The Ideological Evolution of Human Resource Management: A Critical Look into HRM Research and Practices(Critical Management Studies)

This book is a pioneering work that maps out the ideological evolution of HRM research and practices, with a particular focus on our contemporary era of multinational corporations. It explores the ideological evolution of Human Resource Management (HRM) from the 1950s to the present day and maps out the development of HRM research and practices from a Critical Theory perspective. Its findings open up avenues for metatheoretical development within the HRM research field and provide employees under modern capitalism with emancipatory awareness. Both the theoretical framework and the empirical findings of this study will be of interest to HRM researchers as well as management researchers of all epistemological backgrounds, particularly those working within Critical Management Studies. This work will also appeal to teachers and students, and it could serve as a textbook for a number of postgraduate level courses, including Organization Theory, Critical Management Studies, Human Resource Management, Business History, Sociology of Management, and Critical Theory.

Table of Contents:
Conceptual Part - Reviewing the LiteratureMethodology Empirical Part - Findings in Their Historical Contexts Conclusions and Discussion

About the Author :
Sami Itani is a Finnish management thinker who attained his Ph.D. from Aalto University School of Business (former Helsinki School of Economics) and completed part of his degree as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. In his research, Itani focuses on various topics relating to International Human Resource Management, such as expatriate knowledge sharing and the impact of language skills on career mobility. Currently Itani works as a country-level HR Director for the world’s largest staffing service provider, The Adecco Group.

Review :
Analyzing a dataset of human resource management articles published during five decades, Itani explores the ideological evolution of human resource management from the 1950s to the present in a twofold manner. First he maps the development of human resource management practices as ideological control mechanisms to naturalize organizational power asymmetries, hence providing employees under modern capitalism with emancipatory awareness and opening up avenues for the theoretical development of critical theory. Then he contributes to the meta-theoretical development of human resource management by illuminating the ideological dimensions and the normative ideals that human resource management scholars create, reflect, uphold, or resist in their research. "This tour de force takes us through decades of research on Human Resource Management, providing a fascinating, and often startling, synthesis of the ideological dimensions of this research. The book is a must read for Human Resource Management scholars interested in the ideological control of workers, and promises to become a classic in this area." "Synthesising a complex body of literature, this engaging book shows how academic discourse on HRM has developed and shifted since the 1950s. The ideological features of HRM are deftly explored through a detailed examination of its articulation in the longest established HRM journal. More specifically, the book instructively applies Giddens' formulation of five dimensions of ideology to provide an illuminating account of the normative ideals of HRM in the era of the multinationals." "Sami Itani's book is in many ways exceptional. Offering a much needed critical theory approach to the evolution of HRM, it is based on a unique study of the development of its practices over time. The book is not only highly relevant for researchers and students. It offers useful insights for reflective practitioners in discovering what HRM has been, what it is, and what it could be."