Strategy 2050 and Human Resource Management in Kazakhstan: A Focus on Leadership Development

Abstract

Human Resource Management (HRM) has been extensively researched in most parts of the world, but not in the new, emergent nation of Kazakhstan. Strategically located and resource-rich, Kazakhstan is evolving as a major economy of the future. The question of this research project is whether HRM in Kazakhstan is sufficiently advanced to make a contribution to Kazakhstan's ambitious development goals of becoming one of the world's thirty most competitive nations by 2050. Adopting a qualitative research paradigm, ninety-two professionals working in a diverse range of occupations and industries in Kazakhstan participated in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. Data collection and analysis was carried out applying Grounded Theory research methods whereby theory emerges from the data rather than the data being used to test a hypothesis. This process entails coding data and observing the development of themes from, in this case, interview transcripts.