Human resource and development in an organization operate in a complex and changing

environment that greatly influences their practices for growth and development. According to
Werner and Desimone (2006), HRD practices such as training and development, career
development, organizational development and performance appraisal are vital to every
organization. Moreover, Isaac (2013), asserted HR criticality for combination of other resources
in a right mix and to formulate appropriate strategies to achieve organizational objectives.
Hence, the strategic use of HRD is one of the most important factors for organizational
performance. A study by Kebede and Sambasivam (2013) stated that, the strategic value of
HRD stems from the fact that resources used in a course of production is endowed with
discretionary decision-making of other resources. Singh (2007) emphases the fact that the best
way to enhance the individual and group performance of companies is through a process for
development and skillful human development, which is carried through different training and
learning programs, in order to meet the requirements. All those programs and time spent in
gaining new knowledge by employees and staff is defined by Werner & DeSimone (2011) as a
given period of time, where the organization gains experience and is ready to face potentiality of
change in the operation environment and growth as a whole. According to McLean (2001),
human resources development is a process that has the potential to increase and enhance the
knowledge of employees, regardless if it is a short or a long-term process. The above-
mentioned literature and studies make a comparison to help and to find out the gap in the
operation of HRD in the organization. The study shows that in managing their organizational
employees in an effective way towards organizational goals. It said, that Human Resource and
Development is central to any organization, and it’s about far more than just hiring and firing
employees. In forward-thinking organization today, human resource development focuses on
the recruitment, direction, and management of human assets, and making strategic plans for the
future. Furthermore, they stressed that strong human resource development nurtures human
talent so employees can become even more valuable to the organization. In this study, it
focusses to cope up with this changing environment that they need to develop their human
resources. This is because the survival and growth of any organization depends on the quality
of human resources. Having this in mind this study was conducted to assess HRD practices,
issues and challenges in a selected Department of Education sector in the Division of Northern
Samar, Catarman, Northern Samar, Philippines.

Objectives of the Study:

The study aimed to investigate the Human Resource and Development Practices, Issues
and Challenges: The case of DepEd Northern Samar Division for the academic year 2019-2020.
Specifically, this research study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. How do these human resource and development practices perceive their previous
experiences to have prepared them to manage the department?

2. How do this human resource describe their current thoughts and actions regarding issues
and challenges in the department?

METHODOLOGY

This study utilizes a case study method of research. “In general, case studies are the preferred strategy
when “how” or “why” questions are being posed” (Yin, 2003). Such “how” and “why” questions are
addressed through the description and analysis of “a single unit such as an individual, program, event,
group, or community” (Merriam, 1998). This study consists of two individual case studies where the unit
of analysis in each case is the previous experiences, and current thoughts and actions regarding human
resource development practices. Prior to the collection of data, we talked with each of the two participants
and observed one rehearsal at each office. These observations and discussions took place in June 27-28
2019 after the review of literature was completed and before the data collection began. The two
participants in the qualitative portion of this study, Dr. Felix Ladenio and Michelle Caguilbal, are
considered a criterion sample in that they were selected to reflect cases that meet some predetermined
criteria of importance. Both participants employed in similar agency at Northern Samar Division.
Currently, Felix designated as SEPS-HRD and Michelle as Administrative Officer V in the Division. The
data collection process involved observations, interviews and checklist with each participant. We
conducted the first observation and took field notes with each participant, followed by the first interview
and answering checklist questionnaire. This process continued until we observed and interviewed each
participant at a time. During the observations and interviews, as it was relevant, we gathered artifacts for
analysis. These artifacts included memorandum, special order, department circular and minutes of
administrative meeting, and served, along with the field notes, to triangulate interview and observation
data, and generate further avenues for exploration. All observations and interviews were video-recorded
and audio-recorded. Data preparation consisted of transcribing the interviews, watching the observation
recordings, and reviewing the artifacts and field notes to get a general impression of the data. Once all
data sources were collected and prepared, we began the process of coding. Each participant was coded
separately without regard to comparing or matching codes between the two. To develop the themes of
each participant, we went through the transcripts for each participant separately and grouped the codes
into similar groups. We did this by cutting and pasting text from similar codes into separate word
documents. Once all of the text from all of the interviews for each participant was categorized into
separate word documents. Interview transcripts were analyzed inductively through the initial preparation
and organization of the data, two rounds of coding, and thematic development to make sense of the data.
The final portion of the qualitative analysis served as the outline for constructing and presenting the
narratives for each participant. Deciding how to categorize the themes was often difficult since thoughts
and actions are so interrelated, however, in order to provide an organized representation of the findings,
decisions were made about what constituted a thought and what constituted an action, and text was
categorized accordingly in the narrative of each case. The categories constructed for each participant
along with their corresponding themes are listed in Appendix C