Coaxing the Corporate Will: Human Resource Management practitioners and the use of strategic agency at Royal Dutch Shell and Ford Motor Company, 1910-1950

This research explores the historical strategic role of Human Resource Management (HRM) practitioners in influencing corporate strategies at Royal Dutch Shell and Ford Motor Company during 1910-1950. Using archival data and grounded in Structuration Theory, the study examines HRM’s role in critical corporate events and its long-term strategic impacts, offering insights into HRM’s evolution and its potential crisis of identity in modern times.