ABSTRACT

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is a geopolitical region that includes the European countries which were under Soviet influence before 1990, formerly referred to as the Eastern Bloc. This region has witnessed unprecedented political and socio-economic changes in the past two decades that have had a major impact on adult learning, organization development and change and leadership. These vital components of the human resource development (HRD) field are concerned with enabling learning for all, facilitating change and ensuring that leaders understand the importance of learning and development. The increased understanding of the value of human capital and human resource management (HRM) and HRD for the wellbeing of the region led to national HRD initiatives and changes in higher education systems and organization practices. However, more than 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall differences still exist between CEE and the rest of Europe (Brewster et al. 2010), which are important to understand in order to address the HRD issues in this region.