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Refereed Full Manuscript

International, Global, and Cross Cultural Issue

Session: Strategic HRD

Mind the Gap – A Comparative Analysis of (In-)Congruences in HRD Role Perception

Friday, March 3, 2023
2:15 PM – 3:45 PM CST
Location: Grand Ballroom 4
Abstract: The year 2020 and the global health pandemic brought significant shifts to work and the workplace, including questions around the Human Resource Development (HRD) function – what it is doing, and what it should be doing. In our paper, we examine HRD’s role and its associated activities through established versions of role theory. We ask: To what extent is there congruence in role expectations of HRD professionals and other stakeholders? We study this question by interviewing 71 stakeholders across 16 organizations in three countries (US/UK/NL) and analyze their responses in terms of HRD role expectations and perceptions, congruences and incongruences. We map our findings on a four-box matrix and find that only a small number of organizations agree that they see the HRD function as strategic partners; most organizations find themselves within a more operational HRD role definition, or somewhere in between, with mixed ideas of role perceptions. Yet, a few organizations struggle to find alignment on HRD’s strategic aspirations and how those play out in practice. While our findings highlight the progress that HRD practice has made towards being seen as a strategic influence, we conclude that many HRD practitioners struggle to gain a seat at the table. We close our paper by discussing implications for HRD practice and scholarship.