Saturday, July 4, 2009

Theory vs. Reality

When I got my MBA and they taught me about organizational culture, motivation, compensation, etc., I formed this ideal image of HR as playing a critical role in fostering an intangible resource (people) through all of the many things that HR can do. I thought to myself...this is how it should be!

But one step into reality has taught me that theory and practice are not quite one and the same. In reality, I've worked at companies where HR focused strictly on dealing with compensation and was nothing more than a blunt tool to be used when costs needed to be cut. I've also worked at one place where HR reported into the CFO. I thought to myself what message does that send to folks?

So I got to thinking, why is there such a disparity between what is taught in the classroom and the reality that I see. Then the answer hit me! The professors that teach these courses are rarely industry HR veterans, rather they are PhDs who get "real world" experience when they get hired as consultants to fix companies problems. So essentially I'm getting a consultant's perspective. How many of us have ever had a great experience with a consultant?

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