Despite the central role of HRD in service firms and a recent special issue on HRD
(Tomé, 2011), there is still a limited understanding of the area. This article provides
an innovative conceptual framework for examining HRD interventions in service
firms across cultures. By synthesizing the national culture, organizational culture,
HRD, and services literatures, the proposed conceptual model has important implications
for HRD theorists and practitioners. Most importantly, the connections between
the various bodies of literatures (national culture, organizational culture, HRD, and
services management) serve as an important mechanism in theory building that is in
line with Simmonds and Pedersen’s (2006) perspective that the “future of HRD
now lies squarely in the need for the profession to embrace fully the inextricably