Examining the dominant, emerging, and waning themes featured in select HRD publications

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify how themes and contributions featured in the four scholarly journals sponsored by the largest human resource development (HRD) research association (the Academy of Human Resource Development, AHRD) reflect the changing identity of the HRD field. Design/methodology/approach – A frequency and content analysis of articles published during the period 2002-2011 was conducted to identify the dominant themes and research trend. Further, comments were made on the aims and scope and editorial discretion for each journal to understand how the journals influence the direction of scholarship in HRD. Findings – It was found that the boundaries of the field are constantly expanding with some of the older and mature themes losing momentum and new themes coming to the forefront of scholarly interest. The journals were found to play a critical role in setting the future direction for the field. Research limitations/implications – Future researchers can examine if the waxing and waning themes identified in the findings remain same after analyzing contributions featured in journals that are not sponsored by the AHRD, but publish articles on topics closely related to HRD. Also, the findings can guide further examination of the editors’ leadership role in driving the evolution of the HRD field. Practical implications – Considering the characteristics of HRD as an applied discipline, the findings can guide future researchers to explore if the thematic changes as identified in the study are associated with the needs of HRD practice. Originality/value – The study attempts to understand the landscape of HRD research by looking at how the field’s identity boundaries have shifted over time and how different entities, like authors and editors publishing scholarly articles in the four HRD journals in the past decade, have interacted to contribute to the shift.

Building Blocks of Contemporary HRD Research: A Citation Analysis on Human Resource Development Quarterly between 2007 and 2013

“…These topics have not only been addressed by HRD scholars, but have also been appealing topics in psychology and management. The findings of our study are consistent with multiple previous studies indicating that training and learning are key research areas in HRD (Ghosh et al, ; McGuire and Cseh, ). On the other hand, career development does not seem to be of interest for any of the most‐cited articles among the papers published in HRDQ.…”

“…On the other hand, career development does not seem to be of interest for any of the most‐cited articles among the papers published in HRDQ. This result mirrors the previous study conducted by Ghosh et al (). Through the content and frequency analysis of the four AHRD journals from 2002–2011, Ghosh et al () identified the research themes related to training and development (e.g., learning, training) as the mature and most dominant research themes while career development was a recently emerged theme.…”

“…This result mirrors the previous study conducted by Ghosh et al (). Through the content and frequency analysis of the four AHRD journals from 2002–2011, Ghosh et al () identified the research themes related to training and development (e.g., learning, training) as the mature and most dominant research themes while career development was a recently emerged theme. Such consistent findings support the assertion that career development, as one of the core component areas of HRD, has been overlooked in published research (McDonald and Hite, ), even though HRD scholars and practitioners advocate building adult progression through work roles with the purpose of more holistic development of one's career (Swanson and Holton, ).…”

“…Several scholars in the field of HRD have used citation analysis to examine the impact of research among disciplines (e.g., Azevedo & Hedayati, 2013; Ghosh et al, ; Jeung et al, ; Jo et al, ; Sleezer & Sleezer, ; Sun & Wang, ). Using citation analysis, Sleezer and Sleezer () investigated the status of research in HRD in the United States through the years 1980–1994 and reported a list of 17 journals that published more than 15 HRD related articles.…”

Exploring human resource development research themes: A keyword network analysis

“…As an interdisciplinary field of research and practice, the definition and boundaries of human resource development (HRD) have long been contested (Hamlin & Stewart, ; Wang & Sun, ; Weinberger, ). In this regard, scholars have made efforts to identify the theoretical foundations of HRD and HRD research themes by utilizing various approaches, including literature reviews, survey methods, content analyses, the Delphi technique, and cocitation analyses (e.g., Ghosh, Kim, Kim, & Callahan, ; Jo, Jeung, Park, & Yoon, ; McGuire & Cseh, ; Mehdiabadi, Seo, Huang, & Han, ).…”