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Critical Legal Perspectives and the Advancement of HRD
Author(s) -
Walker Wayland,
Vaida Genevieve
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
new horizons in adult education and human resource development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1939-4225
DOI - 10.1002/nha3.20082
Subject(s) - power (physics) , sociology , critical theory , postmodernism , perspective (graphical) , diversity (politics) , public relations , social justice , field (mathematics) , economic justice , engineering ethics , law and economics , management , law , epistemology , political science , economics , engineering , philosophy , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , anthropology , pure mathematics
Established Human Resource Development ( HRD ) practices may elevate corporate interests and subordinate individual interests. Critical HRD professionals can instead transform workplaces into a more level playing field that genuinely values diversity. Drawing on the existing theory, specifically Brookfield's (2005) marriage of Foucauldian notions of power and the critical tradition, this article explores how utilizing a model of legal power as productive, rather than repressive, can reinforce HRD ’s commitment to social justice and uncouple organizations from their often repressive histories. HRD professionals are urged to use the critical perspective to not merely comply with labor laws that address workplace injustices and serve to reshape possibilities, but to genuinely enact social change by enhancing new power structures. This article will demonstrate the role HRD practitioners can play in placing critical and postmodern perspectives on power relations into practice within organizations as they respond to changes in law and policy