In management we got used to think in «resources» to be leveraged as «capital» for«value creation» (= even more capital). Specifically, we may speak about natural resources,financial resources – and last but not least about human resources.
Using the same term for oil, money and human beings shows the approach of looking at each of them as means for an end, which is profit and through it shareholder value maximization. In a typical business plan, we may read about the «labour costs» being competitive due to an attractive «labour market», about the «skill-set» of the workers as such, about the engineering or even innovation «competencies» of the well-educated so-called «white-collar» staff, about their «flexibility» for overwork.
