The Paradoxical Condition of Human Resources Administration: Between Instrumental Rationality and Substantive Rationality

Abstract

This article, in the form of essay, discusses the paradoxical condition of human resources administration, which seeks to work from an instrumental perspective of rationality by considering the requirements of organizational competitiveness. However, at the same time, it seeks to take into account the employees’ expectations. Such longing, from a perspective of worker’s emancipation, could be fulfilled by means of the proposal by substantive rationality, which is characterized by ethical judgment, self-fulfillment, emancipation, and autonomy. Organizational practices related to people are linked to a specifically human context and to another highly competitive context. In this sense, managers in the area seem to need to work according to a convergence of instrumental and substantive rationalities. The challenge in the area is working under this paradoxical condition. A theoretical discussion on this reality and on possible directions for the future is conducted.