Organisational human resources value, growth and strategic risk management

Abstract

It could be argued that, without humans there is no organisation. Until now, and into the foreseeable future, machines will still require humans to design them and to switch them on. The conditions portrayed in the movie trilogy the Matrix have yet to come to fruition. Traditionally, while management accounting has recognised the financial inputs of human resources, it has not given them the level of consideration, particularly in terms of service and public sector organisations, that they deserve. For service and public sector organisations in particular, the investment in human resources is primarily treated as a period expense along with wages and salaries. However, it is worthwhile to compare the level of human resource wages, salaries, training and development with those associated with the current and non-current assets of these service and public sector organisations. In this chapter the traditional treatment of human resources and their value adding capacity to an organisations is challenged, if only to. agitate for more research into this 'significant' organisational investment.