The role of Human Resources in innovation practice

Abstract

The theory of human capital has been developed in world economic and management science since the 50s. XX century It develops the ideas that already existed in the works of the classics of political economy about man as the bearer of a special factor of production - labor - which cannot be removed from a person and acquired as property.

At the same time, the factor of production, which is carried by people, constitutes the wealth of society as a whole, since it is objectively used by the national economy to produce goods and services. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who considered this problem, absolutized labor as a factor in the formation of “fair” value. The theory of socio-economic formations already contained elements of the analysis of human labor (characteristics of labor relations and the mode of production, as well as the concept of class struggle). However, already in the middle of the 20th century. It became clear that maintaining the existence and development of human knowledge, skills and abilities requires certain costs. That final consumption, which was previously considered exclusively as expenses, began to be viewed as investments in people, forming human capital. A person invests in himself, expecting to receive higher interest on human capital in the future (in the form of wages, entrepreneurial profits, etc.). Organizations interested in higher labor productivity of employees can also invest in human capital. With the development of the new institutional theory, primary econometric tools were created for studying human behavior aimed at increasing the value of human capital in the long term.