A Review of Past Research in Human Performance Technology: Content Analysis

From its roots in systems theory and behavioral psychology, the field of human performance technology (HPT) has evolved and expanded notably during the last fifty years. The growing acknowledgments of HPT impose new accountabilities to performance technologists for the field's further development, such as making sincere exploration into the current conditions and future destination of the field. The purpose of this study is the description of the current state of the field by organizing and classifying HPT research along a number of facets, primarily: (1) the major topics of research that have been conducted, (2) the research methods used to address the research topics. For this purpose, The researcher employed content analysis method and all articles in Performance Improvement Quarterly (PIQ) - representative journal published by International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) - in the year 2001 to 2005 were analyzed. This study revealed that there were four main topics of research that have been typically conducted: (1) performance improvement components – analysis, intervention, evaluation, (2) HPT fundamentals – definition, model, ethics, HPT research methods, (3) Human Resource Development (HRD) perspectives – HRD theory and practices, (4) Changing business and organizational environment. In terms of research methodology, survey and case study were dominant in HPT research. From the study results, some useful implications to current conditions and future direction in the field of HPT for researchers and practitioners were presented in the discussion section.