Rol Fessenden wrote:
> I rather think objectification is an outcome in almost all large
> organizations, whether they be churches, schools, businesses, ethnic
> groups, or armies. It is a result of how we somewhat naturally classify
> people in order to simplify neural processing. You are raising an
> interesting point, and I am only wondering if the cause is not deeply
> buried in each of us as opposed to being some kind of "skin disorder" that
> occurs only in businesses.
Yes, Rol--I agree. Categorizing people dehumanizes all of us (those who
are categorized and those who do the cataloging). We had a similar
discussion on a thread sometime ago (I believe the topic was about
dysfunctions?).
I'm not saying that we should stop using the term "human resources"
completely (my SHRM membership might be cancelled!). It may be a truthful
analogy in most organizations. I have long described "human resource
management as a logistical and risk management function. I consider the
learning organization, though, as a model--and I don't believe that the
term, human resources, describes the nature of the relationships between
people and organization within the parameters of that model.
regards,
Doc
-- "Criticism should awaken our attention, not inflame our anger. We should listen to, and not flee from, those who contradict us. Truth should be our cause, no matter in what manner it comes to us." --Marquise de SabliRichard C. "Doc" Holloway Your partner for workforce development Visit me at http://www.thresholds.com/community/learnshops/index.html Or e-mail me at <mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com> Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2361 Phone: 01 360 786 0925 Olympia, WA 98507 USA Fax: 01 360 709 4361
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>