Sri Lanka, Sept. 17 -- It has been nearly 70 years since Peter Drucker coined the phrase 'human resource'. Human resources management or HR was a significant innovation over the more ancient practice of personnel management, which was essentially about job definitions, hiring and employment record-keeping.

HR evolved in the 1960s and 70s as a comprehensive, modern approach to managing people and organisations and became a mainstream corporate function by the late 1970s.

The responsibility for organisational structuring, job of recruiting, selecting, appraising, rewarding and developing employees as well as the task of negotiating with labour unions in large corporations was taken on by the HR departments. Recruitment, contract managemen...