The adoption of a national human resource development standard: the role of internal and external pressures

This study investigates the internal and external pressures which explain the adoption or non-adoption of the Irish human resource development standard among organisations. National governments use a variety of strategies and policy measures to encourage organisations and individuals to invest in human capital. A National human resource development standard (NHRD) is one such measure. This research moves beyond the dominant view in the literature that organisations adopt practices for rational reasons. This is the first study to utilise institutional theory to explain the adoption of a NHRD standard. Organisations that had adopted the Irish NHRD standard and non-adopter organisations were surveyed. The results of the logistic regression analysis show that there are some notable differences between adopter and non adopter organisations. This study makes some important contributions as it offers empirical evidence that some relationships between adoption of a NHRD standard and independent variables do exist. The research model and associated hypotheses advances the theoretical understandings of the internal and external pressures which explain the adoption of a NHRD standard. The results provide a new means of understanding organisations’ responses to the internal and external pressures in the adoption of a NHRD standard.This study adds to a currently sparse literature on the adoption of a NHRD standard.