ABSTRACT

This chapter draws upon the emerging body of research in HRD, primarily UK based, which provides the underpinning for the conceptual, theoretical and practical advance of HRD. We aim to provide an overview of many of the conceptual and theoretical concerns surrounding the meaning and understanding of HRD. These issues and concerns relate to both the ontological and epistemological perspectives on HRD, which in turn influence our vision of researching and understanding HRD. The chapter offers a contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the theoretical foundations of HRD (Walton 1999; Lynham 2000) and the purpose and value of HRD professional practice (Holton 2000). It presents an analysis of the key tenets of the various positions in these debates. In doing so, it provides something of a comparison of American and European conceptions of HRD. This informs the overview of the diversity of research philosophies, processes and practices currently being applied in the United Kingdom. We also draw on the work of Keenoy (1999), a sharp critic of the literature of HRM, and try to apply his critique into a better conceptual understanding of HRD by developing a metaphor of HRD as a ‘hologram’.