Portsmouth Business School

Thesis summary

Human Resources Development (HRD) is a broad and complex topic that is difficult to define but most HRD definitions (see for example McCracken and Wallace, 2000; Swanson, 2001; Sadler-Smith; 2006) accept that training and development form a central part. However, the literature shows that an increasing feature of HRD in Western economies is to pay attention not just to training programmes but to all learning processes as a broader issue, from individual to organisational learning and from traditional Training and Development (T&D) to some strategically aligned HRD that links its processes and activities with organisation strategies (Anderson, 2007; Garavan, 2007; Sadler-Smith, 2006).

The aim of this study is to investigate the value attached to learning in multinational private and public organizations in Saudi Arabia. Three objectives guide this study to examine the strategic value of learning from CEO managers’ and HRD practitioners’ perceptions in multinational private and public organizations in Saudi Arabia, to establish the extent to which the value attached to learning in the public sector is different from that in the multinational private sector in Saudi Arabia and to examine any differences in the value attached to learning by specialists and senior managers of organizations in Saudi Arabia.