Dilbert the cartoon strip has given human resources a deservedly bad reputation. But even its creator, Scott Adams, may have underestimated its full power and impact in the 21st century. For Adams, it may be the greatest management fraud left over from the last century. But today, HR's influence has extended into being a powerful tool for political propaganda, or spin.
Its language, terminology and methods have been appropriated by politicians, civil servants and bankers - all for the purpose of justifying an unspoken agenda. Nowadays, governments and powerful groups in so-called free societies must be masters of controlling information and shaping messages. This means harnessing the techniques of open communication.
It should not be surprising that the most effective political propaganda today borrows not only from politics, literature and history, but from public relations, advertising and human resources. Xinhua, move over - you need to learn humbly from the masters of the digital media age.
A recent fascinating example is taken from human resources. Attracting, remunerating and retaining talent is a well- researched subject in the discipline, and sounds innocuous enough.
Remarkably, it has also been used by such diverse groups as the Hong Kong government, the civil service and US financial institutions to justify hidden goals. Now that's versatility for a humble HR concept.
Time and again, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and his top lieutenants have justified expanding the so-called accountability system by appealing to the need to attract and groom new political talent. They say creating whole new layers of deputy ministers and political assistants in the government structure is necessary to cultivate outside talent.
This means hiring from outside the civil service. This is good for civil servants, it is argued, because they would be shielded from politics or being associated with failed or unpopular policies they did not devise.
