Foundations of Human Resource Development

Human Resource Development (HRD) is in a state of becoming. With these words, Lee (2001) describes the emerging field of HRD. From its origins (Harbison and Myers, 1964; Nadler, 1970), HRD has evolved as a field of theory and practice with a distinctive tripartite agenda of human betterment, organisational enhancement and societal development. The transformative power of HRD lies in its capacity to empower the creation of innovative and radical solutions to real world problems. HRD has evolved to meet the changing individual, organisational and societal environment it inhabits. Its historical development has mirrored changes in the nature of work and reflects the diverse cultures and values it occupies (Alagaraja and Dooley, 2003). They trace the development of HRD to the work of the toolmaker in constructing human axes leading to the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in the era 5 million to 3000bc. Swanson and Holton (2001) trace the roots of HRD back to the legacy of the Greeks and Romans (100bc–ad300), while Ruona (2001) identifies the Training Within Industry (TWI) agency in the 1940s as being pivotal to the emergence of contemporary HRD. McGuire and Cseh (2006) highlight some of the more recent key milestones in the development of the field as the publication of Malcolm Knowles’ The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy; the publication of Nadlers’ Developing Human Resources and the foundation of the Academy of Human Resource Development.