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The Human Resource Development (HRD) field is in the process of discovery and transformation. The quest for the essence of HRD and how to deliver it is intensifying. At this time, in 2003, no single point of view or framework is predominant. The field is rather a mosaic of multiple perspectives, in some cases only loosely arrayed: It can be described as emergent, dynamic, and molded by the contexts, circumstances, and cultures in which it occurs.
The origin of the term HRD dates back to the 1960s and to Leonard Nadler at George Washington University, home of the first master's degree program in HRD. Nadler coined the term HRD and developed a modality that treats HRD as having three component parts: training, education, and development. He relates training to the current job, education to a future job, and development as having no direct relationship to the job (Nadler & Nadler, 1991). Nadler did not consider organization development to be a part of HRD but rather a separate discipline entirely.
Pat McLagen's human resource wheel (mid-1980s), based on research conducted under the auspices of ASTD, also lists three component parts of HRD but they are quite different. They are training and development, organization development (OD), and career development (Marquardt & Engel, 1993). Nadler considers neither OD nor career development to be a part of HRD. There are a wide variety of definitions of HRD beyond the Nadler and McLagen models. Individual university programs place their own stamp on HRD, but whereas they vary somewhat in definition and courses offered, they identify areas often associated with HRD. In these programs, organization development more often than not seems to be a part of the definition (although not necessarily carrying the OD label), supporting the McLagen model.
HRD is expanding in scope and becoming more strategic in nature. My own definition of HRD reflects this trend. "HRD is the creative design and commingling of strategies, structures, systems, technologies, and human beings in ways that promote both individual and organizational learning, and builds and sustains organizational effectiveness." Subsumed within this definition are strategic change management, integration of learning processes, knowledge management, career development, healthy and productive workplaces, insourcing and outsourcing of training, team building, leadership development, application of technologies...