What Do HRD Scholars and Practitioners Need to Know About Power, Emotion, and HRD?

In this article, written for the 25th anniversary volume of HRDQ, I have been invited to focus on emotion and power in the context of HRD. It is hoped that my article will help to inform and to stimulate the future flow of manuscripts in this area. My starting point is to suggest a simple rule, which is that development is beset with contradictions. I argue that a better understanding of the contradictions that are integral to HRD will lead to improvements in the design and implementation of learning and development practices within the messy, complicated, and power-filled world of organizations.