Understanding the state and direction of HR as an occupation through institutional theory - the case of Japan
运用制度理论分析日本人力资源职业的状态与方向，揭示制度逻辑和基础设施如何塑造该职业的张力与可能的重构，对关注HR职业发展的学者有参考价值。
This article applies institutional theory to analyse the state and direction of human resource management as an occupation. Using Japan as a case study, we apply a framework by Zietsma et al. (2017) to demonstrate how an analysis of institutional logics and institutional infrastructure helps to understand the state of and tensions within the HR occupation. Abstracting from the case of Japan, we argue that such systematic stocktaking of an HR occupational field along a neo-institutional theoretical model can offer valuable insights into possible (re-)configurations of the field that go beyond the somewhat normative prescription of the ‘HR professional’ in the Western literature.