The HR professional at the centre of extreme work: working intensely?

Abstract

This paper sought is to provide a unique examination of what constitutes extreme work for the HR professional, and in turn the extent to which HR professionals are engaged in such work. Granter et al. (2019) multidimensional theoretical framework of work intensity (organizational, temporal, emotional and physical) challenges was used as an anchor to explore and understand these issues. The paper is based on a thematic analysis of interviews with Australian HR professionals capturing the nature, complexity and intensity of their role, and the implications on the HR professional, inclusive of those resulting from the dark side of HR. Granter et al. (2019) work intensity challenges (organisational, temporal, emotion and physical) were found to be intrinsic to the role of the HR professional; the complex and intense nature of the role further found to pose a risk to the HR professional’s health and well-being, thus supporting the contention that HR is an extreme form of work. In establishing HR as a form of extreme work, this research offers a unique contribution that not only adds to the extreme work literature but also further supports the idea that work intensity is critical to the conceptualisation of extreme work.

Keywords:

• HRM
• HR professionals
• extreme work
• work intensity
• dark side of HR

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the nature of the research supporting data is not available.