Beyond The Bottom Line - Changing HR To Change The Future Of Work
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2024-01
Author(s)
Abstract
In a world where the average person spends over 100,000 hours working, where more than 80% of adults deeply identify with their job roles, and where employment creates significant unhappiness, the imperative is clear—we must ensure that work be-comes a positive force for as many people as possible. We firmly believe this requires leadership. In an era marked by complexity and polycrisis, leaders across the board must acknowledge their complicity in perpetuating suffering with-in organisations. In order to reshape the future of work, they not only need to deepen their understanding of what constitutes good work, but also dare to challenge the status quo and actively contribute to its realization. It is time to heed the call of both personal and institutional transformation. In our short essay we turn the spot-light on a pivotal group of leaders – those in HR. Why HR? Because, more than any other leaders, we believe HR leaders should be the custodians of good work. After all, HR is all about people, isn’t it? Here’s the twist: when we delved into the data, we didn’t really see that. Hence, we argue that in spite of its ever-growing popularity the future of work is looking increasingly bleak, because leaders – particularly those in HR – are increasingly stuck. Of course, a call for the transformation of HR is not new. Over recent years, we have witnessed an explosion of proposals for novel roles of HR. HR is truly world-class at inventing new positions. Four out of the top five new "job roles on the rise in 2023" belong to HR! The lone outlier? A 'truck driver.' Yet, despite this feverish creativity, genuine transformation seems to be extremely rare. Hence, our hypothesis is that all this variety masks a deep and unexamined identity crisis. If we want to make real progress, we must understand our own history and dare to explore the root causes of HR’s immunity to change. This essay first develops a short historical analysis of the evolution in HR. We will argue that throughout the last decades HR has willingly sur-rendered to the bottom line. Thereafter, in the second part, we explore how HR could free itself from a deliberate stagnation and promote good work. We contend that change is possible, but there are no simple fixes. It demands substantial investment, determination and, above all, the willingness to face ourselves. It will need courageous HR leaders to embark on a truly transformative journey together!
Language
English
Event Title
HR Congress Horizons Conference
Event Location
Amsterdam
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open.access
Name
BeyondtheBottomLine-ChangingHRtoChangeTheFutureofWork-VogtWeibel.pdf
Size
1.18 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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