"Why We Hate HR": Critique and Recommendations (Article Analysis)

Essay by RainMillerUniversity, Bachelor'sA, January 2007

download word file, 5 pages 4.3

The Human Resources (HR) department is invaluable to a company when examined in the full spectrum of their duties within the company. Just as important to a company is the human resource philosophy or management culture. The duties within the confines of HR are immense, and the word confines is applied loosely, due to the fact that HR's realm lies within every facet of a business, in fact, there are no particular "areas" in which HR does not (or should not), have at least some input. Throughout the critique and recommendations of the "Why We Hate HR" article, some of the focus will be on the roles and responsibilities of HR as well as the importance of a good HR management philosophy.

Article Critique

In the article, "Why We Hate HR" one can see that the author points out the flaws in the HR concept repeatedly. They are able to support their assumptions with technical data from reputable sources within the HR and academia worlds.

Specific notes of interest are as follows:

- the lack of HR personnel being neither strategic partners or leaders (Hammond, n.d., p. 1)

- most HR managers are not interested in or prepared for doing business (Hammond, n.d., p. 2)

- the use of idiotic performance appraisals (Hammond, n.d., p. 4)

- HR forfeits long-term value for short-term cost efficiency (Hammond, n.d., p. 4)

- HR is forced to apply standardization and uniformity in the workplace or potentially be charged with unfairness (Hammond, n.d., p. 4)

- On the reverse side of the HR concept flaws are some potentially remarkable theories as to what HR should be within an organization. The specific areas of interest areas follow:

- HR should engage the finest and the brightest thereby raising the organization's value (Hammond, n.d., p. 2)...