contrasting a synthesis of the “intended purposes” and “processes” constituting these definitions against various definitions and conceptualisations of organisational development (OD) and coaching.

A targeted literature review was conducted to identify and collate a comprehensive range of HRD, OD, and coaching definitions/conceptualisations. These were then subjected to forms of content and thematic analysis in search of similarities and differences.

The literature review has revealed many “contradictions”, “confusions” and “controversies” concerning the identity of HRD. Results from the definitional review suggest two or more of four synthesised “core purposes” of HRD are embedded explicitly or implicitly within the respective HRD definitions examined. Furthermore, these HRD “core purposes” and “processes” are virtually the same as those associated with OD and coaching

The definitions used in the study were limited to those that define HRD practice at the individual, group and organisational level, and are based on conventional and predominantly western conceptualisations. A challenge and dilemma arising from our findings bring into question the notion of HRD, OD, and coaching as unique and distinct fields of study and practice. Rather, the evidence implies there may be a compelling logic for these three fields to converge into a unified disciplinary domain concerned with “people and organisation development”.

The paper is particularly relevant for scholars interested in HRD theorising and/or developing HRD theories on the basis of empirical evidence. This is because they need to know whether the foci of their studies lie inside or outside the boundaries between HRD and other related domains. It may also be of interest to practitioners who wish to identify themselves as HRD professionals, as opposed to OD or coaching professionals.

This study aims to examine human resource development (HRD) research as represented by the citations to the publications in the four journals sponsored by the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) from 2005 to 2011.

The authors collected citation data from Google Scholar (GS) using Publish or Perish 3 (PoP3) and compared the four journals on the metrics of h, hc, g, e and other Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) commonly reported indexes.

Citation data during the seven-year period provided an overall picture on the status of HRD research and publications. It showed that while HRD journals have made impressive research impact by generating worldwide scholarly citations in multiple languages, additional effort in improving the quality and the impact of research and publications is needed.

This study offers new insights on a number of important issues related to HRD research assessment, research quality, journal impact and editorial performance.

This is an initial effort in the HRD literature that comprehensively analyzes and compares the four AHRD journals. It offers new insights on the assessment of HRD research and journal impact.

To explore and describe the roles, activities and strategies of French human resource development professionals.

This paper is based primarily on exploratory and descriptive research. A range of secondary sources on European and French human resource development is critically reviewed to generate a number of research questions designed to identify the corporate perspective on human resource development by means of cases drawn from six organizations located in Eastern France.

These confirm the lack of a clear understanding of human resource development on the part of French companies; the wide range of activities that is considered to fall within human resource development; an emerging interest in management development, career development and skills forecasting, but a neglect of training evaluation; the similarity of human resource development practitioner roles to those elsewhere in Europe; growing evidence of the involvement of line managers in human resource development activity, and a strong commitment to the strategic significance of human resource development.

The study was based on an opportunity sample of just six companies in Eastern France, and may therefore not be representative, but it does provide findings that expand upon and also qualify earlier research.

This study provides new knowledge and understanding of the context and practice of human resource development in France and makes a number of suggestions for further research.

This paper provides original research based on recent cases of corporate human resource development practice, and should be of interest to scholars of international human resource development.

The purpose of this paper is to identify South Korea's successful IT start‐ups' HRD practices to determine whether there are steps that must be taken to maintain their HRD expertise for continued growth.

A case study approach employing four fast‐growing IT start‐up cases was undertaken based on semi‐structured interviews with HR managers and CEOs, supported by site visit observations and archival sources.

The emergent themes resulting from an analysis of the four cases are adjusting to changing markets (globalization), the founder effect, workforce development, organizational culture, and challenges. These case studies show the importance of organizational culture for IT start‐ups' continued growth.

Although the paper employed multiple cases for comparison, through focusing on only four cases, the results are contextualized and, thus, are limited in generalization.

The fast‐growing IT firms should carefully choose HRD practices to manage and develop their talent because these practices may shape the firms' innovative organizational culture, which, in turn, affects the firm's continued growth.

These case studies contribute to research on South Korea's IT start‐ups by detailing how HRD practices have supported the success of the four IT start‐ups over the past ten years. The paper adds qualitative details to previous studies' quantitative analysis of start‐ups.