Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyze critically the most important methods that are used in the evaluation of human resource development (HRD).

The approach is to ask two questions: What are the methods available to define the impact of HRD in the economy? How can we evaluate the evaluations that have been made?

There are two main perspectives to evaluate any program, by results (counting occurrences) and by impacts (calculating the differences the investment made in the society). The first type of method does not find the impact of the program, the second type does.

The analysis is limited by existing studies on HRD. The implications are that the conditions that underline the existence of HRD programs define the type of evaluation that is used.

The results of this paper put the evaluation problem in a new perspective. It explains the difference between methodologies (results and impacts) and scientific fields used (public administration, social policy, HRD, KM, IC, microeconomics, HR economics) by the type of person responsible: public administrator, private manager, HRD expert, knowledge manager, IC expert, microeconomist. The differences between the applications of those methodologies based on the type of funding – private, public, external – are also explained.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature on university-based human resource development (HRD) courses and programs.

The methods used in this paper are integrative literature review and content analysis.

Only 71 peer-reviewed articles that address university-based HRD courses and programs in any way were found. Forty-six were empirical studies and 25 were either conceptual or editorial in nature. The majority of articles focused on HRD courses and programs in the USA and the UK. Perspectives from other countries were nearly absent. Many of the claims about the content and quality of HRD courses and programs were not supported by empirical evidence.

HRD courses and programs are offered in universities around the world. Almost nothing is known of their content, quality or methods. Future research on these courses and programs should focus on the relevance of curriculum to the needs of organizations.

While HRD research and practice are concerned with learning and development, topics related to the learning and development of future HRD scholars and practitioners are rarely addressed in the HRD literature. This is the only comprehensive review of the small-body peer-reviewed literature on university-based HRD courses and programs. It provides a summary of the findings of empirical research on HRD courses and programs, and an analysis of the warrant for the claims about these courses and programs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of human resource development (HRD) education in Middle Eastern countries. In particular, the authors discuss the current state of HRD education, country readiness and challenges that hinder HRD progress in Middle Eastern countries. They argue that HRD programs need to prepare young employees for leadership roles through adapting constructivist pedagogy, including problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity.

The design of this paper followed a qualitative approach. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with five HRD experts in Middle Eastern countries and conducted integrative literature review and secondary data analysis.

Data analysis provided an overview of HRD education, looked at options individuals interested in HRD education might have, provided views on constructivism vs instructivism as education pedagogies and discussed cultural factors that impede critical reflection in the workplace.

To understand how to introduce constructivist elements to instructivist learning cultures, and to sustain it, HRD scholars in the Middle Eastern countries need to diminish the misalignment between instructional philosophies of trainers, trainees and national or institutional systems.

Understanding how policy, resources, infrastructure and culture influence learning expectations is vital to introducing innovative training activities or scaling them up to other workshops and systems.

This research sheds light on HRD education in the Middle Eastern countries; provides an overview of employment challenges and opportunities to improve workplace learning; and provides scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders interested in HRD with suggestions to develop successful workforce education.

This study aims to explore how current HRD strategies are put into practice and to what extent they are in line with theoretical ideas espoused in HRD literature. Two research questions are framed within the theoretical framework of learning‐network theory. First, what strategies do HRD practitioners employ to organise learning programmes? Second, what problems and barriers do HRD practitioners encounter in organisational reality? The study is based on data collected from 20 Dutch HRD practitioners using a semi‐structured interview questionnaire. A qualitative analysis was conducted on interview summaries authorised by the respondents. Results indicate a rather broad range of different HRD strategies employed and many problems and barriers encountered in putting preferred HRD strategies into practice. Explanations, implications, and limitations of the findings are discussed.

This paper seeks to analyse and explore the results of a research project, which aimed to identify recent and current research on TLA within HRD programmes. From that base the project also intended to identify areas for future research and a basis for establishing a Special Interest Group.

A comprehensive review of the literature was undertaken and an electronic questionnaire survey was conducted of academic members of the UFHRD, EHRHD and AHRD databases. This provided coverage of widespread international population.

Findings suggest that while research into HRD as a subject and academic discipline is very healthy, there is a dearth of research into the TLA of HRD educational programmes or at least research that is published. They also suggest that academics involved in delivering HRD programmes would welcome support in TLA through additional and new resources as well as ideas on innovative approaches and methods of TLA. TLA in HRD, though, is subject to some constraints, including the role of the professional body in the UK and parts of Europe, the status of HRD in relation to wider business management as a subject and HRM in particular and the size and diversity of student groups. Respondents to the survey, however, were confident that these problems can be addressed.

A key conclusion drawn is that innovative practice in the TLA of HRD is probably more widespread than is evident from the literature. In addition, the notion of “innovative” does not have a fixed meaning and is context specific. This means that TLA practice, which is considered normal or usual in one context could and probably would constitute an innovation in different contexts.

Provides the first overview of research into the TLA of HRD educational programmes.

Summarizes some of the literature on how to market HRD successfully. Examples show how to design, develop and implement strategic marketing plans and how to identify actual and potential customers, their characteristics and needs.

The dynamic environment in which the academic library operates requires explicit links between business strategy and a new management priority including the development of people; this is the focus of human resource development (HRD). It serves the needs of an organization by ensuring that employees’ expertise is state-of-the-art, something that is critical in a period of rapid technological development coinciding with ever-expanding societal needs. HRD can be relied upon to support and shape a wide range of academic library initiatives requiring a competent and engaged workforce by recognizing people as the organization’s most critical asset, one that drives competitive advantage and helps it out-perform the market. Emphasis is placed on developing an organizational context that will attract and develop talented individuals and leaders and keep them engaged. Furthermore, HRD activities must respond to job changes and integrate staff skills sets with the long-term plans and strategies of the organization thus ensuring the efficient and effective use of resources. This chapter explores HRD as a strategic concern of the organization and how it can best serve the organization in the long term. In so doing, it considers how HRD can help the academic library focus resources in those areas where there are strong likelihoods that they can produce substantial improvements in future capacity and performance. This kind of strategic planning helps the organization configure resources within a dynamic competitive environment, thus serving market needs and satisfying stakeholder expectations, helping meet its business purpose and maintain its strategic direction. The case study developed here highlights the need for the effective linkage of HRD and strategic planning for the advancement of the academic library. It suggests the need for developing and implementing both a strategic plan and an HRD plan and developing a culture of strategic human resource development (SHRD) in academic libraries.

This paper aims to discuss a shift from the mentality of limitless growth and expansion to the new sustainability paradigm in HRD practice, and identifies what corresponding changes are needed in human resource development (HRD) university programs.

The paper is based on a review of the literature in HRD and related fields, and of curricula of a sample of HRD programs in the USA.

Five themes were found in the academic literature: critique of HRD's fixation with performance outcomes and lack of emphasis on developing sustainable and responsible members of society; role of HRD in embedding sustainability in organizational cultures; training and development methods, aimed at increasing sustainability awareness and at developing related skills; sustainable leadership and leadership development; and interconnectedness of HRD, sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and business ethics. Review of the contents of a sample of HRD graduate programs suggested that these programs rarely incorporate sustainability‐focused courses or course segments.

Future research needs to conduct an in‐depth review and analysis of the existing HRD graduate coursework in a larger sample of HRD programs to determine the extent of coverage of sustainability‐related topics. In addition, a review of the literature from related fields (e.g. business and management, HRM, and engineering), is needed to identify successful examples of sustainability‐related curricular innovations. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to conduct action research‐based studies of experimental development and implementation of courses and/or teaching modules, focused on sustainability issues.

There are three main areas where changes in HRD curricula are needed: economic foundations of HRD (to demonstrate the economic necessity of the paradigm change); systems theory (to provide a solid understanding of the systemic nature of inter‐relationships between the economy, environment, and society); and self‐leadership and individual moral development as related to individual employees' role in promoting sustainable organizations.

While there is some research on the role of HRD in organizational sustainability, this article is the first to address issues of corresponding changes in HRD academic curricula.

The purpose of this study is to get the perspectives of human resource development (HRD) scholars about connections among HRD, corporate social responsibility and ethics. The authors also sought to discover if HRD academic programs need to have ethics-related courses for their graduate students.

In this paper, the authors reviewed the literature and interviewed ten HRD scholars who substantially contributed to the field of HRD and have influential publications related to ethics or corporate social responsibility to find out the relationship between HRD, ethics and corporate social responsibility. A semi-structured interview method was adopted to collect data and purposeful sampling technique was used for analyzing data into identified themes.

The results from the interviews were categorized into seven different themes. While some scholars argued that ethics-related discussion needs to be integrated within every course, most scholars stated that ethics can be a required standalone course for HRD graduate programs.

Despite ongoing consideration of the ethical nature of HRD, little research has been conducted on how ethics and corporate social responsibility are represented in the field of study and practice. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical paper in HRD that collected and analyzed experts’ perspectives in this topic.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to point out the importance of having an ethics-related course for human resource development (HRD) graduate programs; and second, to highlight HRD potential to minimize ethical misconducts through an ethical filter in organizations.

This paper is conceptual in nature. The authors used their own experiences in HRD programs, looked at HRD graduate programs’ curricula in different universities and reviewed literature on ethics and HRD to develop a conceptual model. The model is to guide future studies and identify the role of HRD practices to create an ethical climate in organizations.

In this paper, the authors illustrate the connection between HRD practices and ethical climate in organizations by providing a conceptual framework. In the concluding paragraphs, the authors provide a discussion, implications and recommendations for future studies.

The authors highlight the limited research conducted on how ethics and ethical dilemmas need to be represented in HRD practitioners’ activities and practices. Many graduate-level HRD students do not receive enough training on ethics, whereas it is their responsibility to help improve organizational ethical climate and educate and prepare human resources to minimize ethical misconducts and wrongdoings. The paper provides a framework for HRD practitioners to create a strong ethical climate in their organizations.