COLOR-CODED METAPHORS FOR HUMAN RESOURCES: BLUE, WHITE, PINK, GOLD, AND GREEN!

Collars’ metaphors are selected as a phenomenon for evaluation and interpretation of human resources transformation. This idea contributes to the functionality of metaphors on human resource management literature. Blue Collar is the metaphor of physical labor. The jobs of blue collars involve physical, dirty and dangerous characteristics and tend to be closely supervised, limited opportunities for development, growth and upward mobility (Halle, 1984). White Collar is the metaphor of professionalism. It calls office positions. The phrase of white collar was used firstly for clerical, administrative and management workers during the 1930s. Pink Collar is the metaphor of feminine works. As a result of increased number of companies, employment of women is increased and the roles in societies have changed (Toffler, 1984). At a general level, the number of women entering the paid working population has continued to increase since the post-war period. The term has been used for the feminine works such as nurses, secretaries and elementary school teachers. Gold Collar is the metaphor of knowledge. The new version of human labor in new era is communication technology and knowledge. Offices become the new workplaces of employees who are categorized according to working on basically abstract and more abstract issues. That is the main classification of knowledge workers (Toffler, 1984). Gold collars were defined by Wonacott (2007) as being high in problem-solving abilities, creativity, talent and intelligence, performing non-repetitive and complex work. Green Collar is the metaphor of environment. Green economy is suggested as a cure for current economic problems and a way to address the issues of global warming. From this perspective, new investments can be encouraged to create millions of new green jobs (Michaels and Murphy, 2009). The phrase of green collar is defined as jobs of an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines.

For the extended version: Alpaslan-Danisman, Sumeyra (2014), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Social Sciences, Metaphors of Human Resources: Colors of Collars, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Editor: Georgeta Rata, Hasan Arslan, Patricia-Luciana Runcanand, Ali Akdemir, ISBN: 978–1–4438–5579–2

References

Halle, D. (1984). America’s Working Man: Work, Home and Politics Among Blue-Collar Property Owners, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Michaels, R. and R. Murphy (2009). Green Jobs: Fact or Fiction? An Assessment of the Literature, IER Institute for Energy Research.

Toffler, Alvin (1984). Third Wave, Bantam Publisher.

Wonacott, M. E. 2007. “Gold-Collar Workers.” ERIC Digest.