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Article Information:
Title:
Are humans resources?
Author(s):
Kerr Inkson
Journal:
Career Development International
Year:
2008
Volume:
Issue:
Page:
270 - 279
DOI:
10.1108/13620430810870511
Publisher:
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Acknowledgements:
This article is adapted from K. Inkson, “Are humans resources? A view from career studies”, a paper presented at the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, Canberra, December 2005, where it won the Best Paper Award in the stream of Human Resource Management, sponsored by Latrobe University Faculty of Law and Management. The author is grateful to Ken Parry for his encouragement of the development of this paper, and to Michael Arthur for a commentary that enabled substantial improvements to be made.
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Abstract:
Purpose – This paper aims to offer a critique, from a career studies perspective, of the common term “human resource management.”
Design/methodology/approach – Provides a literature review and critique.
Findings – The term “human resource management” is a metaphor that presents employees as passive commodities or assets rather than as active agents, and thereby potentially de-humanizes them. In an alternative view based on career studies, individual employees are active agents utilizing the resources of employing organizations to pursue personal goals. Alternative terms to “human resource management” are suggested.
Research limitations/implications – There is scope for study of the effects of “human resources” terminology on employees' and others' view of and attitude to the human resource management function.
Practical implications – Examination of “human resources” discourse may promote examination of the implications of current discourse for practice, facilitate moderation of practice, and stimulate the search for new discourse and new practice, by both organizations and individuals.
Originality/value – This paper questions a prevailing and widely accepted form of discourse in management and advocates change.
Keywords:
Careers,
Human resource management,
Metaphors
Article Type:
Viewpoint
References:
Article URL:
www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/13620430810870511