Cultural Competence for Public Managers

Chapter 10

Human Resource Management and Cultural Competence

10.1 Introduction

One could argue that the department of human resource management (HRM) was not originally a partner in helping employers become the best they could be. This fact is observable in the early days of Taylorism and later with the Ford assembly line. Taylorism refers to the efforts of Frederick Taylor to make factory work more efficient. Taylor would conduct time and motion studies to make employees more like machines. Employees were seen as a way to keep production moving. Issues of safety and ethical responsibility were seen as obstacles to getting the work done. Employees had little, if any, rights despite the fact that trade unions were coming of age. This chapter ...