Towards Managing Humanely

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