Human resource development as a maturing field of study

✍ Scribed by Tracy Medina Evarts

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 281 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1044-8004
• DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.3920090409

✦ Synopsis

What does it mean to be a field of study? What about a "mature" field of study? According to Swanson and Holton, "Mature fields of study have a scholarly journal . . . a scholarly professional association . . . a research handbook (1997, p. xiv). HRD is well on its way to having these trappings of a mature field, but as Ruona and Lyford-Nojima (in press) attest, "Even a brief review of the literature in the field of Human Resource Development (HRD) reveals that scholars believe that the field is in need of more scientific research and theory building." To some extent, the following four reading selections attempt to mature the field of HRD by building or helping to build an understanding of this research and theory: "A Classification and Description of Human Resource Development Scholars" by Wimbiscus (19951, Ruona and Lyford-Nojima's ''Performance Diagnosis Matrix: A Discussion of Human Resource Development Scholarship" (in press), Semler's "Systematic Agreement: A Theory of Organizational Alignment" (19971, and several chapters of Swanson and Holton's Human Resource Development Research Handbook (1997). Through a discussion of the implications of HRD's history, the challenges, and implications for the future, this chapter will discuss the "meanings" behind articles such as these-what they are attempting to accomplish and why it is important. a Tracy Medina Evarts is a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota and a manager at Arthur D. Little, Inc.