International Human Resource Development: Learning, Education and Training for Individuals and Organizations (3rd ed.), edited by John Peter Wilson. London, United Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited, 2012. ISBN: 978‐0‐7494‐6106‐5; E‐ISBN: 978 0 7494 6107 2; 502 pages; £39.99 (paperback).

• Date: 01 December 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21174
• Published date: 01 December 2013
• Author: John Dewar Wilson

International Human Resource Development: Learning, Education and

Training for Individuals and Organizations (3rd ed.), edited by John Peter

Wilson. London, United Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited, 2012. ISBN:

978-0-7494-6106-5; E-ISBN: 978 0 7494 6107 2; 502 pages; £39.99 (paperback).

Key words: international human resource development, learning theories,

training cycle, managing HRD, technical and vocational education

and training, policy learning

International Human Resource Development is the third edition of a textbook

fi rst published in 1999. Its fi ve parts comprise 24 chapters by Wilson and 31

international colleagues. Word constraints limit discussion of individual chap-

ters, but longer reviews are available from jdewarw@gmail.com (no relation to

the editor!).

Part One: International Human Resource Development and Learning has

three chapters. Chapter 1, “International Human Resource Development”

(Wilson 23 pages) reviews the defi nition and scope of human resource devel-

opment (HRD)/HR management (HRM)/international HRD (IHRD). Wilson

defi nes HRD as “processes for increasing the cognitive, affective and behav-

ioural in text behavioral capacities of all people and organizations in a society”

(p. 9); IHRD is defi ned identically except for these fi nal words: “... people,

organizations and societies globally” (p. 14). Some readers may feel little

wiser; a legitimate question is how far the defi nition fi ts supranational organi-

zations such as the European Union (EU).

Chapter 2, “Strategic Human Resource Development” (SHRD) (Garavan

and Carbery, 21 pages) introduces prescriptive, explanatory and practice

models of SHRD, with case studies of three U.S. multinationals. Chapter 3,

“What Is Learning?,” (Wilson, 23 pages) considers “learning from six main

perspectives: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, social learning,

humanism and cognitive science” (p. 45). Beard and Price overstate their

claim (Chapter 23, p. 468) that adult learning theory is examined critically

since andragogy receives only half a page.

Part Two: Organizational Learning has two chapters: Chapter 4, “Change

Management and Organizational Learning” (Wilson, 21 pages) and Chapter 5,

“Knowledge Management” (Tomé, 18 pages). Chapter 4 explains nature, types,

and strategies of change and the organization development cycle. A case

explores introducing uniform pay scales in English hospitals. Tomé claims that

knowledge management (KM)—an activity as well as a science—is more used

by developing than developed countries. He “tries to come to terms with the

different perspectives that might be used to analyze intangible assets” (p. 94),

MEDIA REVIEW

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 24, no. 4, Winter 2013 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21174 561