Abstract
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the principles, needs, and objectives of the education of the personnel manager. An appropriate place to start is with consideration of whether the field of industrial and labor relations is a profession, even though this can be, and doubtless should be, regarded as simply a matter of definition and usage. Clearly, in the classical sense (or at least in what lawyers and physicians think of as the classical sense), it is not. A recent study suggested these four criteria for defining a profession: 1. A profession should rest on a systematic body of knowledge of substantial intellectual content and on the development of personal skill in the application of this knowledge to specific cases. 2. It must set up standards of professional conduct, which take precedence over the goal of personal gain. 3. It should have an association of members, among whose functions are the enforcement of standards and the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. 4. It should prescribe ways--controlled in some degree by the members of the professional association--of entering the profession by meeting certain minimum standards of training and competence. Industrial and labor relations fails to qualify by this definition on counts 2, 3, and 4. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)
Published Version
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