Courtesy: ISO 30400:2016 human resources management
In the Soviet Union, meanwhile, Stalin’s use of patronage exercised through the “HR Department” equivalent in the Bolshevik Party, its Orgburo, demonstrated the effectiveness and influence of human-resource policies and practices, and Stalin himself acknowledged the importance of the human resource, exemplified in his mass deployment of it, as in the five-year plans and in the Gulag system.
During the latter half of the 20th century, union membership declined significantly, while workforce-management specialists continued to expand their influence within organizations. In the US, the phrase “industrial and labor relations” came into use to refer specifically to issues concerning collective representation, and many companies began referring to the proto-HR profession as “personnel administration”. Many current HR practices originated with the needs of companies in the 1950s to develop and retain talent.
In the late 20th century, advances in transportation and communications greatly facilitated workforce mobility and collaboration. Corporations began viewing employees as assets. “Human resources management” consequently, became the dominant term for the function—the ASPA even changing its name to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in 1998.
“Human capital management” (HCM) is sometimes used synonymously with “HR”, although “human capital” typically refers to a more narrow view of human resources; i.e., the knowledge the individuals embody and can contribute to an organization. Other terms sometimes used to describe the HRM field include “organizational management”, “manpower management”, “talent management”, “personnel management“, “workforce management”, and simply “people management”.
In popular media
Several popular media productions have depicted human resource management in operation. On the U.S. television series of The Office, HR representative Toby Flenderson is sometimes portrayed as a nag because he constantly reminds coworkers of company policies and government regulations. Long-running American comic strip Dilbert frequently portrays sadistic HR policies through the character Catbert, the “evil director of human resources”. An HR manager is the title character in the 2010 Israeli film The Human Resources Manager, while an HR intern is the protagonist in 1999 French film Ressources humaines. The main character in the BBC sitcom dinnerladies, Philippa, is an HR manager. The protagonist of the Mexican telenovela Mañana es para siempre is a director of human resources. Up In the Air is centered on corporate “downsizer” Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) and his travels. As the film progresses, HR is portrayed as a data-driven function that deals with people as metrics, which can lead to absurd outcomes for real people.