Over fifty years ago, Peter Drucker first raised the question: ‘Is personnel management bankrupt?’ And he answered: ‘No, it is not bankrupt. Its liabilities do not exceed its assets. But it is certainly insolvent, certainly unable to honour, with the ready cash of performance, the promises of managing worker and work it so liberally makes.’

In view of the work of more recent writers, the changing nature of work organisations and developments in human resource management, how would you attempt to answer this question today? Set your response out as fully as possible and give supporting reasons.