Abstract:
Humanism has long been considered a cherished worldview underpinning human resource development.
As such it occupies a privileged status within the field, and in the main, its central tenets have gone
unchallenged, despite massive changes in the economic, sociological, and technological structure of work
and society. This brief article challenges the preeminence of humanism and argues that the rhetoric of
humanistic approaches is not matched by organizational actions of compressed career progression
pathways, tight budgetary constraints, and a market driven economic philosophy.
