The conscientious HR manager and the Rubik's Cube

Abstract

Purpose

By examining the literature on the ethical dilemmas of H/RM practitioners, the paper aims to put an “H” in H/RM.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysing the significant contribution which H/RM scholars have made in studying the ethical dilemmas of H/RM practitioners, the paper builds a view of an H/RM practitioner as a “conscientious HR manager” loosely connected to an ethical dilemma, a “Rubik's Cube”. Using these linguistic devices to simplify others scholarly work, the paper introduces a complex autopoietic system to provide a more “connected knowing” of ethical dilemmas and the “H” in H/RM.

Findings

Generalising from this analysis, the paper connects a social sub‐system (H/RM) with a living human system.

Research limitations/implications

Naturalistic “grounds” for launching a normative critique of H/RM that celebrates humans as social and biological animals are provisionally outlined.

Originality/value

The paper adapts Capra's complex autopoietic system to present a normative critique of H/RM from the Darwinian left.

Citation

Steers, I. (2009), "The conscientious HR manager and the Rubik's Cube", Personnel Review, Vol. 38 No. 6, pp. 605-620. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480910992238