Decisions about the reasonableness of particular restrictive covenants need to be considered in the light of their own facts, but recent decisions suggest, it is submitted, a judicial approach based on robust common sense rather than excessive legalism.
Edwards, 1998: 13
It is to the organisation as a source of knowledge that we should look, while acknowledging that education systems and external professional institutes will influence the development of HR specialists as individuals (Tyson and Wikander, 1994). The literature on HRM frequently argues that the function plays a strategic role in organisations, with HR managers as major players in creating organisational capability and in managing change (Storey,1992, Tyson,1995). HR managers are engaged in a contractual relationship with their employers, who expect services to be delivered relating to the organisation's purposes. Similar assumptions about economic rationality may be made regarding the HR managers themselves, whose own careers and rewards are organisationally derived. Senior managers are in a strong position to decide and influence what is useful, valid knowledge from their perspectives. The justification for HRM can, according to some commentators, be found in the contribution to organisational performance, for example, the notion that HR policies produce a unique inimitable combination of capability, organisational values and systems for recruiting, training and developing employees (Huselid, 1995). Competencies are now frequently described and used for developmental and appraisal purposes within organisations. Management can thus predetermine what they believe should be known and how this knowledge is to be used, by the kinds of behaviour they prescribe. Given the above, therefore, there are strong justifications for studying HRM knowledge in its organisational context.