The Professionalisation of Human Resource Management

Personnel, Development, and the Royal Charter

Ruth Elizabeth Slater

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781138492493
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351030403
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business generale
• Index: Business

Evolving economies, the emergence of new technologies and organisational forms are all features of late capitalism. Among this milieu, a marked feature has been the emergence and recognition in society of new occupations. The claim upon a body of knowledge and practice, and a societal domain in which to exercise expertise characterise these occupations. Status and recognition may ensue; in short, they claim 'professionalism'. 'Professionalism' is a word resonant with allusions to a particular time and place, loosely located in the United States and England in the twentieth century, although its roots are far earlier, and its present branches are far-reaching.

The text is an account of the Human Resource Management occupation's search for status, legitimacy, and "professionalism" and illustrates how key agents wove a purposeful plan in pursuit of goals through changing socio-economic and political contexts.

The text also discusses the changed meanings of and opportunities for professionalism for individual agents, as members of a social grouping that is the occupation.

This text is an analysis of the recent development of the Human Resource occupation, against the backdrop of changing meanings and models of professions and professionalism and the traditional signifier of professionalism in the U.K., the Royal Charter. The original research from the UK outlines the efforts undertaken between 1968 and 2000 by the professional body, the present day Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, the Institute), to attain a Royal Charter.

This text addresses the following:

• The role of key agents and institutions on shaping social structures and practice regimes

• The changing construction and meanings of professionalism and professional occupations

• The role of the collective professional body in shaping occupational practices in Human Resource Management and Human Resource Development and their effect upon working lives

• The continuing significance of the Royal Charter as an ancient institution with deep societal effect

Part 1

The Century of Occupational Development and Change

1 Professionalism, the Institute and the Royal Charter

This book is about the perceived professionalisation of the field of human resource management (HR) as told through the relationship between the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, the Institute), the professional body for Human Resource Management practitioners in the UK and the Royal Charter. The Institute is an association of practitioners within the field of workforce management, workforce development and employer-employee relations. Based in Britain, with members and reach across the globe, this organisation has had an evolving development because of a confluence of historical context, the socio-economic and political context, and the desires of key elites. Its origins stem from the industrial welfare workers movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.¹

Introducing the Players

There are several important actors and institutions in the story of the professionalisation of HR. These are the Institute itself, the Institute’s membership and their practices and the ancient British institution of the Royal Charter.

The story to unfold here takes place in a context with many actors, both organisational and human, involved in the professionalisation of HRM. There are, however, two main actors involved in the professionalisation of HRM—the Institute itself in a variety of incarnations and the Privy Council who administer Royal Charters on behalf of the Sovereign. The context is complex and multi-layered. This is the field of action, the stage upon which the action takes place, and includes organisational actors with an interest in the work of the Institute, such as the Institute’s members, and actors with interests in the regulation and conduct of the employment relationship, as well as the state actor, the Privy Council. It is the traditional professional model which links the two and completes the triangle. There is also a minor player—the Institution of Training Officers Limited (ITOL, which later became the Institute of Training and Development, ITD)—whose fortunes nest within the Institute’s story, but whose significance in the professionalisation of HRM is important because of the Institute’s actions in relation to the requirements of the Privy Council.²

The Lure of the Traditional Professional Model

I cannot address the professionalisation of the modern occupation of human resource management without discussing the model of professionalism or occupational organisation which characterises the traditional profession against which HRM has been judged. The professionalisation of HR needs an understanding of why and how such occupations form, and the recognition that the formation is both historically, institutionally and geographically grounded.³ The traditional professions belong to an important institution, that of the traditional professional model, which is embedded in a society, and is, within the context of this book, in the Anglophone world. The traditional professional model is also a historical construct and as societies develop, technologies of work and practice evolve, and so we would expect it to evolve as occupations change and new occupations arise. Indeed, this has happened because elements of this construct have persisted well beyond their original meaning.

Since Adam Smith’s treatise, On the Wealth of Nations,⁴ there has been a continuing fascination with professionalism in the Anglophone tradition. Adam Smith recognised “lawyers and physicians” as “liberal professions” and artists and sculptors as “ingenious professions”. He compared the “liberal” and “ingenious” professions with experienced tradespeople and made much of their superior knowledge, training and reward. This tradition came to be associated with other established occupations found in the Anglican Church, the military, medicine and the law. These are indeed old occupations and since the grouping named first, other occupations have become associated with the traditional professional model by modelling themselves on the characteristics of the older traditional professions. The occupations of architecture, accountancy and engineering are examples of professions in this model.

So, the traditional professions are a constellation of occupations that, according to a body of literature,⁵ have common characteristics and exist to achieve certain purposes.⁶ This model of a profession has become solidly ingrained in the collective consciousness of the Anglophone societies to the extent that if anyone claims to be a professional, to belong to a profession or to have professionalism, there are unspoken and agreed on assumptions about that person. Therefore, although we know what is meant, and what type of occupations are professions, these are occupations which are in flux and have always been changing, but their potency lasts. The professions have cast “a long shadow” over society.⁷

The traditional professional model is a principal element of the professionalisation stories because this model, and its assumed characteristics, has prompted discussion about other occupations’ professionalisations or “professional projects” including that of HR.⁸

Why does the epithet “professional” have so much currency and appeal to individuals and representatives of occupational groups? The appeal derives from the inference of separation and superiority. Superiority derives from the education and training, socialisation, perceived and received expertise, and consequent reward, from which status and standing in the social world derives.

The claims made for the beneficial characteristics of the traditional professional model are large. For example, one claim is that the stability and welfare of society rest upon “the effective organisation of professional work” promising “to deliver work of high standard” and “keep us healthy and safe every day⁹”. Not only does the public consider the notion of a ‘profession’ and ‘professional work’ important, but it is a powerful notion for governments too. In the belief that the professions have high status and reward, governments look to develop policies that improve social mobility through access to the professions.¹⁰

The Traditional Model of Professions

Some twentieth-century accounts of the professions give a sense of how to recognise the traditional model. These accounts have examined the traditional professions from the perspectives of how they go about their craft and how people gain access to the professional group, and these observations have dominated the literature of much of the twentieth century and public consciousness. This example from 1953¹¹ exemplifies this tendency to show defining characteristics:

A profession is a vocation whose practice is founded upon an understanding of the theoretical structure of some department of learning or science, and upon the abilities accompanying such understanding. This understanding and these abilities are applied to the vital practical affairs of man (sic). The practices of the profession are modified by knowledge of a generalized nature and by the accumulated wisdom and experience of mankind, which serve to correct the errors of specialism. The profession, serving the vital needs of man, considers its first ethical imperative to be altruistic service to the client.

The quotation is representative of the thinking about the professions and their association with underpinning knowledge, the performance of competence, the garnering of experience, the properties of a public good, ethical behaviours and altruism. It is a view which persisted beyond the twentieth century as modern scholars attest, noticing the same or similar characteristics in contemporary occupations.

The making of the traditional model of professionalism includes localised but defined and codified knowledge which has come from some scientific discipline. The practitioners translate the knowledge to expertise and practice, which they execute with skill and competence. The underpinning knowledge is kept up to date and put into the service of others. The traditional professions have legal and ethical responsibility created through normative value systems, often codified as a code of professional conduct. The effect, therefore, is a societal good, an “anchor of order”.¹² Through their association with other professionals and operating inside the boundaries of the professional body, professionals have control over their affairs and create a hierarchy of membership.

A profession has a monopoly for the expert services it provides; it is autonomous and self-governing. The training is specific, programmed and erudite. Consumers or clients of the service have trust in the perceived competence of the practitioner and the practices. As a result, consumers afforded the practitioner legitimacy—all told, a profession was “of special importance for society and the common weal”.¹³ Professionals have considerable societal status and reward to match, which is why governments are interested in the traditional model of the professions as an encouragement to social mobility. “Differential occupational prestige” between occupations claiming professionalism and the association with prestige, high reward¹⁴ are two attributes which contribute to the notion of the professions being elitist.¹⁵

The approaches to understanding professions which appeared in most of the twentieth century¹⁶ did not address the issues of occupational control, power and the charges of monopoly and elitism. This oversight was addressed after the 1970s¹⁷ but by then the same scholars saw traditional professionalism in decline, and in respect of the traditional profession of medicine in Britain, they may have been right.¹⁸ Although the power of the traditional professions may be declining, professional power is still a highly desirable resource. Such power derives from the “special...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1 The Century of Occupational Development and Change
• Part 2 The Institute’s Pursuit of Professionalism
• Part 3 The Long Shadows of Professionalism
• Author Biography
• Bibliography
• Appendix I Privy Council Papers
• Appendix II Characteristics of Traditional Professionalism (Following Millerson 1964 and Hickson and Thomas 1969)
• Index