Toward a comprehensive research framework on training and development in business and industry‡

Abstract

Training and development, as one sector of lifelong education, plays an important role in the development of people and organizations. But in spite of its importance we have only a limited understanding of the interrelations of all the issues that have been raised in this sector during the past decades. This is partly due to the fact that there is only limited agreement on the research agenda for training and development of human resources in organizations. In this article we present both an approach to establish a set of priorities for such a comprehensive research agenda, and a proposal for such an agenda for research on training and development in business and industry. Preliminary results of a survey, content analysis, trainers’ inventory, trends analysis and case studies were documented into a consultation document that was offered to a nominal group of 21 policy makers, training managers and other training practitioners. This group analysed a research proposal consisting of analytical propositions a...