Purpose This paper aims to explore why harmonisation, given its potential, is so difficult to achieve. It analyses the issues and challenges in achieving harmonisation of training and development across an industry. Design/methodology/approach The approach was a meta-analysis of six research projects undertaken in the Australian rail industry. These projects varied in duration from 12-24 months. Between 2009 and 2013, rail employees in varying roles and levels of seniority, including middle managers, front-line supervisors, rail incident investigators, track workers and drivers, were interviewed (n = 176) and surveyed (n = 341). Findings The meta-analysis identified a range of characteristics associated with harmonisation. It uncovered three categories of harmonisation, seven types of risk modelled in a layered risk pyramid and analysed key structural, environmental and organisational barriers to harmonisation. The paper concludes that harmonisation struggles to gain strategic significance and is hampered by operational pragmatism. Research limitations/implications There are few published papers examining harmonisation across companies or based on meta-analyses, especially qualitatively. Despite limitations of insufficient detail to allow close analysis, potentially variable quality data across projects from which to develop a meta-analysis and the danger of comparing apples with oranges, more attempts using this approach would be helpful in gaining nuanced insights into an industry. Practical implications Achieving industry harmonisation requires significant change in the mindset of executives. To enhance the chances of harmonisation, there is need for a strong national entity with overview of the entire industry, high-quality training and development resources and activities and cost-benefit analyses and active campaigns. A major outcome of this research is the risk pyramid, which can be used by managers as a strategic evaluation tool. By using such tools based on sound research, leaders can be equipped to make informed decisions and reduce downstream risks. Originality/value This research has value in extending the literature in two main ways: through examining the notion of harmonisation across an industry as distinct from within organisations that has been the focus of most studies and through using qualitative meta-analysis in a field dominated by quantitative approaches. It analyses the grey areas between rhetoric about its potential and difficulties in its achievement.

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PurposeDescribes how Plato's philosophy has influenced, and may continue to affect, modern human‐resource management.Design/methodology/approachOutlines some of Plato's main ideas – including the role of the philosopher king in striving for the ideal – and draws out their relevance for current HR thinking and practice.FindingsContends that the platonic HR manager would oppose the notion of flatter structures. Policy would encourage progression through education, recognizing that not everyone had the qualities or wisdom to become a top executive. Men would rise faster than women, and emphasis would be placed on age, experience and service. Training and development would be more segmented and orientated towards efficiency.Practical implicationsArgues that, on the basis of Plato's philosophy, educated and enlightened leaders would go the extra mile for the good of the enterprise and senior executives would set an example.Social implicationsHighlights an anti‐democratic notion at the heart of Plato's philosophy: that truth and reality reside in a universal series of ideals, or forms, that transcend the material world and are understood only by a few members of a privileged class.Originality/valueApplies 2,500‐year‐old ideas to the modern HR world.

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