Disruptive Innovations in Human Resource Management: Creating Sustainable Human Asset Management in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Abstract

The theories and practices comprising modern human resource management (HRM) boast an extensive evolution and continue to evolve. Fayolism by Henri Fayol (1841-1925), Taylorism by Frederic Winslow Taylor (1857-1915), bureaucracy by Maximilian Weber (1864-1920), leadership styles and change management by Kurt Lewin (1890-1947), theory X and theory Y by Douglas McGregor (1906-1964), the hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), need theory by David Clarence McClelland (1917- 1988), and motivation-hygiene theory by Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) precipitated and consolidated HRM as known today. Although fundamental to present-day HRM, globally, the HRM tenets hewed in the three previous industrial revolutions remain largely misaligned with sustainable human asset management (sHAM). Given the preceding, the question is whether organizational leaders can use disruptive innovation to (a) enable sustainable human asset management while (b) maximizing efficiency and production to achieve organizational sustainability in the impending fourth industrial revolution.