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

environment that significantly 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 a combination of other
resources in the right mix and to formulate appropriate strategies to achieve organizational
objectives. Hence, the strategic use of HRD is one of the most critical 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 the course of production 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 carried through different training and
learning programs, 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,
where the organization increases experience and is ready to face potentiality of change in the
operating 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 literature as mentioned above
and studies make a comparison to help and to find out the gap in the operation of HRD in the
organization. The research 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 healthy human resource development nurtures human
talent so employees can become even more valuable to the organization. In this study, it
focusses on coping up with this changing environment that they need to develop their human
resources. It is because the survival and growth of any organization depend on the quality of
human resources. In 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 does this human resource describe 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. Before 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 on June 27-28,
2019, after the review of the 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 a 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 a memorandum, particular order, department circular and minutes of the
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 individually and grouped the codes
into similar groups. We did this by cutting and pasting text from the same systems into separate word
documents. Once all of the books from all of the interviews for each participant was categorized into
different 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 tricky since thoughts and
actions are so interrelated, however, to provide an organized representation of the findings, decisions
made about what constituted a thought and what constituted an action, and the text was categorized
accordingly in the narrative of each case. The categories constructed for each participant along with their
corresponding themes listed in Appendix C