ABSTRACT
For almost half a century, HRD has focused solely on performance (Swanson 1995) or learning (Watkins 2000), and both have been almost entirely focused on for-profit corporate contexts. Gradually, however, the boundaries of HRD have been expanding, including many foci not originally considered, as generated in the definition of HRD by McLean and McLean (2001: 322):
Human resource development is any process or activity that, either initially or over the long term, has the potential to develop adults’ work-based knowledge, expertise, productivity, and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization, community, nation or, ultimately, the whole of humanity.
This chapter focuses on national HRD (NHRD), the use of HRD principles and practices to support the development of countries. Over the years, many terms have been used to reflect concepts similar to what is now known mainly as NHRD: human capital development, national human capital development, national manpower development, national workforce development, human development (now the preferred term for the United Nations), and many others. Throughout this chapter, we will proceed as if all of these concepts contribute to NHRD, though some may use the terms as synonyms. It is still up for discussion as to which term will dominate moving forward.