Human Resource Management (HRM) has been in vogue for ...

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Many of the above debates can also be seen to inform recent CIPD pronouncements in support of what Gilmore and Williams (2007) term the organisation‟s „professional project‟. Indeed, as noted earlier CIPD has recognised some of the potential challenges of this approach and has sought over the last two years to „explore how HR functions and professionals can best be organised to make the most of high performance within organisations‟ (2006a: 1). Recent publications from the CIPD have addressed the changing nature of the HR function (CIPD, 2006; 2006a 2007; 2007a) and the likely consequences of the changing HR function for HR professionals (CIPD, 2005; 2006b). For example, CIPD (2007a) whilst recognising that business partner has become the most attractive role for HR practitioners to aspire to, also note that finding people of the right calibre and with the right skill set and competencies for fulfilling such a role may be rather more problematic. Moreover, from a supply side there are concerns about the opportunities available for the „brightest and best‟ who „find HR a difficult nut to crack‟ (CIPD, 2006b: ix). Thus although graduates are selecting HR as a career they then find themselves in what are described as „dull‟ jobs, with little opportunity for progression. Whilst there may be some frustrations for those at the outset of their careers the evidence is more encouraging for those already pursuing a HR career with 81 per cent answering yes to the question of „if you could start your career again from the beginning, would you still opt for HR‟. The reasons given for this response related to aspects such as „variety, challenge, interest and enjoyment‟ in the job and also „the view that HR is at the heart of the business and offers an opportunity to make a difference‟ (CIPD, 2006b: 37). Gilmore and Williams (2007) and Francis and Keegan (2006) also seek to critically engage with the debates about CIPD‟s „professional project‟ and the consequences for
aspiring and existing HR practitioners. Gilmore and Williams suggest that the CIPD‟s „professional project‟ raises a number of important issues. For example, they question the extent to which the unitary and normative character of CIPD‟s claim to professionalism reflects the realities of managing people in contemporary organisations, pointing to some of the potential „contradictions, ambiguities and tensions inherent in managing people in a capitalist market economy‟ (p. 399). Gilmore and Williams also take issue with the „tightly defined‟ nature of the CIPD professional standards in terms of their managerialist character; the „managerialist and prescriptive‟ CIPD-sponsored student texts; the manner in which CIPD promotes „its own commissioned research with its normative, ideological character‟; and the „highly technical process of quality assurance‟ in the process of accreditation (all quotes p. 399). In a similar vein, Francis and Keegan seek to question whether the framing of the concept of „thinking performer‟ around the notion of business partner „is damaging its potential to facilitate the incorporation of broader issues of employee well-being through promoting more critically reflective HR practices‟ (p. 232). Authors such as Francis and Keegan, Gilmore and Williams and Kochan are clearly critical of HR‟s shift to a business partner role, advocating instead a much more pluralist view of HRM to ensure a healthy and sustainable balance of power in organisations. For Francis and Keegan and Gilmore and Williams specifically there are concerns that the synonymity between the notion of thinking performer and business partner produces a particular view of what the CIPD should seek to achieve with its professional standards and their impact on aspiring HR professionals. However, Francis and Keegan also suggest that:
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