Moore's law and Human resources: Difference between pages

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[[Image:Moores law.svg|thumb|520px|Growth of [[transistor count]]s for [[Intel]] processors (dots) and Moore's law (logarithmic vertical scale).]]
{{For|the observation regarding information retrieval|Mooers' law}}


'''Human resources''' is a term with which many organizations describe the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance, Employee Relations and [[Resource (economics)|resource]] planning. The field draws upon concepts developed in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Human resources has at least two related interpretations depending on context. The original usage derives from [[political economy]] and [[economics]], where it was traditionally called [[labor (economics)|labor]], one of four [[factors of production]]. The more common usage within [[corporation]]s and [[business]]es refers to the individuals within the firm, and to the portion of the firm's organization that deals with hiring, firing, training, and other personnel issues. This article addresses both definitions.
'''Moore's law''' describes an important trend in the [[history of computer hardware]]. Since the invention of the [[integrated circuit]] in 1958, the number of [[transistors]] that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit has increased [[exponential growth|exponentially]], doubling approximately every two years.<!--DON'T change this to 18 months: read footnote--><ref>Although originally calculated as a doubling every year,[ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf] Moore later refined the period to two years.[ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Video-Transcripts/Excepts_A_Conversation_with_Gordon_Moore.pdf] It is often incorrectly quoted as a doubling of transistors every 18 months.
</ref>
The trend was first observed by [[Intel]] co-founder [[Gordon Moore|Gordon E. Moore]] in a 1965 paper.<ref name="Moore1965paper">{{cite web| first=Gordon E.|last = Moore|year =1965|url=ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf| title =Cramming more components onto integrated circuits| format =PDF| pages =4| publisher=[[Electronics (magazine)|Electronics Magazine]]| accessdate = 2006-11-11}}
</ref><ref name="IntelInterview">{{cite web| year =2005|url=ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Video-Transcripts/Excepts_A_Conversation_with_Gordon_Moore.pdf| title =Excerpts from A Conversation with Gordon Moore: Moore’s Law| format =PDF| pages =1| publisher=[[Intel|Intel Corporation]]| accessdate = 2006-05-02}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web| year =?? |url=http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1965-Moore.html| title =1965 - “Moore's Law” Predicts the Future of Integrated Circuits| format =html| publisher=[[Computer History Museum]]| accessdate =November| accessyear =2007}}
</ref>
It has continued for half of a century and is not expected to stop for another decade at least and perhaps much longer.<ref>
{{cite web|url=http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984051.html|title= Moore's law to roll on for another decade|date=[[10 February]] [[2003]]|first=Michael|last=Kanellos|publisher=cnet}}
</ref>


The objective of Human Resources is to maximize the return on investment from the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk. It is the responsibility of human resource managers to conduct these activities in an effective, legal, fair, and consistent manner.
Almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronic devices is linked to Moore's law: processing speed, memory capacity, even the resolution of digital cameras. All of these are improving at (roughly) [[exponential growth|exponential]] rates as well.<ref>See [[#Other formulations and similar laws|Other formulations and similar laws]]</ref>
This has dramatically increased the ''usefulness'' of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy.<ref>
{{Citation| first = Jonathan | last = Rauch | url = http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/01/rauch.htm | title = The New Old Economy: Oil, Computers, and the Reinvention of the Earth | magazine=The Atlantic Monthly | date = 1 January 2001 }}
</ref> Moore's law describes this driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.


[[Human resource management]] serves these key functions:
==History==
A few people had predicted similar increases in computer power years before Moore published his observation. [[Alan Turing]] in a 1950 paper had predicted that
by the turn of the century we would have computers on our desk with a billion words of memory.<ref>{{Turing 1950}}</ref> Moore may have heard [[Douglas Engelbart]], a co-[[inventor]] of today's mechanical [[computer mouse]], discuss the projected downscaling of integrated circuit size in a 1960 lecture.<ref>[http://theory.kitp.ucsb.edu/~paxton/doug.html NY Times article] [[April 17]], [[2005]]</ref>


# Selection
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:GordonMooresOriginalGraphFrom1965.PNG|thumb|350px|Gordon Moore's original graph from 1965]] -->
# Training and Development
Moore's original statement that transistor counts had doubled every year can be found in his publication "Cramming more components onto [[integrated circuits]]", ''[[Electronics (magazine)|Electronics Magazine]]'' 19 April, 1965:
# Performance Evaluation and Management
{{quote|The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year ... Certainly over the short term this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain, although there is no reason to believe it will not remain nearly constant for at least 10 years. That means by 1975, the number of components per integrated circuit for minimum cost will be 65,000. I believe that such a large circuit can be built on a single wafer.<ref name="Moore1965paper">{{cite web| year =1965|url=ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf| title =Cramming more components onto integrated circuits| format =PDF| pages =4| publisher=[[Electronics Magazine]]| accessdate = 2006-11-11}}</ref>}}
# Promotions
# Redundancy
# Industrial and Employee Relations
# Record keeping of all personal data.
# Compensation, pensions, bonuses etc in liaison with Payroll
# Confidential advice to internal 'customers' in relation to problems at work &
# Career development


==Human resources==
The term "Moore's law" was coined around 1970 by the [[Caltech]] professor, [[very-large-scale integration|VLSI]] pioneer, and [[entrepreneur]] [[Carver Mead]].<ref name="SSCSnewsletterSept06">
Modern analysis emphasizes that human beings are not "[[Good (economics and accounting)|commodities]]" or "resources", but are creative and social beings in a productive enterprise. The 2000 revision of [[ISO 9001]] in contrast requires to identify the processes, their sequence and interaction, and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities. In general, heavily unionized nations such as [[France]] and [[Germany]] have adopted and encouraged such job descriptions especially within trade unions. One view of this trend is that a strong social consensus on political economy and a good [[social welfare system]] facilitates [[labor mobility]] and tends to make the entire economy more productive, as labor can move from one enterprise to another with little controversy or difficulty in adapting.
{{cite web| year =2006|url=http://www.ieee.org/sscs-news| title =The Technical Impact of Moore's Law| publisher=[[IEEE solid-state circuits society newsletter]] }}</ref><ref name="IntelInterview" />


An important controversy regarding labor mobility illustrates the broader philosophical issue with usage of the phrase "human resources": governments of developing nations often regard developed nations that encourage immigration or "guest workers" as appropriating human capital that is rightfully part of the developing nation and required to further its growth as a [[civilization]]. They argue that this appropriation is similar to [[colonial commodity fiat]] wherein a colonizing European power would define an arbitrary price for [[natural resources]], extracting which diminished national [[natural capital]].
In 1975, Moore altered his projection to a doubling every ''two years''. Despite popular misconception, he is adamant that he did not predict a doubling "every 18 months". However, an Intel colleague had factored in the increasing performance of transistors to conclude that integrated circuits would double in ''performance'' every 18&nbsp;months.<ref> Although it is often misquoted as a doubling every 18&nbsp;months, Intel's [http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/ official Moore's Law page], as well as an [ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Video-Transcripts/Excepts_A_Conversation_with_Gordon_Moore.pdf interview with Gordon Moore] himself, states that it is every two years.</ref>


The debate regarding "human resources" versus human capital thus in many ways echoes the debate regarding natural resources versus natural capital. Over time the [[United Nations]] have come to more generally support the developing nations' point of view, and have requested significant offsetting "foreign aid" contributions so that a developing nation losing human capital does not lose the capacity to continue to train new people in trades, professions, and the arts.
In April 2005, [[Intel]] offered $10,000 to purchase a copy of the original ''Electronics Magazine.''<ref>{{cite web| year =2005|url=http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39194694,00.htm| title =$10,000 reward for Moore's Law original |date=2005-04-12| author=Michael Kanellos|publisher=CNET News.com | accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref> David Clark, an engineer living in the UK, was the first to find a copy and offer it to Intel.<ref>{{cite web| year =2005|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4472000/4472549.stm| title =Moore's Law original issue found| date =2005-04-22|publisher =BBC News Online| accessdate = 2007-07-10}}</ref>


An extreme version of this view is that historical inequities such as [[African slavery]] must be compensated by current developed nations, which benefited from stolen "human resources" as they were developing. This is an extremely controversial view, but it echoes the general theme of converting human capital to "human resources" and thus greatly diminishing its value to the host society, i.e. "Africa", as it is put to narrow imitative use as "labor" in the using society.
==Other formulations and similar laws==
[[Image:Hard drive capacity over time.png|right|thumb|350px|[[Personal Computer|PC]] hard disk capacity (in [[Gigabytes|GB]]). The plot is [[logarithmic scale|logarithmic]], so the fitted line corresponds to [[exponential growth]].]]
[[Image:Hendys Law.jpg|350px|thumb|Pixels per dollar based on Australian recommended retail price of Kodak digital cameras]]


In a series of reports of the UN Secretary-General to the General Assembly over the last decade [e.g. A/56/162 (2001)], a broad inter sectoral approach to developing human resourcefulness has been outlined as a priority for socio-economic development and particularly anti-poverty strategies. This calls for strategic and integrated public policies, for example in education, health, and employment sectors that promote occupational skills, knowledge and performance enhancement.
Several measures of digital technology are improving at exponential rates related to Moore's law, including the size, cost, density and speed of components. Moore himself wrote only about the density of components (or transistors) at minimum cost. He noted:
{{quote|Moore's law has been the name given to everything that changes exponentially. I say, if Gore invented the Internet,<ref>Moore here is referring humourously to a widespread assertion that then-Vice President Al Gore once claimed to have invented the internet. This was, however, based on a misunderstanding.[http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp]</ref> I invented the exponential.<ref>[http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_11/tuomi/index.html The Lives and Death of Moore's Law<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>}}
'''Transistors per integrated circuit.''' The most popular formulation is of the doubling of the number of [[transistor]]s on [[integrated circuit]]s every two years. At the end of the 1970s, Moore's law became known as the limit for the number of transistors on the most complex chips. [http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/ Recent trends] show that this rate has been maintained into 2007.


In the very narrow context of corporate "human resources", there is a contrasting pull to reflect and require [[workplace diversity]] that echoes the diversity of a global customer base. Foreign language and culture skills, ingenuity, humor, and careful listening, are examples of traits that such programs typically require. It would appear that these evidence a general shift to the human capital point of view, and an acknowledgment that human beings do contribute much more to a productive enterprise than "work": they bring their character, their ethics, their creativity, their social connections, and in some cases even their pets and children, and alter the character of a workplace. The term [[corporate culture]] is used to characterize such processes.
'''Density at minimum cost per transistor.''' This is the formulation given in Moore's 1965 paper.<ref name="Moore1965paper"/> It is not about just the density of transistors that can be achieved, but about the density of transistors at which the cost per transistor is the lowest.<ref>[http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/moore.ars/ Understanding Moore's Law]</ref> As more transistors are put on a chip, the cost to make each transistor decreases, but the chance that the chip will not work due to a defect increases. In 1965, Moore examined the density of transistors at which cost is minimized, and observed that, as transistors were made smaller through advances in [[photolithography]], this number would increase at "a rate of roughly a factor of two per year".<ref name="Moore1965paper"/>


The traditional but extremely narrow context of hiring, firing, and job description is considered a 20th century anachronism. Most corporate organizations that compete in the modern global economy have adopted a view of human capital that mirrors the modern consensus as above. Some of these, in turn, deprecate the term "human resources" as useless.
'''Cost per transistor.''' As the size of transistors has decreased, the cost per transistor has decreased as well.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}<!-- COULD SOMEONE CALCULATE AND DOCUMENT THIS RATE? --> However, the ''manufacturing cost per unit area'' has only increased over time, since materials and energy expenditures per unit area have only increased with each successive technology node.


In general the abstractions of macro-economics treat it this way - as it characterizes no mechanisms to represent choice or ingenuity. So one interpretation is that "firm-specific human capital" as defined in macro-economics is the modern and correct definition of "human resources" - and that this is inadequate to represent the contributions of "human resources" in any modern theory of [[political economy]].
'''Computing performance per unit cost.''' Also, as the size of transistors shrinks, the speed at which they operate increases. It is also common to cite Moore's law to refer to the rapidly continuing advance in computing performance per [[unit cost]], because increase in transistor count is also a rough measure of computer processing performance. On this basis, the performance of computers per unit cost—or more colloquially, "bang per buck"—doubles every 24&nbsp;months.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}<!--THIS ALSO NEEDS TO BE DOCUMENTED -->


==Human resource development==
'''Power consumption.''' the power consumption of compute nodes doubles every 18&nbsp;months.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Making a case for Efficient Supercomputing
| author = Wu-Chun Feng
| journal = ACM Queue
| volume = 1 | number = 7 | date = October 2003
| url = http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=80&page=1
}}</ref>


In terms of recruitment and selection it is important to consider carrying out a thorough [[job analysis]] to determine the level of skills/technical abilities, competencies, flexibility of the employee required etc. At this point it is important to consider both the internal and external factors that can have an effect on the recruitment of employees. The external factors are those out-with the powers of the organization and include issues such as current and future trends of the labor market e.g. skills, education level, government investment into industries etc. On the other hand internal influences are easier to control, predict and monitor, for example management [[styles]] or even the [[organizational culture]].
'''Hard disk storage cost per unit of information.''' A similar law (sometimes called [[Mark Kryder|Kryder's Law]]) has held for [[hard disk]] storage cost per unit of information.<ref>{{cite news
| first=Chip
| last=Walter
| url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B0C22-0805-12D8-BDFD83414B7F0000&ref=sciam&chanID=sa006
| title=Kryder's Law
| work=Scientific American
| publisher= (<small>Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH</small>)
| date=[[2005-07-25]]
| accessdate=2006-10-29
}}</ref>
The rate of progression in [[disk storage]] over the past decades has actually sped up more than once, corresponding to the utilization of [[error correcting code]]s, the [[Magnetoresistance|magnetoresistive effect]] and the [[giant magnetoresistive effect]]. The current rate of increase in [[hard drive]] capacity is roughly similar to the rate of increase in transistor count. [http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/ Recent trends] show that this rate has been maintained into 2007.


In order to know the business environment in which any organization operates, three major trends should be considered:
'''RAM storage capacity.''' Another version states that [[Random Access Memory|RAM]] storage capacity increases at the same rate as processing power.
*[[Demographics]] – the characteristics of a population/workforce, for example, age, gender or social class. This type of trend may have an effect in relation to pension offerings, insurance packages etc.
*[[Workplace diversity|Diversity]] – the variation within the population/workplace. Changes in society now mean that a larger proportion of organizations are made up of "[[baby-boomers]]" or older employees in comparison to thirty years ago. Also, over recent years organizations have had to become more diverse in their employment practices to cope with the lower work ethic of the newer generations. The service industry for example, has embraced those "baby-boomers" desiring to [[On-Ramping|reenter the workforce]]. Traditional advocates of "workplace diversity" simply advocate an employee base that is a mirror reflection of the make-up of society insofar as race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. These advocates focus on the social engineering theory without understanding the more important points: diversity of ideas to prevent stagnation of products and business development; expanding the customer base through "outreach"; and profit. Alarmists and advocates of social engineering theory cite a "rise in discrimination, unfair dismissal and sexual/racial harassment cases" as an indicator of the need for more diversity legislation. While such measures have a significant effect on the organization, they effect little or no real change in advancing diversity of ideas in the workplace. Anti-discrimination laws and regulations do require businesses to undertake a cost-benefit analysis. The result of this analysis is often to adopt an approach that generally recognizes gender, racial, and sexual orientation diversity as a cheaper alternative to fighting endless litigation. In summary, diversity, based on social engineering “is about creating a working culture that seeks, respects and values difference” without regard to how diversity increases productive and unity of effort.
*Skills and qualifications – as industries move from manual to a more managerial professions so does the need for more highly skilled graduates. If the market is "tight" (i.e. not enough staff for the jobs), employers will have to compete for employees by offering financial rewards, community investment, etc.


In regard to how individuals respond to the changes in a labour market the following should be understood:
'''Network capacity''' According to Gerry/Gerald Butters,<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=922126 Forbes.com - Profile - Gerald Butters is a communications industry veteran]</ref><ref>[http://www.lambdaopticalsystems.com/about-board-dir.php LAMBDA OpticalSystems - Board of Directors - Gerry Butters]</ref> the former head of Lucent's Optical Networking Group at [[Bell Labs]], there is another version, called Butter's Law of Photonics,<ref>[http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/comsol/0100/0100pubout.htm As We May Communicate]</ref> a formulation which deliberately parallels Moore's law. Butter's law<ref>[http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000926S0065 Speeding net traffic with tiny mirrors]</ref> says that the amount of data coming out of an optical fiber is doubling every nine months. Thus, the cost of transmitting a bit over an optical network decreases by half every nine months. The availability of [[wavelength-division multiplexing]] (sometimes called "WDM") increased the capacity that could be placed on a single fiber by as much as a factor of 100. Optical networking and [[DWDM]] is rapidly bringing down the cost of networking, and further progress seems assured. As a result, the wholesale price of data traffic collapsed in the [[dot-com bubble]]. [[Nielsen's Law]] says that the bandwidth available to users increases by 50% annually.<ref>[http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980405.html Nielsen's Law of Internet Bandwidth]</ref>
*Geographical spread – how far is the job from the individual? The distance to travel to work should be in line with the pay offered by the organization and the transportation and infrastructure of the area will also be an influencing factor in deciding who will apply for a post.
*Occupational structure – the norms and values of the different careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3 different types of occupational structure namely craft (loyalty to the profession), organization career (promotion through the firm) and unstructured (lower/unskilled workers who work when needed).
*Generational difference –different age categories of employees have certain characteristics, for example their behavior and their expectations of the organization.


While recruitment methods are wide and varied, it is important that the job is described correctly and that any personal specifications are stated. Job recruitment methods can be through job centres, employment agencies/consultants, headhunting, and local/national newspapers. It is important that the correct media is chosen to ensure an appropriate response to the advertised post.
'''Pixels per dollar.''' Similarly, Barry Hendy of Kodak Australia has plotted the "pixels per dollar" as a basic measure of value for a digital camera, demonstrating the historical linearity (on a log scale) of this market and the opportunity to predict the future trend of digital camera price and resolution.


Human Resources Development is a framework for the expansion of human capital within an organisation. Human Resources Development is a combination of Training and Education that ensures the continual improvement and growth of both the individual and the organisation. Adam Smith states, “The capacities of individuals depended on their access to education”. <ref>(Kelly, 2001).<ref>Kelly D, 2001, Dual Perceptions of HRD: Issues for Policy: SME’s, Other Constituencies, and the Contested Definitions of Human Resource Development, http://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/26<ref></ref></ref>Human Resources Development is the medium that drives the process between training and learning. Human Resources Development is not a defined object, but a series of organised processes,<ref>“with a specific learning objective” (Nadler,1984)</ref><ref>Nadler L Ed., 1984, The Handbook of Human resources Development, John Wiley and Sons, New York.</ref></ref>
==Moore's law as a target for industry and a self-fulfilling prophecy==
Human Resources Development is the structure that allows for individual development, potentially satisfying the organisation’s goals. The development of the individual will benefit both the individual and the organisation. The Human Resources Development framework views employees, as an asset to the enterprise whose value will be enhanced by development,“Its primary focus is on growth and employee development…it emphasises developing individual potential and skills” (Elwood, Holton and Trott 1996)<ref>Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott, Jr., 1996, Trends Toward a Closer Integration of Vocational Education and Human Resources Development, Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, Vol. 12, No. 2, p7</ref>
Although Moore's law was initially made in the form of an [[observation]] and [[forecast]], the more widely it became accepted, the more it served as a goal for an entire industry. This drove both [[marketing]] and [[engineering]] departments of [[semiconductor]] manufacturers to focus enormous energy aiming for the specified increase in processing power that it was presumed one or more of their competitors would soon actually attain. In this regard, it can be viewed as a [[self-fulfilling prophecy]].<ref name=Disco1998>{{Citation
| last = Disco
| first = Cornelius
| last2 = van der Meulen
| first2 = Barend
| year = 1998
| title = Getting new technologies together
| pages = 206–207
| isbn = 311015630X
| publisher = Walter de Gruyter
| location = New York
| oclc = 39391108
| url = http://books.google.com/books?id=1khslZ-jbgEC&pg=PA206&lpg=PA206&ots=D38v82mSkm&output=html&sig=ACfU3U2jPixZgKq-PYwVPHDpwO2Zt31puQ
| access-date = 23 August 2008
}}</ref><ref>
Gordon Moore calls his law a self fulfilling prophecy, according to {{cite-web
| url = http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2005/04/13/gordon-moore-says-aloha-to-moores-law
| title = Gordon Moore Says Aloha to Moore's Law
| publisher = the Inquirer
| date = 13 April 2005
| access-date = 23 August 2008
}}</ref>


==Modern concept of human resources==
==Manufacturing costs and Moore's second law==
Though human resources have been part of business and organizations since the first days of agriculture, the modern concept of human resources began in reaction to the efficiency focus of [[Taylorism]] in the early 1900s. By 1920, psychologists and employment experts in the [[United States]] started the [[human relations]] movement, which viewed workers in terms of their [[psychology]] and fit with companies, rather than as interchangeable parts. This movement grew throughout the middle of the 20th century, placing emphasis on how [[leadership]], cohesion, and loyalty played important roles in organizational success. Although this view was increasingly challenged by more quantitatively rigorous and less "soft" management techniques in the 1960s and beyond, human resources had gained a permanent role within an organization.


[[Category:Organizational studies and human resource management]]
As the cost of computer power to the [[consumer]] falls, the cost for producers to fulfill Moore's law follows an opposite trend: R&D, manufacturing, and test costs have increased steadily with each new generation of chips. Rising manufacturing costs are an important consideration for the sustaining of Moore's law.<ref> [http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/04/19/HNmooreslaw_1.html 2005 Infoworld article on Moore's law impact from rising costs and diminishing returns.]</ref>
[[Category:Human resource management]]
This had led to the formulation of "Moore's second law," which is that the [[financial capital|capital]] cost of a [[fab (semiconductors)|semiconductor fab]] also increases exponentially over time.<ref> [http://www.edavision.com/200111/feature.pdf Does Moore's Law Still Hold?]</ref><ref>[http://research.microsoft.com/~gray/Moore_Law.html Moore's Law article by Bob Schaller]</ref>


[[ar:موارد بشرية]]
Materials required for advancing technology (e.g., [[photoresist]]s and other polymers and industrial chemicals) are derived from natural resources such as [[petroleum]] and so are affected by the cost and supply of these resources. Nevertheless, photoresist costs are coming down through more efficient delivery, though shortage risks remain.<ref> [http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8426cover1.html 2006 Chemical & Engineering News article on materials suppliers challenged by rising costs]</ref>
[[cs:Lidské zdroje]]

[[de:Personalwesen]]
The cost to [[tape-out]] a chip at 90 nm is at least US$1,000,000, and exceeds US$3,000,000 for 65 nm.<ref>[http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000100&ISSUE=0406&RELTYPE=PR&ORIGRELTYPE=CVS&PRODCODE=00000000&PRODLETT=AB&CommonCount=0 Reference: photomask costs]</ref>
[[es:Recursos humanos]]

[[fr:Gestion des ressources humaines]]
==Future trends==
[[id:Sumber daya manusia]]
Computer industry technology "road maps' predict (as of 2001) that Moore's law will continue for several chip generations. Depending on the doubling time used in the calculations, this could mean up to a hundredfold increase in transistor count per chip within a decade. The semiconductor industry technology roadmap uses a three-year doubling time for [[microprocessor]]s, leading to a tenfold increase in the next decade.<ref>[http://public.itrs.net/ International Technology Roadmap]</ref> Intel was reported in 2005 as stating that the downsizing of [[silicon]] chips with good economics can continue during the next decade<ref>{{cite web| url=http://news.com.com/New+life+for+Moores+Law/2009-1006_3-5672485.html?tag=nl | title=New life for Moores Law |date=2006-04-19| |publisher=CNET News.com| accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref>
[[it:Risorse umane]]
and in 2008 as predicting the trend through 2029.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://java.sys-con.com/read/557154.htm | title=Moore's Law: "We See No End in Sight," Says Intel's Pat Gelsinger |date=2008-05-01| |publisher=SYS-CON | accessdate = 2008-05-01}}</ref> In fact, Moore's Law has accelerated in the case of NAND [[Flash memory]], which is used for storage in digital cameras, flash drives, [[MP3]] players, and most recently, solid-state drives (SSDs).
[[he:משאבי אנוש]]
[[Image:NAND Flash accelerates Moore's Law.JPG|right|thumb|350px|The aggressive trend of process design rule shrinks in NAND Flash memory technology effectively accelerates Moore's Law.]]
[[nl:Human Resource Management]]
Some of the new directions in research that may allow Moore's law to continue are:
[[ja:人材]]
*Intel's prediction of increasing use of materials other than silicon was verified in mid-2006, as was its intent of using [[trigate transistors]] from around 2009 {{Fact|date=August 2007}}.
[[no:Menneskelige ressurser]]
*Researchers from [[IBM]] and [[Georgia Institute of Technology|Georgia Tech]] created a new speed record when they ran a silicon/[[germanium]] [[helium]] [[supercooled]] transistor at 500 gigahertz (GHz).<ref>{{cite web| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5099584.stm|title =Chilly chip shatters speed record |date=2006-06-20| |publisher=BBC Online| accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref> The transistor operated above 500 GHz at 4.5 [[Kelvin|K]] (−451°F/−268.65°C)<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.gatech.edu/news-room/release.php?id=1019 | title =Georgia Tech/IBM Announce New Chip Speed Record |date=2006-06-20| |publisher=Georgia Institute of Technology| accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref> and simulations showed that it could likely run at 1 THz (1,000 GHz). This trial only tested a single transistor, however. Practical desktop CPUs running at this speed are extremely unlikely using contemporary silicon chip techniques {{Fact|date=February 2007}}.
[[pl:Zasoby ludzkie]]
*In early 2006, [[IBM]] researchers announced that they had developed a technique to print circuitry only 29.9 nm wide using [[Ultraviolet|deep-ultraviolet]] (DUV, 193-nanometer) [[Photolithography|optical lithography]]. IBM claims that this technique may allow chipmakers to use current methods for seven years while continuing to achieve results forecast by Moore's law. New methods that can achieve smaller circuits are expected to be substantially more expensive.
[[pt:Recursos humanos]]
*On [[January 27]], [[2007]], Intel demonstrated a working [[45nm]] chip codenamed "[[Intel Core 2#Penryn|Penryn]]", intending mass production to begin in late 2007.<ref>
[[ru:HR]]
{{cite web| year =2005|url=http://www.intel.com/technology/silicon/45nm_technology.htm?iid=homepage+42nm| title =Meet the world's first 45 nm transistors|date=2007-01-27| publisher=Intel| accessdate = 2007-01-24}}</ref> A decade before then, chips were built using a 350 nm process.
[[si:මානව සම්පත්]]
*Companies are working on using [[nanotechnology]] to solve the complex engineering problems involved in producing chips at the 32 nm and smaller levels. (The diameter of a silicon atom is on the order of 0.2 nm.)
[[sr:Људски ресурси]]
*In April of 2008, researchers at HP Labs announced the creation of a working "[[memristor]]": a fourth basic passive circuit element whose existence had previously only been theorized. The memristor's unique properties allow for the creation of smaller and better-performing electronic devices.<ref name="Williams08">
[[sv:Human Resources]]
{{citation
[[uk:Людські ресурси]]
|last=Strukov|first=Dmitri B
[[zh:人力资源]]
|last2=Snider|first2=Gregory S
|last3=Stewart|first3=Duncan R
|last4=Williams|first4=Stanley R
|title=The missing memristor found
|journal=Nature
|volume=453
|pages=80–83
|year=2008
|doi=10.1038/nature06932
|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7191/full/nature06932.html}}</ref> This memristor bears some resemblance to [http://www.pennwellblogs.com/sst/eds_threads/labels/memristor.php resistive memory] ([[CBRAM]] or [[RRAM]]) developed independently and recently by other groups for non-volatile memory applications.

While this time horizon for Moore's law scaling is possible{{Clarifyme}}<!-- Pls clarify. What is "time horizon" here? Thx. -->, it does not come without underlying engineering challenges. One of the major challenges in integrated circuits that use [[nanoscale]] transistors is increase in [[parameter variation]] and [[Subthreshold leakage|leakage current]]s. As a result of variation and leakage, the [[design]] margins available to do predictive design are becoming harder. Such systems also dissipate considerable power even when not switching. Adaptive and [[statistical]] design along with leakage power reduction is critical to sustain scaling of [[CMOS]]. A good treatment of these topics is covered in [http://www.springer.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-40109-22-52496396-0,00.html Leakage in Nanometer CMOS Technologies]. Other scaling challenges include:
# The ability to control parasitic resistance and capacitance in transistors,
# The ability to reduce resistance and capacitance in electrical [[interconnect]]s,
# The ability to maintain proper transistor [[electrostatics]] to allow the [[Field effect transistor|gate terminal]] to control the ON/OFF behavior,
# Increasing effect of line edge roughness,
# [[Dopant]] [[fluctuations]],
# System level power delivery,
# [[Thermal]] design to effectively handle the dissipation of delivered power, and
# Solving all these challenges at an ever-reducing manufacturing cost of the overall system.

==Ultimate limits of the law==

On [[April 13]], [[2005]], Gordon Moore stated in an interview that the law cannot be sustained indefinitely: "It can't continue forever. The nature of exponentials is that you push them out and eventually disaster happens" and noted that [[transistors]] would eventually reach the limits of miniaturization at [[atomic]] levels:
{{quote|In terms of size [of transistor] you can see that we're approaching the size of [[atom]]s which is a fundamental barrier, but it'll be two or three generations before we get that far—but that's as far out as we've ever been able to see. We have another 10 to 20 years before we reach a fundamental limit. By then they'll be able to make bigger chips and have transistor budgets in the billions.<ref>{{cite web| year =2005|url=http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=3477| title =Moore's Law is dead, says Gordon Moore|date=2005-04-13| author=Manek Dubash|publisher=Techworld | accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref>}}

In 1995, the "powerful" [[Digital Equipment Corporation|Digital]] [[DEC Alpha|Alpha 21164]] chip had just over nine million transistors. This 64-bit processor was a technological spearhead at the time, even if the circuit’s market share remained average. Six years later, a state of the art microprocessor would have more than 40 million transistors. In 2015, it is believed that these processors should contain more than 15 billion transistors. Things are becoming smaller each year. If this continues, in theory, in less than 10 years computers will be created where each molecule will have its own place, i.e. we will have completely entered the era of molecular scale production.<ref>{{cite book |last = Waldner |first = Jean-Baptiste |authorlink = Jean-Baptiste Waldner |title = Nanocomputers and Swarm Intelligence |publisher = [[ISTE]] [[John Wiley & Sons]] |place = London |date = 2008 | pages = p44-45 |isbn = 1847040020}}</ref>

Others see the limits of the law as being far in the distant future. [[Lawrence Krauss]] and [[Glenn D. Starkman]] announced an ultimate limit of around 600 years in their paper [http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0404510 "Universal Limits of Computation"], based on rigorous estimation of total information-processing capacity of any system in the [[Universe]].

Then again, the law has often met obstacles that appeared insurmountable, before soon surmounting them. In that sense, Moore says he now sees his law as more beautiful than he had realized: "Moore's law is a violation of [[Murphy's law]]. Everything gets better and better."<ref>
{{cite web| year =2005|url=http://economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3798505| title =Moore's Law at 40 - Happy birthday|date=2005-03-23| publisher=The Economist| accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref>

==Futurists and Moore's law==
[[Image:PPTMooresLawai.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Kurzweil expansion of Moore's law from [[integrated circuits]] to earlier [[transistor]]s, [[vacuum tube]]s, [[relay]]s and [[electromechanics|electromechanical]] computers.]]
[[Extrapolation]] partly based on Moore's law has led [[futurists]] such as [[Vernor Vinge]], [[Bruce Sterling]], and [[Ray Kurzweil]] to speculate about a [[technological singularity]]. [[Ray Kurzweil|Kurzweil]] projects that a continuation of Moore's law until 2019 will result in transistor features just a few atoms in width. Although this means that the strategy of ever finer [[photolithography]] will have run its course, he speculates that this does not mean the end of Moore's law:

{{quote|Moore's law of Integrated Circuits was not the first, but the fifth [[paradigm]] to forecast accelerating price-performance ratios. Computing devices have been consistently multiplying in power (per unit of time) from the mechanical calculating devices used in the [[U.S. Census, 1890|1890 U.S. Census]], to <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Max Newman|Newman]]'s<nowiki>]</nowiki> relay-based "[[Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)|<nowiki>[</nowiki>Heath<nowiki>] </nowiki>Robinson]]" machine that cracked the [[Nazism|Nazi]] <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Lorenz cipher]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, to the [[CBS]] [[vacuum tube]] computer that predicted the election of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]], to the transistor-based machines used in the first [[space launch]]es, to the integrated-circuit-based personal computer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1| title =The Law of Accelerating Returns|date=2001-03-07| author=Ray Kurzweil|publisher=KurzweilAI.net | accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref>}}

Thus, Kurzweil conjectures that it is likely that some new type of technology will replace current integrated-circuit technology, and that Moore's Law will hold true long after 2020. He believes that the [[exponential growth]] of Moore's law will continue beyond the use of integrated circuits into technologies that will lead to the [[technological singularity]]. The [[Law of Accelerating Returns]] described by Ray Kurzweil has in many ways altered the public's perception of Moore's Law. It is a common (but mistaken) belief that Moore's Law makes predictions regarding all forms of technology, when it actually only concerns [[semiconductor]] [[circuit]]s. Many [[Futures studies|futurists]] still use the term "Moore's law" in this broader sense to describe ideas like those put forth by Kurzweil.

==Software: breaking the law==

A sometimes misunderstood point is that exponentially improved [[hardware]] does not necessarily imply exponentially improved [[software]] performance to go with it. The productivity of software developers most assuredly does not increase exponentially with the improvement in hardware, but by most measures has increased only slowly and fitfully over the decades.
Software tends to get larger and more complicated over time, and [[Wirth's law]] even states humorously that "Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster".

There are problems where exponential increases in processing power are matched or exceeded by exponential increases in complexity as the problem size increases. (See [[computational complexity theory]] and [[P = NP problem|complexity classes P and NP]] for a somewhat theoretical discussion of such problems, which occur very commonly in applications such as [[Scheduling (computing)|scheduling]].)

Due to the mathematical power of exponential growth (similar to the financial power of compound interest), seemingly minor fluctuations in the relative growth rates of CPU performance, RAM capacity, and disk space per dollar have caused the relative costs of these three fundamental computing resources to shift markedly over the years, which in turn has caused significant changes in programming styles. For many programming problems, the developer has to decide on numerous time-space tradeoffs, and throughout the history of computing these choices have been strongly influenced by the shifting relative costs of CPU cycles versus storage space.

In addition to processor-usage/storage-space trade-offs, there is often a correlation between development time, application complexity, and application performance. One example of this would be the sorting algorithm [[insertion sort]] when compared to the [[quicksort]] algorithm. While an insertion sort is one of the easiest and least complex sorting algorithms to implement, it is also somewhat slow for large numbers of data. As processor performance increases, programmers may decide to implement slower and less complex algorithms in favor of a shorter development time.

==Other considerations==

Not all aspects of [[computing technology]] develop in capacities and speed according to Moore's law. [[Random Access Memory|Random Access Memory (RAM)]] speeds and [[hard drive]] seek times improve at best a few percentage points each year. Since the capacity of RAM and hard drives is increasing much faster than is their access speed, intelligent use of their capacity becomes more and more important. It now makes sense in many cases to trade space for time, such as by precomputing indexes and storing them in ways that facilitate rapid access, at the cost of using more disk and memory space: space is getting cheaper relative to time.

Moreover, there is a [[popular misconception]] that the clock speed of a processor determines its speed, also known as the [[Megahertz Myth]]. This actually also depends on the number of instructions per tick which can be executed (as well as the complexity of each instruction, see [[Million instructions per second|MIPS]], [[RISC]] and [[Complex instruction set computer|CISC]]), and so the clock speed can only be used for comparison between two identical circuits. Of course, other factors must be taken into consideration such as the [[Bus (computing)|bus]] width and speed of the [[peripheral]]s. Therefore, most popular evaluations of "computer speed" are inherently biased, without an understanding of the underlying technology. This was especially true during the [[Pentium]] era when popular manufacturers played with public perceptions of speed, focusing on advertising the clock rate of new products.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/chips/0,39020354,2107456,00.htm | title =Intel, Aberdeen attack AMD speed ratings |date=2006-06-24| author=Matthew Broersma|publisher=ZDNet UK| accessdate = 2006-06-24}}</ref>

Another popular misconception circulating Moore's law is the incorrect assumption that exponential processor transistor growth, as predicted by Moore, translates directly into proportional exponential increase processing power or processing speed. While the increase of transistors in processors usually have an increased effect on processing power or speed, the relationship between the two factors is not proportional. There are cases where a ~45% increase in processor transistors have translated to roughly 10-20% increase in processing power or speed.<ref> {{cite web| url=http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2129&p=3 | title =AnandTech: Intel's 90nm Pentium M 755: Dothan Investigated |date=2004-07-21| author= Anand Lal Shimpi|publisher=Anadtech| accessdate = 2007-12-12}}</ref> Different processor families have different performance increases when transistor count is increased. More precisely, processor performance or power is more related to other factors such as [[microarchitecture]], and clock speed within the same processor family. That is to say, processor performance can increase without increasing the number of transistors in a processor. ([[AMD K8|AMD64]] processors had better overall performance compared to the late [[Pentium 4]] series, which had more transistors).<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium4-6xx_21.html | title =X-bit labs - Intel Pentium 4 6XX and Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73 GHz CPU Review (page 21) |date=2005-02-20| author= Ilya Gavrichenkov|publisher=X-bit labs| accessdate = 2007-12-12}}</ref>

It is also important to note that [[transistor count|transistor density]] in [[Multi-core (computing)|multi-core]] [[Central processing unit|CPU]]s does not necessarily reflect a similar increase in practical computing power, due to the [[thread-level parallelism|unparallelised nature]] of most applications.

==See also==
<div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">
* [[Accelerating change]]
* [[Amdahl's law]]
* [[Bell's law]]
* [[Metcalfe's law]]
* [[Experience curve effects]]
* [[Exponential growth]]
* [[History of computing hardware (1960s-present)]]
* [[Hofstadter's law]]
* [[Kryder's law]]
* [[Logistic growth]]
* [[Nielsen's law]]
* [[Observations named after people]]
* [[Quantum computing]]
* [[Rock's law]]
* [[Second half of the chessboard]]
* [[Semiconductor]]
* [[Wirth's law]] "Software gets slower more rapidly than hardware gets faster."
</div>

==References and notes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
''Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation.'' Edited by David C. Brock. x + 122 pp. Chemical Heritage Press, 2006. $12.50. [http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/56682 Review at American Scientist]

==External links==
{{wikibooks|The Information Age}}
===Articles===
* [http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/index.htm Intel's information page on Moore's Law] &ndash; With link to Moore's original 1965 paper
* [http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/events/moores_law_40th/index.htm Intel press kit] released for Moore's Law's 40th anniversary, with a [ftp://download.intel.com/pressroom/images/events/moores_law_40th/Moores_Law_Original_Graph.jpg 1965 sketch] by Moore
* [http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_11/tuomi/index.html The Lives and Death of Moore's Law] &ndash; By [[Ilkka Tuomi]]; a detailed study on Moore's Law and its historical evolution and [http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0593.html its criticism] by Kurzweil.
* [http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5607422.html Moore says nanoelectronics face tough challenges] &ndash; By Michael Kanellos, CNET News.com, [[9 March]], [[2005]]
* [http://home.earthlink.net/~moores-law/ Moore's Law] &ndash; Blog and news; Moore's Law graph showing estimated end time, other related graphics
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/technology/18moore.html It's Moore's Law, But Another Had The Idea First] by [[John Markoff]]
* [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=gordon-e-moore---part-2&page=1 Gordon Moore reflects on his eponymous law] Interview with W. Wayt Gibbs in [[Scientific American]]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4449711.stm Law that has driven digital life: The Impact of Moore's Law] &ndash; A comprehensive BBC News article, [[18 April]], [[2005]]
* [http://www.bbcworld.com/content/clickonline_archive_29_2004.asp?pageid=666&co_pageid=2 No More Moore's Law?] - BBC News article, [[22 July]] [[2004]]
* [http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/19260.wss IBM Research Demonstrates Path for Extending Current Chip-Making Technique] &ndash; Press release from IBM on new technique for creating line patterns, [[20 February]], [[2006]]
* [http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/moore.ars/ Understanding Moore's Law By Jon Hannibal Stokes] [[20 February]] [[2003]]
* [http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/sscs/menuitem.f07ee9e3b2a01d06bb9305765bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=sscs_level1_article&TheCat=2165&path=sscs/06Sept&file=Keyes.xml The Technical Impact of Moore's Law] IEEE solid-state circuits society newsletter; September 2006
* [http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18063/ MIT Technology Review article: Novel Chip Architecture Could Extend Moore's Law]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/27/AR2007012700018.html Moore's Law seen extended in chip breakthrough]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/technology/27chip.html?em&ex=1170046800&en=59a4d10473c4a8c8&ei=5087%0A Intel Says Chips Will Run Faster, Using Less Power]
* A [http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5112061.html ZDNet article detailing the limits]

===Data===
*[http://wi-fizzle.com/compsci/ Intel (IA-32) CPU Speeds] since 1994. Speed increases in recent years have seemed to slow down with regard to percentage increase per year (available in PDF or PNG format).
*[http://www.stereo.org.ua/2007/moore-law-pc-upgrade/ A case for PC upgrade], 2002-2007.
*[http://users.erols.com/chare/current_cpus.htm Current Processors Chart]
===FAQs===
* [http://news.com.com/FAQ+Forty+years+of+Moores+Law/2100-1006_3-5647824.html?tag=nefd.lede A C|net FAQ about Moore's Law]

[[Category:Exponentials]]
[[Category:Adages]]
[[Category:Theoretical computer science]]
[[Category:Electronic design]]
[[Category:Rules of thumb]]
[[Category:Digital media]]
[[Category:Digital Revolution]]
[[Category:Futurology]]
[[Category:Technology strategy]]
[[Category:Computing culture]]
[[Category:Singularitarianism]]

[[af:Moore se wet]]
[[bn:মূরের সূত্র]]
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Revision as of 02:31, 11 October 2008

"HR" redirects here. For other uses, see HR (disambiguation).

Human resources is a term with which many organizations describe the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance, Employee Relations and resource planning. The field draws upon concepts developed in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Human resources has at least two related interpretations depending on context. The original usage derives from political economy and economics, where it was traditionally called labor, one of four factors of production. The more common usage within corporations and businesses refers to the individuals within the firm, and to the portion of the firm's organization that deals with hiring, firing, training, and other personnel issues. This article addresses both definitions.

The objective of Human Resources is to maximize the return on investment from the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk. It is the responsibility of human resource managers to conduct these activities in an effective, legal, fair, and consistent manner.

Human resource management serves these key functions:

  1. Selection
  2. Training and Development
  3. Performance Evaluation and Management
  4. Promotions
  5. Redundancy
  6. Industrial and Employee Relations
  7. Record keeping of all personal data.
  8. Compensation, pensions, bonuses etc in liaison with Payroll
  9. Confidential advice to internal 'customers' in relation to problems at work &
  10. Career development

Human resources

Modern analysis emphasizes that human beings are not "commodities" or "resources", but are creative and social beings in a productive enterprise. The 2000 revision of ISO 9001 in contrast requires to identify the processes, their sequence and interaction, and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities. In general, heavily unionized nations such as France and Germany have adopted and encouraged such job descriptions especially within trade unions. One view of this trend is that a strong social consensus on political economy and a good social welfare system facilitates labor mobility and tends to make the entire economy more productive, as labor can move from one enterprise to another with little controversy or difficulty in adapting.

An important controversy regarding labor mobility illustrates the broader philosophical issue with usage of the phrase "human resources": governments of developing nations often regard developed nations that encourage immigration or "guest workers" as appropriating human capital that is rightfully part of the developing nation and required to further its growth as a civilization. They argue that this appropriation is similar to colonial commodity fiat wherein a colonizing European power would define an arbitrary price for natural resources, extracting which diminished national natural capital.

The debate regarding "human resources" versus human capital thus in many ways echoes the debate regarding natural resources versus natural capital. Over time the United Nations have come to more generally support the developing nations' point of view, and have requested significant offsetting "foreign aid" contributions so that a developing nation losing human capital does not lose the capacity to continue to train new people in trades, professions, and the arts.

An extreme version of this view is that historical inequities such as African slavery must be compensated by current developed nations, which benefited from stolen "human resources" as they were developing. This is an extremely controversial view, but it echoes the general theme of converting human capital to "human resources" and thus greatly diminishing its value to the host society, i.e. "Africa", as it is put to narrow imitative use as "labor" in the using society.

In a series of reports of the UN Secretary-General to the General Assembly over the last decade [e.g. A/56/162 (2001)], a broad inter sectoral approach to developing human resourcefulness has been outlined as a priority for socio-economic development and particularly anti-poverty strategies. This calls for strategic and integrated public policies, for example in education, health, and employment sectors that promote occupational skills, knowledge and performance enhancement.

In the very narrow context of corporate "human resources", there is a contrasting pull to reflect and require workplace diversity that echoes the diversity of a global customer base. Foreign language and culture skills, ingenuity, humor, and careful listening, are examples of traits that such programs typically require. It would appear that these evidence a general shift to the human capital point of view, and an acknowledgment that human beings do contribute much more to a productive enterprise than "work": they bring their character, their ethics, their creativity, their social connections, and in some cases even their pets and children, and alter the character of a workplace. The term corporate culture is used to characterize such processes.

The traditional but extremely narrow context of hiring, firing, and job description is considered a 20th century anachronism. Most corporate organizations that compete in the modern global economy have adopted a view of human capital that mirrors the modern consensus as above. Some of these, in turn, deprecate the term "human resources" as useless.

In general the abstractions of macro-economics treat it this way - as it characterizes no mechanisms to represent choice or ingenuity. So one interpretation is that "firm-specific human capital" as defined in macro-economics is the modern and correct definition of "human resources" - and that this is inadequate to represent the contributions of "human resources" in any modern theory of political economy.

Human resource development

In terms of recruitment and selection it is important to consider carrying out a thorough job analysis to determine the level of skills/technical abilities, competencies, flexibility of the employee required etc. At this point it is important to consider both the internal and external factors that can have an effect on the recruitment of employees. The external factors are those out-with the powers of the organization and include issues such as current and future trends of the labor market e.g. skills, education level, government investment into industries etc. On the other hand internal influences are easier to control, predict and monitor, for example management styles or even the organizational culture.

In order to know the business environment in which any organization operates, three major trends should be considered:

  • Demographics – the characteristics of a population/workforce, for example, age, gender or social class. This type of trend may have an effect in relation to pension offerings, insurance packages etc.
  • Diversity – the variation within the population/workplace. Changes in society now mean that a larger proportion of organizations are made up of "baby-boomers" or older employees in comparison to thirty years ago. Also, over recent years organizations have had to become more diverse in their employment practices to cope with the lower work ethic of the newer generations. The service industry for example, has embraced those "baby-boomers" desiring to reenter the workforce. Traditional advocates of "workplace diversity" simply advocate an employee base that is a mirror reflection of the make-up of society insofar as race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. These advocates focus on the social engineering theory without understanding the more important points: diversity of ideas to prevent stagnation of products and business development; expanding the customer base through "outreach"; and profit. Alarmists and advocates of social engineering theory cite a "rise in discrimination, unfair dismissal and sexual/racial harassment cases" as an indicator of the need for more diversity legislation. While such measures have a significant effect on the organization, they effect little or no real change in advancing diversity of ideas in the workplace. Anti-discrimination laws and regulations do require businesses to undertake a cost-benefit analysis. The result of this analysis is often to adopt an approach that generally recognizes gender, racial, and sexual orientation diversity as a cheaper alternative to fighting endless litigation. In summary, diversity, based on social engineering “is about creating a working culture that seeks, respects and values difference” without regard to how diversity increases productive and unity of effort.
  • Skills and qualifications – as industries move from manual to a more managerial professions so does the need for more highly skilled graduates. If the market is "tight" (i.e. not enough staff for the jobs), employers will have to compete for employees by offering financial rewards, community investment, etc.

In regard to how individuals respond to the changes in a labour market the following should be understood:

  • Geographical spread – how far is the job from the individual? The distance to travel to work should be in line with the pay offered by the organization and the transportation and infrastructure of the area will also be an influencing factor in deciding who will apply for a post.
  • Occupational structure – the norms and values of the different careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3 different types of occupational structure namely craft (loyalty to the profession), organization career (promotion through the firm) and unstructured (lower/unskilled workers who work when needed).
  • Generational difference –different age categories of employees have certain characteristics, for example their behavior and their expectations of the organization.

While recruitment methods are wide and varied, it is important that the job is described correctly and that any personal specifications are stated. Job recruitment methods can be through job centres, employment agencies/consultants, headhunting, and local/national newspapers. It is important that the correct media is chosen to ensure an appropriate response to the advertised post.

Human Resources Development is a framework for the expansion of human capital within an organisation. Human Resources Development is a combination of Training and Education that ensures the continual improvement and growth of both the individual and the organisation. Adam Smith states, “The capacities of individuals depended on their access to education”. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).</ref>Human Resources Development is the medium that drives the process between training and learning. Human Resources Development is not a defined object, but a series of organised processes,[1][2]</ref> Human Resources Development is the structure that allows for individual development, potentially satisfying the organisation’s goals. The development of the individual will benefit both the individual and the organisation. The Human Resources Development framework views employees, as an asset to the enterprise whose value will be enhanced by development,“Its primary focus is on growth and employee development…it emphasises developing individual potential and skills” (Elwood, Holton and Trott 1996)[3]

Modern concept of human resources

Though human resources have been part of business and organizations since the first days of agriculture, the modern concept of human resources began in reaction to the efficiency focus of Taylorism in the early 1900s. By 1920, psychologists and employment experts in the United States started the human relations movement, which viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies, rather than as interchangeable parts. This movement grew throughout the middle of the 20th century, placing emphasis on how leadership, cohesion, and loyalty played important roles in organizational success. Although this view was increasingly challenged by more quantitatively rigorous and less "soft" management techniques in the 1960s and beyond, human resources had gained a permanent role within an organization.

  1. ^ “with a specific learning objective” (Nadler,1984)
  2. ^ Nadler L Ed., 1984, The Handbook of Human resources Development, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
  3. ^ Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott, Jr., 1996, Trends Toward a Closer Integration of Vocational Education and Human Resources Development, Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, Vol. 12, No. 2, p7
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