Most organisations have a HR department. There is no issue of with having an HR department but it is baffling that we should use the phrase “human resource” to describe the department mandated with looking after the people in our organisations. The extensive use of the word human resource is actually morally questionable.
One can understand the thought behind referring to people as human resources. No organisation can fulfill its functions and make a profit if there are no people in the organisation doing the actual work. People are brought into the organisation because their effort is required by the organisation. The people serve as a necessary element in the means required in order for the organisation to achieve some end goal. On the grounds that they are viewed as a means to an end, they are rightly referred to as a resource.
I am not sure how convincing readers will find the justification of using the term human resource. I however feel that viewing people as a means to our ends is highly questionable. Human beings are not resources, they are people. To view human beings as a resource is to view them as something which can be used and used up if necessary. The problem with this is that every single human being alive has aspirations, hopes, fears, anxieties, and ends of their own. Such a being cannot be viewed solely as the means to our ends because they are much more than that.
Aaron Hurst drives the point home by asking whether we would ever wish our children to grow to be human resources. The plain and simple fact is that such a thing would never form part of our aspirations for our children. This is because becoming a human resources does not further any aspiration that is rightfully human.
It may however be naive to insist that we should stop using the phrase “human resource” as it is so deeply entrenched in corporate jargon. What we should however waste no effort in order to change is the view of human beings in organisations that sits behind the use of the phrase. The point I am trying to make is this: If we insist on calling people human resources we must at least refrain from viewing them and treating them like resources.
Comments
2 responses to “Are You A Human Resource or A Human Being?”
Human time and input is a resource, not the human. Human time and input needs to be managed for financial gain of an organisation. Human input resource management is a better term. HIR then.
That is a better term I agree. I still think however that changing the term does not address the fundamental issue of how the intent of the leadership of organisations patterns in relation to their subordinates. The issue of viewing people as resources does not go away by telling ourselves that we only want their “man-hours” and that we don’t actually want them.