How Developmental Relationships Can Be Used by Organizations and Governments as Tools for National HRD Initiatives: India and Spain

The increased role of political and socio-cultural systems and their relationships with National Human Resource Development (NHRD) capability and capacity building may require scholars to investigate the role of contextual factors on formal and informal strategy planning and implementation for developmental relationships at both organizational and national levels. In this chapter, we explore existing practices for promoting developmental relationships from organizational and national perspectives, bringing together examples of formal and informal interventions in the context of an Asian and a European nation (India and Spain). Adopting ethnographic and hermeneutic methodologies, the chapter explores the meaning of existing practices for promoting developmental relationships from an NHRD perspective, identifying examples of interventions in the context of India and Spain. We conclude that developmental relationships contribute to NHRD by nurturing and developing capacity and capability building. Cross-cultural evidence justifies the presence of formal and informal policies and practices at organizational and national levels. Formal interventions in organizations of both countries have enabled capacity and capability development. Informally, customs, traditions, and rituals have nurtured and created a developmental culture that enables capacity and capability building. Last, developmental relationships at the national level have been promoted through various policies, schemes, and regulations in both countries. We discuss implications for international theory and practice based on the cross-country perspective in the chapter.