Hi everybody,
I was interested to read in your e-mail, David, about the questions
raised in the area of HR professionalism.
I have a background in Information Management and many of the
same questions arise in that profession, particularly as the very fast
growth of electronic information has meant that the profession has
emerged quite recently.
Members of the IM profession have in some instances found it
helpful to think of themselves as hybrids in the sense of having
knowledge of several different aspects of organisational
management - I guess that HR professionals also need that kind of
hybrid knowledge. Also IM professionals often have a role as
boundary spanners, being able to communicate across several
different organisational areas and maintaining knowledge flows
withing teams drawn from different fields.
It may be that our strength as Learning Developers is that we can
adopt that boundary spanning role - not only between students and
academics but also between academics in different disciplines.
Perhaps, rather than wishing for idenification as academics we need
to find ways of capitalising on our hybrid nature. I know that we're
all based in different kinds of sections in our universities. I wonder
whether any of us feel that we can do that in our particular
situations.
All the best,
Ann
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Ann Barlow MA MSc PgCE,
Acting Director,
Centre for Continuing Education,
Humanities Devas Street Building,
The University of Manchester,
Oxford Road,
Manchester
M13 9PL
0161 275 3274
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