It is extremely interesting to observe how human thought has evolved so rapidly, especially in the last fifty years, in relation to the importance and impact that people have in organizations; it is as if he had suddenly awakened from a long lethargy that prevented him from realizing that this was not a race alien to his species but was merely a reflection of himself.
However, comparing this evolutionary spectrum with the twelve hours drawn on a clock would only correspond to a few minutes to this moment that is lived in the present in relation to the concept of the human being and his relationship with the companies that make up. It took a lot to get there.
It was not easy to understand that people are the company, in fact there are still organizations (in the traditional concept of the word) whose vision is light years away from that powerful premise and are still looming at the dawn of what all this immense has been. path walked and retraced by the most revolutionary minds that the exercise of the administration of human talent has produced.
It is not enough just to take a look at the past, it takes an intense and incisive retrospective vision to try to explain in a few lines what the genesis and evolution of administrative thought has been like that led people from simple pieces without value to become the true meaning of all organization.
Perhaps the lines that follow do not cover everything that it means to scrutinize the past and draw the genesis of what is understood today, but it will undoubtedly serve as the basis for future research.
If the idea is to wander through the intriguers of the past, one must begin with human settlement in the earliest era of its appearance and once the isolation and social conception that Neanderthal man had offered to his groups had been overcome. It is speculated that the appearance of homo sapiens represented the beginning of more organized and environmentally transforming communities totally distant from the first intelligent outbreaks of our species.
But, even when it did not take long for complex society to appear (worth the expression) governed by natural phenomena, incomprehensible for the moment, or expressions of egocentrism that assimilated such wonders to a person as a representative of his power on earth; It is impossible to forget that by then people hunted and consumed more as a consequence of the survival instinct than out of the need to feed themselves to have strength, ingenuity and build empires. Societies back then were not far from the concept of "the herd" and therefore the basic expressions of "teamwork" arose as can still be seen in lions, tigers and other predators existing in their natural habitat.
It is not easy to pin down when or how communities left wildlife and wild behind, and perhaps it is not necessary, what is a fact is that after many years human settlements began to appear that developed technology and knowledge. necessary to be remembered in time. Practically overnight the Sumerians, around -2750 BC, began to leave codes written in cuneiform language and overcame the rustic carving and engraving expressions their ancestors had left behind in their pictorial expressions.
These occupants of the Mesopotamian region created a society where people were directed and used to fulfill the goals of a god or several of them and, without realizing it, they put the seed of one of the most dominant paradigms that somehow it has been immovable in human DNA and it prays: People work for third parties, not for themselves.
The process of development of that line of thought spread like wildfire throughout the world, all the cultural expressions that were brought together in the past kept the dominant stamp of this rigid thought.
From the lofty Mayan, Aztec, and Incan civilizations to the ostentatious Chinese dynasties, through Roman empires, Greek expressions, and legendary Egyptian figures, the principle was the same: an important group of people, usually numerous and strong, surrendered to a few that possessed almost unlimited power which was nurtured and respected by all… or almost all.
Slavery and / or work to please the gods was the most primitive expression of the use of human talent for the benefit of a company. It did not take much intelligence or deep knowledge to know that without people it would not be possible to plow the land, sew mud, raise monuments, obelisks or build cities.
It is difficult to think that there was no conscious reflection on this, people were definitely needed for everything, but this required an investment that was thought of in grains, land, potatoes or livestock; It must have been a figure of care and concern for the first administrative expressions, because the great kings and leaders of the past managed to subdue and dispose of the people as they pleased, almost automatically realizing that at the same time as using people, offer some kind of motivation that would keep them “tied” to the regime, however absurd and far-fetched it might be, for which reason expressions of repression, religious and moral obligations, taxes, soon appeared.offerings and all kinds of conditions that submitted the will and demanded to be respected to stay overnight in society and survive in it.
Centuries passed before it was understood that work should have a consideration that benefited whoever did it, since we must not forget that slavery still existed when they began to pay with salt and that expression of submission was maintained for a long time even after. of money being a socially and labor-accepted concept.
But understanding such a differentiating element between a slave and a worker did not bring about valuation or a better treatment for people, the payment for services became uneven and disproportionate to the point that being a slave could be, at times, more attractive, because it had shelter and food and it was not necessary to make any extraordinary effort to which it already corresponded due to the condition of slave.
It cannot be said that there was an absence of experiments other than the expressions mentioned, at some point in history there was talk of equal rights and opportunities before such slogans were the engine of the French Revolution. The Greeks imagined the people exercising power in all their expressions, this included fair treatment in the labor expression and valuation on merits. Spartacus, in the Roman Empire, tried to create a self-managed and self-administered society, as well as many other attempts that serve as antecedents to the thought that governs the contemporary world. The concern that pointed to people as the essential element was always present, even when such important signs of lucidity were systematically and ironically blocked and hindered.If you look carefully at the message of the inspiring characters that have existed and whose existence has marked important changes in societies, from Confucius to Sai Baba, the center of the spiral focuses on the importance of people and the impact that the way of managing exchanges generates in communities of any kind.
What was quickly understood and practiced in many cultures was the concept of motivation by exchange, it does not matter if one talks about the barbarians or the Etruscans, the Romans or the Vikings; societies of the past thought and understood that they could only keep an important group of people tied if in exchange for their strength and fierceness they were offered goods and wealth, whether ephemeral or long-standing, these royalties served to "motivate" peoples whole to extend the dominions of their leaders and monarchs. Other civilizations used religious beliefs or fear of the unknown to keep the working masses subdued and make them believe that their effort would be rewarded in another world. And for a long time it was believed so.
In the history of humanity, highs and lows can be seen in relation to the aforementioned: the Middle Ages, whether high or low, was characterized by contempt and servitude, only those who enjoyed society could be considered members of society. of privileges self-imposed by the existing conditions of the time or inherited from similar expressions and, nevertheless, that dark past gave rise to the Renaissance where Man (the person) was the protagonist, what really mattered; brief moment of lucidity that was overshadowed by Absolutism, where obscurantism and again contempt were imposed on human thought.
With the arrival of the industrial age in a formal way, since similar expressions already existed in Asia before declaring itself as such in Europe and the United States, the company as a means of enrichment and power left aside, although not entirely, the wars and the conquests that ranked first for this purpose. Another type of battle was to be fought in the world, and this one had no human casualties in the traditional sense. The principle was the same, exchange of work for maintenance and a decent life or at least close to that concept. Obviously, not everyone experienced the misfortunes of the early expressions of "staff management," there were always skilled and intelligent individuals who made a difference.
But whether it was in the 2nd century BC or in 1960, the principle was the same: People were a resource for work and as such were considered, to the point that even today the custom of calling it a Human Resource persists.
In a slow and highly elaborate way it was understood that man needed certain conditions for work and it was there that the term Industrial Relations emerged, that link between people (on one side) and the company (on the other side), two entities differentiated by power and the need to subsist.
Industrial relations inspired many changes that are still appreciated today, mainly because they dedicated themselves to considering important what were previously mere pawns.
It did not take long for the Personnel Department to appear (a very wrong expression) a sort of unit that pays wages and collects basic information from people, in which personnel files became fashionable, which imitated the large folders that summarized the student life in colleges and universities. Subsequently, another light was seen in human thought and the concept of resource began to be reinforced. The initial idea was to value the human being for his unique condition and treat him as what he deserved, but resources are depleted and, some of them are susceptible to being replaced, as was the coal, the oil and the candles when the electric lighting arrived.
Unfortunately, this "light" was not intense enough and it was justly thought that man as a resource was "renewable", a paradigm that is still found in common expressions such as "nobody is indispensable for the company" and others such as "he who left is not it is necessary ”.
Now, in order not to leave in the air the statement made regarding the expression "Personnel Department", it is important to point out that under no circumstances should the unit aimed at managing or managing human talent be viewed as a department, it is likely that It is a syntax or conceptual problem, but the word "department" is associated with low impact operational tasks, so that when structuring the company it serves as a guide to make cuts, outsource or merge as they are not considered essential for the business.. The Human Talent unit is highly strategic and has a profound impact on the entire organization, which is why it must be called or viewed as a Management, this being the most basic level where it can be placed.
Returning to the subject, even in the circumstances described in relation to the concept of "resource", the idea of continuing to call people "the human resource" or "human resources" has remained until the present, even though, recently, listen to expressions such as Human Capital, which tried to introduce the concept of "investment" to the world of people living together with the company, but once again the term lent itself to different interpretations, since "capital" is also exhausted if not it is properly used; it must be increased or it is susceptible to presenting decreases according to events. Capital is transferable and negotiable (fundamental principle of outsourcing) and, finally, capital is part of the accounting concept of accounts, so it can be seen as an "object",in fact, the English expression headcount is rooted in that line of thought, since it is not about counting people, in the purest livestock style, it is about "counting heads".
But as it was commented at the beginning, in the last fifty years the thought has evolved to the point of hearing expressions such as "Human Talent", you no longer hear from the people in charge of the area talking about managing talent but about managing it, about manage it; You no longer hear about investing in human capital but in developing your talent, your skills, because it was finally understood that if people grow, the company also does it, if people prosper, the company will also prosper, because at the end of history without people there is no company, no job, no job, no profit or loss. Organizations exist to satisfy others who demand products or services that are made up of people, it's that simple.
Therefore, and in a few lines it can be said that people went from being pawns on a chessboard to becoming the reason to win and win the game, that they went from being the base to being the goal, as a confirmation of that wonderful vision of the Renaissance where, as already said, man was the center of everything, a vision that emerged after the dark Middle Ages and died with Absolutism… which is expected not to be the destination of all this important cultural advance in the era of knowledge and information.
