Balancing Interests in the Search for Occupational Legitimacy: The HR Professionalization Project in Canada
通过加拿大人力资源专业化案例，结合特质模型、控制模型和制度同构理论，分析HR从业者如何通过模仿传统职业特质和平衡劳资利益来提升职业合法性，并评估其成效。
Despite broad debates surrounding how the human resource management occupation can increase its legitimacy, researchers have yet to examine the collective steps HR practitioners are taking in this regard and the extent to which they have been successful. We conduct a case study of the HR professionalization project in Canada via multisource qualitative and quantitative data, which we analyze using a unique integration of the trait and control models from the sociology of professions, as well as isomorphism from institutional theory. Viewed through the lens of these frameworks, we find that HR practitioners are attempting to emulate traits that define traditional notions of professions, and are aspiring to transcendent values associated with balancing the sometimes conflicting interests of employers and employees. Objective data from external stakeholders and institutions show that these collective strategies have been somewhat successful in garnering greater legitimacy thus far, particularly when comparisons are made with the HR professional project in the United States. We highlight numerous implications for future research and practice surrounding the legitimacy of the HR profession. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.