| Little research attention, particularly in cross-cultural research, has been given to the meaning of practice in human resource development (HRD) largely due to the multi-dimensional aspects of the concept. As HRD started to become an established profession in Thailand, the present researcher's home country was undergoing a severe human resource scarcity at the time of the study. It is the intention of this study to investigate the perception of Thai Human Resource (HR) practitioners regarding the concept, the status, and the future direction and strategies for Thai HRD practice. This study was grounded conceptually in three major theoretical perspectives: systems theory, the ASTD' models for HRD, and cultural relativity. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviewing with twenty-five participants. Only twenty-four interviews were usable for data analysis.; Drawn from participants' perspectives, the contributions of HRD were enabling organizations to gain better returns on investment, to better utilize their employee potential, to enhance employees' morale and commitment to the organization, to be more socially responsible, and to succeed in their business. The participants believe the essential objectives of HRD are improving employees' performance, fulfilling the demands of the organizations for human resources, and facilitating organizational change. The scope of HRD practice was expected to direct toward organizational knowledge, social skills, cognitive capability, job expertise and self competence. The participants' perceptions revealed seven approaches to HRD that entailed on-the-job learning, line involvement, empowerment, life-span development, whole-person development, equal opportunity for development, and self-development. Thai HRD practice was characterized as unsystematic and disoriented due to the unconcerned attitudes of the stakeholders, the low recognition and understanding of the profession, and substandard professionalism. Correspondingly, four future directions of Thai HRD practice were identified as follows: (1) changing management attitudes, (2) improving the status of HRD profession, (3) enhancing the professional proficiency, and (4) redirecting Thai HRD practice through the following strategies: (a) a systematic, holistic HRD planning, development of Thai management and HRD practitioners to assume a more holistic view of HRD practice, (b) increased collaboration of all the parties concerned in developing others and themselves, (c) more emphasis on creating a learning environment for individual growth and organizational learning. Overall, the study's results pointed to an increasing awareness of HRD practitioners' role as strategic, business partners---as one participant put it, "to come to the forefront to work along with the management team."... |
