The professionalization of human resources management: sociographic composition of a professional group in construction

Abstract

Human resources management is a field which is strongly conditioned by an instrumental and regulatory logic. Both as a scientific discipline and as a professional practice it has been used on many occasions to legitimize dominant interests in employment relations. It is this legacy which lies at the root of the crisis of trust which HR management is currently undergoing as a profession — and to overcome this crisis we need a new paradigm capable of taking into account the contingencies related with human resources management. Examination of the available literature reveals the ambiguities with which human resources management is fraught. In the Portuguese case, these ambiguities are particularly manifest as a result of the absence of critical reflection on the theoretical foundations of human resources management and on accepted professional practice, as well as the relative youth and structural incipience of a professional category undergoing a growth crisis.