Towards Managing Humanely

Abstract

Traditional Human Resource Management (HRM) is today fundamentally being called into question. Its tools and policies have contributed to a certain professionalisation in the management of persons, by means of managerial techniques, which are today challenged in terms of their results: high levels of resignations, dissatisfaction, lack of commitment, burnout, etc. Workers no longer want to be treated as ‘resources’, and HRM must not only be at the service of the economic and/or financial performance of firms. Whilst criticisms are numerous and deserve to be qualified, alternative offerings are more rare. In French-speaking countries, ‘Humane Management’ has truly developed and confers other cornerstones, end purposes and methods to the management of persons within organisations, whilst being more focused on human beings, real work and recognition for it. This chapter presents this proposal and the conditions for Managing Humanely and opens up the path to a more sustainable, ethical and qualitative management of people and organizations.

Re‐humanising management through co‐presence: Lessons from enforced telework during the second wave of Covid‐19

“…Humanistic management looks at characteristics of a humanistic ethos for managing business: the view of the individual and human work, the role of the individual in society and in interacting with nature, the business firm, and the purpose of business in society (Melé, 2016). Humane management shares this humanistic anthropological foundation, while promoting recognition at work and management practices and policies that are "work activity-centred" (Taskin & Dietrich, 2020;Taskin, 2022). Both approaches and their implications draw on critical management studies (Aktouf, 1992;Ghoshal, 2005) hence they propose a shift toward more humane practices in managing organisations.…”