On criticism, cosmetics, orthopedics and anthropopedia

Abstract

The personnel management area has dramatically changed over the last 30 years, following the natural evolution of the society and, therefore, the change in the world of business and organizations. However, instead of the natural way in which other areas of the management of organizations have evolved, human resources division has been involved in an ongoing and recurring questioning about its role, its influence, its measurement bases and even its brand name.

This paper presents a critical and ironic version of the main theoretical and practical solutions that have been developed to define the role of the human resources function, to innovate their working methods and to assess its performance as a functional area of management.

The author's main conclusion is that most of these attempts have only resulted in cosmetic changes or in the implementation of very diverse tools whose general effect has been restricted to slightly correct the course and the path of this management area.

The director of human resources should be, according to the author, an expert in the science of the man in its widest dimension and in the subsequent of this corpus to the achievement of organizational goals. The anthropopedia is the author's particular contribution to the real growth of the human resources function.