THE INVISIBLE CURRICULUM IN HUMAN RESOURCES : HOW INDUSTRY CONTEXT SHAPES UNWRITTEN COMPETENCIES

Abstract

Every HR professional learns two sets of curricula. The first is formal which is taught in classrooms and certified through degrees. The second is invisible, it is gained through experience, absorbed through immersion and it is not written down anywhere.

This study examines that second curriculum. It explores the knowledge, instincts and unwritten rules that are not explicitly taught but are held to be possessed by HR professionals across the six industries, namely: Manufacturing, Information Technology, BFSI, Healthcare, E commerce & Retail, and Consultancy. HR practitioner research has, over the past 50 years, been guided by an HR scholarship that has been cantered on the individual and their work and did not include the context of the work. Building upon the five decades preceding this, HR practitioner research was guided by an HR scholarship cantered on the individual and their work and not including the work context. This silence is what this research will fill.

This study is designed using mixed methods approach in which 10 academic and practitioner sources are reviewed and primary data are gathered through the use of a structured questionnaire that was administered to 6 experienced HR professionals from the selected industry, systematically maps what has never been mapped. Results suggest that formal learning is seen as less effective in equipping HR professionals with the skills needed for the work, most decisions made day-to-day are carried out instinctively rather than based on HR theory, and the skills that are needed are only learned through mentorship, observation and years of immersion and practice, but not formal learning.

The outcome of this is the first practitioner-driven map of the Invisible Curriculum in Indian HR, which reveals six invisible knowledge areas, six unspoken rules for survival and six daily skills that every experienced practitioner knows, but has never recorded. This research is not intended to supplant formal HR education curriculum. It aims to finish it.