This week was the debut in Chile of “The X-Files: I want to believe”, directed by Chris Carter. This is the second time the TV series comes to the big screen. Again, the FBI agents are trying to solve mysteries exploring the limits of human knowledge. In the original series, main characters kept a colorful counterpoint; Mulder’s big faith in the supernatural can overcome all the obstacles and Scully’s scientific approach provides a filtering and skeptical point of view.
Sometimes, working in HR is like to be in a chapter of X files. Like extraterrestrial life, HR’s impact is something hard to perceive, just in rare occasions we can be sure that an outcome is produced or affected for our work. Even in that moments, there are so many things unexplained in the “HR black box” (see some articles below) that our lack of concepts make us difficult to explain what happens and why.
In this quest, many of us need something of Scully’s mind-set, unconvinced and capable of making difficult questions, like a scientific, instead of assuming the search has a religious faith. There are so many people who “want to believe” that managing people can make a difference in organizations, that a little cynicism won’t be bad.
One great example is the anomalies of SHRM theory. Supposedly, the way people are managed affect organizational results, but every one of us know successful companies with bad HR management. Those companies exist everywhere, except in the HR literature. For the advance of the discipline, we need someone like Scully to investigate why those companies success. The answer can trouble us, but some truth is better than a lot of superstition.
Becker, B. & Huselid, M. (2006). Strategic Human Resources Management: Where Do We Go From Here?. Journal of Management; 32; 898-925
http://jom.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/32/6/898
Wright, P.M., Gardner, T.M., Moynihan, L.M., Allen, M.R. (2005). The relationship between HR practices and firm performance: examining casual order. Personnel Psychology, 58, 409-446.
http://www.fysio.no/content/download/29229/282100/file/Artikkel%20om%20fysisk%20aktivitet.pdf
