This study investigated HRD as an occupational culture. Cultural patterns were derived from the analysis of subject‐generated stories of workplace experiences. Data were collected from HRD professionals employed by Fortune 500 companies. Exploratory findings suggest that HRD is a cultural entity that is more concerned with employee development and work autonomy than with overall business agendas.

Today more than ever HRD is needed in nonprofit organizations. With a dwindling volunteer population, greater reliance on permanent staff, and demand for improved organizational structure and greater accountability (McFarland, 1999;Young, Bania, and Bailey, 1996), our expertise is called upon to help these agencies more carefully align personnel requirements and organizational structures with missions and business objectives (Sheehan, 1996). To nurture cultures in which new systems of performance management can thrive, HRD professionals must understand the assumptions and goals of nonprofits in general and of their executives in particular.All organizations possess cultural norms that frame expectations and influence strategic support and perceptions of effectiveness. Studies suggest that an organization' s executives help shape these formal and informal codes and assumptions (Hansen and Kahnweiler, 1997;Schein, 1985Schein, , 1991Trice and Beyer, 1993). Similarly, executives as a subculture possess a unique set of values and beliefs that may clash with other groups-including our own-and thus have an effect on our strategic significance (Hansen and Kahnweiler, 1995). What we know about executives' beliefs comes mostly from research conducted in the for-profit sector (for example, Gustafson,

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