IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-01232667.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Recognition, Reification, and Practices of Forgetting: Ethical Implications of Human Resource Management

Author

Listed:
  • Gazi Islam

    (MC - Management et Comportement - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management)

Abstract

This article examines the ethical framing of employment in contemporary human resource management (HRM). Using Axel Honneth's theory of recognition and classical critical notions of reification, I contrast recognition and reifying stances on labor. The recognition approach embeds work in its emotive and social particu-larity, positively affirming the basic dignity of social actors. Reifying views, by contrast, exhibit a forgetfulness of recognition, removing action from its existential and social moorings, and imagining workers as bundles of discrete resources or capacities. After discussing why reification is a problem, I stress that recognition and reifi-cation embody different ethical standpoints with regards to organizational practices. Thus, I argue paradoxically that many current HRM best practices can be maintained while cultivating an attitude of recognition. If reification is a type of forgetting, cultivating a recognition attitude involves processes of ''remembering'' to foster work relations that reinforce employee dignity.

Suggested Citation

  • Gazi Islam, 2012. "Recognition, Reification, and Practices of Forgetting: Ethical Implications of Human Resource Management," Post-Print hal-01232667, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01232667
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-012-1433-0
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: http://hal.grenoble-em.com/hal-01232667
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hal.grenoble-em.com/hal-01232667/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-012-1433-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martha S. Feldman & Wanda J. Orlikowski, 2011. "Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1240-1253, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stéphanie Arnaud & David Wasieleski, 2014. "Corporate Humanistic Responsibility: Social Performance Through Managerial Discretion of the HRM," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 313-334, March.
    2. María Lucila Osorio Andrade Osorio & Sergio Madero & Regina A. Greenwood, 2019. "Humanism Under Construction: the Case of Mexican Circular Migration," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 55-69, July.
    3. Max Visser, 2019. "Pragmatism, Critical Theory and Business Ethics: Converging Lines," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 45-57, April.
    4. Nicola M. Pless & Thomas Maak & Howard Harris, 2017. "Art, Ethics and the Promotion of Human Dignity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 223-232, August.
    5. Kate Daisy Bone, 2021. "Cruel Optimism and Precarious Employment: The Crisis Ordinariness of Academic Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 275-290, November.
    6. Zawadzki Michał, 2018. "Dignity in the Workplace. The Perspective of Humanistic Management," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 26(1), pages 171-188, March.
    7. Kelly Thomson & Joanne Jones, 2017. "Precarious Professionals: (in)Secure Identities and Moral Agency in Neocolonial Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(4), pages 747-770, December.
    8. Marco Guerci & Adelien Decramer & Thomas Waeyenberg & Ina Aust, 2019. "Moving Beyond the Link Between HRM and Economic Performance: A Study on the Individual Reactions of HR Managers and Professionals to Sustainable HRM," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 783-800, December.
    9. Babita Bhatt, 2022. "Ethical Complexity of Social Change: Negotiated Actions of a Social Enterprise," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 743-762, May.
    10. Teea Kortetmäki & Anna Heikkinen & Ari Jokinen, 2023. "Particularizing Nonhuman Nature in Stakeholder Theory: The Recognition Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(1), pages 17-31, June.
    11. Gabriele Fassauer & Ronald Hartz, 2016. "Stories of Adoration and Agony: The Entanglement of Struggles for Recognition, Emotions and Institutional Work," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 17(2), pages 173-193, August.
    12. Gazi Islam, 2020. "Psychology and Business Ethics: A Multi-level Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-13, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Palo, Teea & Åkesson, Maria & Löfberg, Nina, 2019. "Servitization as business model contestation: A practice approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 486-496.
    2. Phillips, Paul & Moutinho, Luiz, 2014. "Critical review of strategic planning research in hospitality and tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 96-120.
    3. Jose Luis Retolaza & Leire San-Jose, 2021. "Understanding Social Accounting Based on Evidence," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    4. Rebecca Adler-Nissen, 2016. "Towards a Practice Turn in EU Studies: The Everyday of European Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 87-103, January.
    5. Anne Kokkonen & Pauli Alin, 2015. "Practice-based learning in construction projects: a literature review," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 513-530, July.
    6. Moshe Farjoun & Christopher Ansell & Arjen Boin, 2015. "PERSPECTIVE—Pragmatism in Organization Studies: Meeting the Challenges of a Dynamic and Complex World," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1787-1804, December.
    7. Liubertė Irina, 2019. "On Social Knowledge and Its Empirical Investigation in Contemporary Organisations," Management of Organizations: Systematic Research, Sciendo, vol. 81(1), pages 21-37, June.
    8. Tiziana Callari & Corinne Bieder & Barry Kirwan, 2019. "What is it like for a middle manager to take safety into account? Practices and challenges," Post-Print hal-01935746, HAL.
    9. Hong Y. Park & Hyejung Chang & Yong-Seung Park, 2015. "Firm’s knowledge creation structure for new product development," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1023507-102, December.
    10. Michiel Bal & Jos Benders & Lander Vermeerbergen, 2022. "‘Bringing the Covert into the Open’: A Case Study on Technology Appropriation and Continuous Improvement," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Stacy E. Lom, 2016. "Changing Rules, Changing Practices: The Direct and Indirect Effects of Tight Coupling in Figure Skating," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 36-52, February.
    12. Alexandra Michel, 2014. "The Mutual Constitution of Persons and Organizations: An Ontological Perspective on Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 1082-1110, August.
    13. Rocco Agrifoglio & Concetta Metallo & Primiano Nauta, 2021. "Understanding Knowledge Management in Public Organizations through the Organizational Knowing Perspective: a Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 137-156, March.
    14. Paula Jarzabkowski & Sarah Kaplan, 2015. "Strategy tools-in-use: A framework for understanding “technologies of rationality” in practice," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 537-558, April.
    15. Neil A. Morgan & Kimberly A. Whitler & Hui Feng & Simos Chari, 2019. "Research in marketing strategy," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 4-29, January.
    16. Sylvia D’souza & Lucas D. Introna, 2024. "Recovering Aristotle’s Practice-Based Ontology: Practical Wisdom as Embodied Ethical Intuition," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(2), pages 287-300, January.
    17. Beunza, Daniel & Millo, Yuval, 2015. "Blended automation: integrating algorithms on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118995, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Larraitz Lazkano & Ana Beraza, 2019. "Social Accounting for Sustainability: A Study in the Social Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Matthew Hawkins, 2015. "Market Identification to Generation: A Practice Theory Market Orientation," Post-Print hal-01507884, HAL.
    20. Emilie Bargues & Bertrand Valiorgue, 2019. "Maintenance and creation of roles during socialization processes in entrepreneurial small firms: An institutional work perspective," Post-Print halshs-02477520, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01232667. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.