The development of the field of HRD: a Delphi study

Abstract

Purpose -The study explored the views of leading human resource development (HRD) academics regarding five main issues: the disciplinary bases of HRD, the historical milestones in HRD, the constituent components of HRD, the leading contributions in terms of journal articles and books to the development of HRD and the future of HRD. Design/methodology/approach -A Delphi methodology was adopted. The views of editorial board members of the four main HRD journals (Human Resource Development Quarterly, Human Resource Development International, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Human Resource Development Review) and of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Human Resource Development were sought. Findings -Adult learning, systems theory and psychology were identified as the disciplinary bases of HRD. Works by Knowles, Nadler and McLagan were viewed as the leading contributions to the field. Adjusting to changes in work patterns and how work is organized was identified as a key trend influencing the field. Issues of professionalisation and balancing the needs of employees, organizations and society were identified as the key challenges facing the field. Originality/value -Examines key trends and challenges facing HRD.

An Organizational and Task Perspective Model Aimed at Enhancing Teachers’ Professional Development and Occupational Expertise

“…Reflections upon the proposed model McGuire and Cseh (2006), in a Delphi study among HRD experts, stressed the importance of understanding learning concepts in applying the principles of HRD. Poell, Van Dam and Van den Berg (2004) stated that individual learning has to be researched in relation to its various contexts, that is, in relation to job and task characteristics, in interaction with employees, managers, and HRD professionals in the workplace, and within the broader learning culture, and climate of the organization.…”

“…Similarly, McGuire and Cseh (2006) stressed the importance of workplace learning as an essential component of HRD.…”

“…Traditionally, learning took place in more or less formal classroom-based settings. As the transfer of knowledge and skills developed in these settings to workplace settings has appeared to be problematic, the range of possible learning activities has been elaborated by including informal learning activities in the workplace as well, being a typical place where informal learning may occur (Cheetham & Chivers, 2001;Eraut, 2004;Marsick & Watkins, 2001;McGuire & Cseh, 2006). Marsick and Watkins (2001, p. 25) defined informal learning as: "… not typically classroom-based or highly structured, and control of learning rests primarily in the hands of the learner.…”

Human resource management practices of manufacturing and engineering organisations in India: Lessons for the developing world

“…In fact, it has been noted that most human resource frameworks tend to be isolationistic in approach, when research on the other hand show that organisational work practices are bettered from an integrated standpoint, as adoption of one HRM practice is effective when done in combination with one or more other HR practices (Som, 2007). That the different perspectives of HR are giving the field a foggy dimension has been aptly demonstrated by amongst others (McGuire and Cseh, 2006;Grieves and Redman, 1999;Evarts, 1998) to name a few. As a result, HR tools cannot provide the roadmap as to how these frameworks link up or interact with each other to provide the much needed competitive advantage, hence a need to find one.…”

A Delphi Study to Identify Corporate Social Responsibility Indicators: The Case of Greek Telecommunication Sector

“…Predicated on the logic that "two heads are better than one" (Dalkey, 1972), Delphi method is developed to reach a consensus from an expert panel for a complex problem where knowledge is limited (Williams andWebb, 1994, Hauck et al, 2007;Phillips, 2000;Dalkey and Helmer, 1963;Linstone and Turoff, 1975). The Delphi methodology can be used for a plethora of cases, such as sustainable tourism (Miller, 2001;Choi and Sirakaya, 2006), CSR (Hussein, 2010;Talaei and Nejati, 2008), human resources development (McGuire and Cseh, 2006), government planning (Linstone and Turroff, 2002), environmental management (Gokhale, 2001), medicine (Efstathiou et al, 2008;Keeney et al, 2001) and strategic management (Loo, 2002), while it is applied to select performance indicators in several fields (Ma et al, 2011). Typically, Delphi methodology involves expert panel, repeated rounds, opportunity for respondents to reconsider their responses and finally, anonymity of the expert panel.…”