Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour

The Axis' mission, vision and objectives

The Management of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour (MRH/CO) area is primarily concerned with studying the determinants, content and results of the employment relationship between employees and their companies. The preferred angle of analysis is that of organisational behaviour which, at the crossroads of several disciplinary fields (management, psychology, industrial relations, sociology, etc.), makes it possible to study individual attitudes and behaviour at work without neglecting the influence of groups and the context. The team's objective is to contribute to the understanding of employees' behaviour at work and to reconcile organisational performance objectives with employees' individual objectives (professional fulfilment, well-being at work, attachment, motivation, etc.).

Research themes

The team's work is organised around several research themes, some of which overlap. The research methods used are both qualitative (interview studies) and quantitative (questionnaires, experiments) to examine attitudes and behaviour at work and how they change over time, in relation to employees' working conditions, the leadership styles to which they are exposed, and the HR and CSR practices implemented in their organisation.

1. Motivation at work and self-determination

Work on the theory of self-determination is mainly led by Patrice Roussel. It examines the impact of HR practices (particularly remuneration) on employee self-motivation. They examine the mediating role played by the satisfaction of needs for competence, autonomy and social relations in the relationship between pay/bonuses and autonomous motivation.

2. Justice, equity and trust

Organisational justice is an area of research common to several researchers in the axis (Marion Fortin, Caroline Manville, Karim Mignonac).
One of the research programmes focuses on the links between perceptions of organisational justice and the physical and psychological health of employees. The work carried out focuses on the influence of perceived justice on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), the aim being to study the mechanisms of association between employees' perceptions of justice and their physical health, This research programme, led and coordinated by a member of the HRM Axis (C. Manville) has received funding from the French National Research Agency for the period 2018-2023.

Another programme focuses more on the antecedents and dynamics of perceptions of justice. This work focuses on motivated cognitions and the choices of justice norms within work teams. This research programme also received funding from the French National Research Agency for the period 2018-2023. It was led and coordinated by a member of the MRH Axis (M. Fortin).

Work on trust in relationships with hierarchical superiors focuses more specifically on the violation of trust in hierarchical relationships, on the trickle-down effects of perceived trust along the hierarchical line and understanding the origin of these trickle-down effects, and on employees' expectations in terms of trust. The research is mainly being conducted by Caroline Manville and Karim Mignonac.

3. Ethics and corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is very often studied at the 'macro' level of the company, in relation to its financial performance. The MRH team has entered a new field of research, 'micro-CSR', with the aim of analysing perceptions of CSR and their impact on the attitudes and behaviour of employees as stakeholders. Assâad El Akremi is the lead researcher in this area.

A second area of research is ethics (cognitive, intuitive and deliberative mechanisms of ethical judgement). The links between the ethical climate of organisations and the ethical and non-ethical behaviour of employees are also being studied from a multi-level perspective. One of the aims of this work is to gain a better understanding of ethical decision-making and the moderating factors that make decisions more or less ethical. More recently, ethical issues in the context of AI systems have become a key area of interest for the team. This area is mainly led by Marion Fortin.

4. Remuneration, career and performance

Some members of the team (in particular Patrice Roussel) are looking more closely at certain HRM practices such as pay, particularly in relation to the work being done on work motivation and self-determination. In particular, they examine the moderating role of variable bonuses (ex-ante bonuses versus ex-post bonuses) on the relationship between self-motivation and performance. The concept of performance distinguishes between task performance, contextual performance and adaptive performance.

Other aspects of HRM studied include the management of experts in organisations, the day-to-day activity and tactics of the HR function 'as practice', and original and innovative approaches to talent management in companies.

5. The dark and light sides of leadership

The HRM team (in particular Assâad El Akremi, Caroline Manville and Véronique Robert) has also developed a series of research projects exploring the light and dark sides of leadership, tackling the themes of servant leadership, transformational leadership, laissez-faire leadership and abusive supervision.

The work on servant leadership and transformational leadership focuses on the positive and negative effects of these leadership styles, particularly in specific contexts such as the police and the fire service. Some of this work has enabled the team to develop multi-level models, exploring the impact of variables measured at the organisational/collective level on variables measured at the individual level.

The work on abusive supervision explores in particular the emotional consequences of this type of leadership and their effects on health at work and loyalty to the organisation. Particular attention is paid to the case of newcomers and the effects of their exposure to abusive supervision over time.

6. Health and well-being at work

Physical and mental health at work is an important issue for the HR team. It is studied across the board in relation to perceptions of organisational justice, new ways of organising work such as teleworking, and trust in interpersonal relationships. The researchers involved in this theme are Sarah Boujendar, Caroline Manville, Karim Mignonac and Véronique Robert (holder of the Junior Professorship in New Ways of Organising Work and Health at Work). The work carried out mainly involves longitudinal designs and aims to identify the mechanisms that associate the variables of interest and the conditions under which these associations exist.

Thinking about health in the workplace goes beyond the company itself, to include the repercussions of customer relations on employee health. Sarah Boujendar has developed a research project focusing on employees in contact with customers. She is interested, for example, in the effects of verbal aggression from customers on the emotional exhaustion and performance of employees in contact. Following on from this study, she is directing and coordinating the THEVOICES research programme funded by the French National Research Agency for the period 2022-2027. This project looks at voice transformation technologies used in customer relations and their effects on employee well-being and performance. More broadly, the project looks at the ethical and societal repercussions of this type of practice.