The following review was published in Issue 1 of the International Federation of Training & Development Organisations (IFTDO) News, 2015. “This is an outstanding contribution to human resource development. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in HRD. The editors set out with an intention to produce a text which makes sense of HRD, not in any definitive or final way, but rather to provide insight into the perspectives which have shaped and are shaping the complex landscape that is HRD. They are clear that they wanted this book of readings to be genuinely international. Whilst they acknowledge that much of the book does have a western orientation this is countered, even challenged, by the fact that its contributors hail from some 30 different countries. Furthermore one section of the book – one that may particularly appeal to IFTDO members – is devoted to “HRD Around the World” and which features chapters on HRD in six continents; testimony in part to the increasing number of research based cross cultural comparisons of HRD. This is one of nine sections but there are a number of issues addressed in the book which to an extent transcend such boundaries. So for example, a pervasive theme is the search for a clear identity for HRD. HRD is considered alongside ideas and thinking about adult learning (Illeris), andragogy (Kessels) and vocational learning (Billett) but also, in relation to HRD’s organisational site of practice. Here HRD is considered vis HRM (Werner […]
↧