Commonly held theories of human resource development

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of human resource development (HRD), there has been little agreement as to the underlying definition and primary theories that form the basis for the field. In order to reach some understanding, this paper will outline many of the current US American definitions now held in the HRD profession. Commonly held themes will be removed from those definitions and the theories underlying those themes will be examined. Each theory is reviewed and then tested with the first step of Patterson's (1986) criteria for assessing the validity of a theory. This review of the definitions and test of the underlying theories will give the field a primary interdisciplinary foundation to begin to work from and to do additional research.