Adapting through personal development

Purpose – The paper aims to reveal and discuss the recent growing interest for personal development that seems to outline an emerging study field, and especially a flourishing industry of training business, but with many different approaches more or less related to individual needs and perceptions. Methodology/approach – After synthesizing of SciVerse Hub statistics on publications and research areas referring to personal development, we review few conceptual approaches and we present the main results of a study of individual perceptions on this. Findings – A growing number of subject areas addresses related issues of personal development, especially social sciences, business and management. The results of study showing that respondent’s perceptions on personal development reflect rather a limited understanding of the concept. Research limitations/implications – The study has a limited research area (a number of 163 Romanian students), making difficult generalization of results. Practical implications – Organizations are groups of individuals performing economic activities, so that any organizational capability depends on individual capabilities and willingness of self-change that is personal development's essence. Originality/value – The paper provides an evidence-based overview about interests for personal development and discusses some implications and results of a study on individual perceptions within a group of Romanian master students in Human Resource Management.