First, HRD as a field of practice did not feature in China until multinational companies’
human resource management practices brought greater prominence to HRD in
the mid-1990s. The field is currently unregulated with a limited sense of social responsibility
regarding the HRD profession. This is evidenced by the fact that there are only
two HRD doctoral programs in the country, one in Beijing and the other in Shanghai.
Both programs were created during the last three years and there is not a single ethical
course listed in either of the two PhD curricula. The reality in the practitioner field is
even more disturbing.