A Model of Caring in Organizations for Human Resource Development

Although caring and an ethics of care have been part of the nursing and education literature for many years, it has seldom been the focus of research and models in the HRD literature which has tended to be dominated by masculine rationality and models that focus on performance. In this paper, I argue that caring represents an important positive attribute of organizations and that a model of caring provides an alternative to HRD models based on masculine rationality and a performance philosophy. Research on caring in nursing and education is reviewed along with calls for an ethic of care in HRD. This is followed by a review of research on caring in organizations which provides the basis for the development of a model of caring in organizations for HRD. The model demonstrates the relationships between caring from three sources or levels in an organization (the organization or business unit, management, and co-workers), a climate of care for employees, and positive employee outcomes. HRD care-enhancing interventions for developing caring in organizations are then discussed. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of a model of caring for HRD research and practice.