Aims

The objective of the course is to analyse the role and place of the 'personnel' function
in the organisation. and to highlight the 'issue' that it represents for the social groups that make up the enterprise.

Main themes

The course presents and analyses the evolution of the personnel function not only in its
Successive designations, but also, and mainly, in its content and in the conceptions that underpin it. The course tries to explain these evolutions and the scope of the changes. It also attempts to identify the impact of recent changes in the function on organisations.

Content and teaching methods

The course mainly focuses on an analysis of the managerial practices that have developed
to different degrees around the integration of staff to the organisation's norms and values. The questioning that constitutes the main theme will always focus on finding (i) the reasons
(why?) that explain the presence or absence of this or that practice, (ii) the links with the external and internal context, and (iii) their influence on the behaviour of the men and women in the organisation.
The course is in two parts:
the first provides the basis for an analytical framework informed by a political approach based on three distinct poles: the historical, the technical and the strategic. The choice of the historical pole as a starting point is not fortuitous. It marks one of the key orientations of the analytical framework: to demonstrate the point at which current 'practices' in the organisation are illuminated by the past. They can even be considered to be the product of the history of organisations. The other two poles (the technical and the strategic), which are more firmly written into a managerial conception, may also be understood from the point of view of the historical pole;
the second part aims to implement the analytical framework applied to the elucidation of
a concrete problem, namely the elaboration of a social policy within an organisation.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

A desire to develop one's analytical ability means stimulating one's reflection, one's
personal learning, and one's appropriation of the subject.
The materials that students will be given will include a collection of articles (syllabus, summarised documentation, case studies and a practical exercise.
This course forms part of a study programme given in the evening and/or on Saturdays.

Programmes in which this activity is taught

Other credits in programs