Realising Critical HRD

Book excerpt: This book contends that the project of Critical Human Resource Development (CHRD) is to effect change/transformation, and that, as such, critical scholars must expose the injustices and inequities associated with the neoliberal narrative which forms the dominant rationality of current mainstream HRD practice. In other words, those that would change must first recognise that there is a problem worthy of being transformed. It is here that much of the CHRD project has plateaued; there is much theorising on dominant ideology, hegemony, power structures, and other artefacts of a critical agenda, yet there are comparatively few empirical explorations of the CHRD project that would facilitate practical engagement. This book offers a means to help progress CHRD from its current concern with problem recognition to a champion of meaningful change. This book offers a series of chapters that provide examples of different approaches to engaging in interventions that allow CHRD professionals to challenge power structures, and, in turn, begin to effect change for organisations and employees alike. The chapters are clustered in three distinct approaches to thinking about, talking about and doing critical practice; thus, the sections of the book are titled “Reflecting”, “Voicing”, and “Enacting”.