Ray,
I suggest that the people promoting Human Resources have been caught in a
trap. The original problem was that many managers focussed on capital and
financial resources, and saw people as costs and hassles. HRM was an
attempt to make these managers respect people. However, by associating
people with resources, they adopted the constraints as well as the
strengths of the concept. I suggest HRM provides the intellectual
foundation of the downsizing frenzy.
I am not sure that Intellectual Capital links, directly. Intelligence is
software, which we all exploit and dispose of as well (people as well as
organisations). I know that Stewart is sensitive to personal interaction
as a key management role, so I suspect he would sensitive to Handy.
There was a story about President Roosevelt visiting Columbia University,
and met with the staff. He announced how pleased he was to meet with the
employees of the University. After a silence one of the professors rose
and said "With respect, Mr President, we are not employees of the
University, we ARE the University".
Yours
Gray Southon
>Gray, this is a good point. I would be interested in Tom Stewart's take
>on this since he wrote the book on Intellectual Capital. If he is still
>on the list or lurking out there somewhere.
>
>Ray Evans Harrell <mcore@IDT.NET>
Gray Southon
Consultant in Health Management Research and Analysis
15 Parthenia St., Caringbah, NSW 2229, Australia
Ph/Fax +61 2 9524 7822, mobile +61 414 295 328
e-mail gsouthon@ozemail.com.au
Web Page: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gsouthon/
Temporarily: Lecturer in Health Management
University of New England, Armidale, NSW.
--Gray Southon <gsouthon@ozemail.com.au>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>