Chapter 12: Sustainable HR Careers in an Era of Disruption: A Provocation

The concept of sustainability is now a key concern for society and organisations, and it is also identified as an important, but insufficiently explored (de Vos et al., 2020), career concept. Contextual influences, global trends and disruptions such as the infiltration of technology replacing workers, work intensification, increasing workforce flexibility, widening workplace inequities and the infiltration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) impact careers, career paths, opportunities, decisions and work experiences. These disruptions will thus likely impact Human Resource (HR) professionals roles, careers and career sustainability, most especially where HR is viewed by organisations as the place to go for advice, support and interventions to deal with these disruptions. However, there is concern that HR professionals may not know how to deal with these disruptions and that HR research on disruptions is insufficient to help them (Deadrick and Gibson, 2007; DeNisi et al., 2014). Where HR fails to help organisations navigate these disruptions and where HR fails to identify its role and contribution to the ‘future of work’, the HR career may become unsustainable.