Before starting, I think it is convenient to move for a moment to the past, let's locate ourselves there in the distance, in the construction of the Pyramids of Egypt or perhaps in the construction of the Great Wall of China and let's ask ourselves how could so many people (entire families) work in a coordinated way for so many years? Surely something that we call Administration today was used and it was probably put into practice, something similar to what we know today as Human Resources.
In fact, between 1550 and 1566 BC, Egypt established a civil service regime, between 202 and 219 BC, China engaged in refining examinations for the selection of capable officials, and incredibly, after a considerably important leap in the time, in the middle of the 18th century, the creation of the great machines for the production started the industrial revolution. Production grew enormously and with it the conditions of overcrowding, danger, insecurity and deep dissatisfaction. At that time, the “ Personnel Welfare Departments”, Direct predecessor of the current personnel departments. The fact is that for the first time the need for a department in the organization that is exclusively in charge of solving personnel problems is accepted, this required a specialized person and no longer improvised, differentiating itself from the tasks of foremen, bosses shift, operations managers and other similar positions.
And so just after the industrial revolution, in the first decades of the 20th century, after so many years, the first theories about human resources appeared and due to the poor human conditions that workers faced (long hours, low wages, lack of of social security, etc.), between 1910 and 1915 in North America the first personnel department was constituted in its conception of Human Resources. Interesting, it was not the product of study, research, analysis, common sense, professionalism, it was the deplorable conditions of the workers that drove the first personnel departments and thus,Since the end of the industrial revolution to date, endless investigations have been carried out and all coincide in placing the worker as the center of mass in any organization.
In this way and thanks to the great advances in Administration, specifically in the Management area, in corporate schemes and the introduction of motivation theory as an important element in the development and improvement of productivity (Fayol, Taylor, Maslow), it was not until the 1960s (approximately 50 years after the first personnel department) that the first techniques for planning training and staff development appeared linked to the career programs that the employee could select.
And as Marcos Hernández points out “Throughout the 1960s, the head of personnel went from: supervision by the» bosses », job assignments, control of arrivals and departures, to quality of performance of the personnel, until the arrival of a new paradigm in the early eighties: Human Resources Management, as we know by definition, this area had the mission of taking charge of developing and managing policies, programs, procedures that provide an organizational structure, efficient, capable workers, opportunity for advancement, job satisfaction and job security for all workers. This thesis explains the five most important topics considered in a personal capacity in Human Resources Management: Human Resources Planning, Work Analysis and Design,Recruitment and Selection, Evaluation and Review of Performance and Administration of Salaries and Salaries. "
As in the past (approximately 40 years ago), the Human Resources Administration refers to the management, administration, management and direction of personnel, among its functions, they were and continue to be (today, somewhat improved), among others:
- Selection, Recruitment and Hiring of new personnel Administration of salaries, benefits and benefits Education, Training and Development Administration of payroll of employees Management of relations with unions
And inexplicably one is missing, perhaps the most important, perhaps the one that many would say is already immersed in one or a combination of several of those that I already mentioned, others will assure that it is the function of each Area Manager, in short, we cleverly go up to the tangent and we entered the absurdity I believed, I supposed, I swore.
Yes, my dear reader, I am referring to the Sleeping Giant that we all carry inside, yes, affirmatively and categorically I am talking about Knowledge, or is it that Knowledge Management did not have, does not have and will not have to be the The main responsibility, the main function, the reason for being, of the misnamed Human Resources Management? Don't you think that Knowledge Management is made up and each and every one of the functions that we attribute to it today is derived from it to the Human Resources Management?
Okay, let's take a parenthesis and then continue.
It turns out that on Friday, November 19, 1909 in Vienna (Austria) Peter Drucker, Professor, Journalist, Doctor in International Law, considered a social scientist, father of Modern Administration and a star figure in the entire history of economic and administrative thought, was born. who dedicated 60 years of his life to formulating theories in the field of Business Administration.
In 1942 he began working as a professor at "Bennington College" and in parallel at General Motors, where he compiled experiences and studies that resulted in the famous book "The Concept of Corporation (a study of General Motors)" (1945), marking this, the beginning of a collection of more than 30 books, one better than another and in all of them, a common factor, the center of mass of every organization, the worker, the man, the thinking being, the bearer and creator of knowledge. In fact in 1949 in his book "The New Society" he spoke of a society of employees and a decade later (1959) in his book "The limits of Tomorrow" (Landmarks of Tomorrow) introduces, for the first time, the spectacular concept of knowledge worker (knowledge workers).Later (1969) in his work "The Age of Discontinuity" coined the term Knowledge Society. Between 1975 and 1995 he was a prestigious editorialist for the Wall Street Journal, and in his spare time, a contributor to the Harvard Business Review. On Friday, November 11, 2005, at the age of 96, he died in Claremont, California.
Excellent, let's get back to our discussion. Drucker from 1959 (more than 50 years ago) to his last days, always pointed out and extolled, directly and indirectly, the importance of the knowledge worker, whom he treated as an 'asset' that generates performance, and never but never, treated it as a cost generator. When speaking of the knowledge worker he always said " the corporation needs them more than they need the corporation."
There were, are and will be many Corporations that took advantage of all the sea of lessons that Drucker left us, in fact, General Motors, Procter & Gamble and General Electric are just three examples of the putting into production of Drucker's contribution And if we still have doubts, let's ask Akito Morita, founder of Sony, Andy Grove, one of the founders of Intel or Bill Gates himself, of Microsoft.
We are definitely resting on our laurels, gentlemen, it is time to wake up, we are about to enter the second decade of the 21st century, we have been in lethargy and delay for many years, and they are still thinking about it, it is still intended to manage the staff as in the years 50, 60 or 70, please break free, forget Human Resources and start calling it Human Management, Human Talent Management, Personnel Management and why not, Knowledge Management.
Get on a helicopter, observe the forest, analyze the socio-cultural and economic changes, remember, we are in the age of the Internet, we are immersed in an overwhelming Globalization, today more than ever, it is extremely necessary to stay updated, just by way of Example: what happened to the Telex? Nowadays, does it make sense to send a Fax?
Before finishing and with the firm idea of fostering a moment of reflection, I find myself in the need to generate several questions:
- Could it be that Peter Drucker's contribution does not apply to our reality? Why has it been so difficult to accept that the true dominant resource and absolutely decisive factor of wealth production is neither capital, nor labor, nor land (the natural resources) but Knowledge (the worker)? You, misnamed, Human Resources Management:
- How many Conferences have the management staff of your company given and how many Congresses have they attended? Have you designed a training plan to improve personal interrelationships between the different hierarchical levels of the different Managements, for example: Engineering - Operations? Have you evaluated the return of profit from training in previous years at the technical and supervisory-managerial level of your company? Do you have an incentive plan for university studies? Do you promote, organize and encourage the development of workshops, seminars and talks at both technical level as a manager among the employees of your company?
I could really go on writing questions, but I think they are enough to start the reflection.
Bibliography
- Víctor Hugo Barranco Rodríguez Itssmt Puebla “Origin Evolution Human Resources Administration”. Marcos Hernández López “Human Resources Management Vs Human Capital Management… From A Systemic Look”. Elizabeth Haas Edersheim “Teachings Of Peter Drucker”, Mc Graw Hill.
