As a field human resource management has been undergoing significant transformation over the years. It has been increasingly designing such management systems which ensure that the company’s human resources are being used effectively and efficiently in organizations for accomplishing the organizational goals. This fact holds true whether employees are belonging to a large organization having more than 10,000 positions or whether it is a small and non profit making organization having less than 10 employees. Right from the time of absorption of the employee in the organization till the time when he retires or resigns the entire growth path of the employee is carved out by the HR departments. This includes his career growth, compensation, satisfaction level in the organization, productivity, and measurement of his productivity and training and development in the organization. Thus it is difficult to define his job and responsibilities objectively. Thus ‘HR’ as a profession includes a whole set of activities and not just the responsibility of recruiting, maintaining and firing candidates. The present project seeks to put forth arguments towards the role of ‘HR’ as being a profession. The critical analysis would be presented using the various arguments for or against the subject (Jackson & Mathis, 2007, p.24).
The role of HR as a profession was identified long back. Since the start of the 20th century, Frederick Taylor was of the opinion that HR managers knew exactly the activities that people were required to do and the cheapest and the best possible of doing them (Kramar, 2005, p.2). He proposed the use of analytical procedures for improving the performance of employees which eventually leads to improvement of the company’s performance.