Title: Developments in the emerging human resource development discipline

Authors: Jan N. Streumer, Piet A.M. Kommers

Addresses: University of Twente, Faculty of Educational Science and Technology, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. University of Twente, Faculty of Educational Science and Technology, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract: At intervals, it is interesting to review the most striking changes to have occurred in the field of human resource development. Equally, it is of profound value to carefully keep track of the developments that await us in the future. In this article, some profound developments in Human Resource Development (HRD) will be discussed. Before this is done, attention will be paid to defining the HRD field of study and practice, or HRD discipline. This will be done by presenting the insights of several scholars working in the human resource development area. Some of them are of the opinion that HRD should be considered as a discipline rather than a field of study; others refuse to define HRD as a scientific discipline. Secondly, the most significant outcomes of a literature study and a trend study concerning new developments in the area of HRD will be discussed. In the final section of this article, the contributions to this special issue of the International Journal of HRDM will be introduced.

Keywords: trends; developments; human resource development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRDM.2002.001013

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2002 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.1-16

Published online: 07 Oct 2003 *

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