Human Resources

In a rapidly changing professional world, where the pandemic changed the rules of the game, careers may feel like roller-coaster rides. To better respond to turbulence and take ownership of our careers and lives, we need to move into the driving seat. How so? By learning and nurturing resilience.

Be they in Dakar, Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Lagos or Paris, it is indispensable for executives to understand social contexts. This understanding is built on a genuine interest in local practices, attentive listening to stakeholders, and a sociological spirit, which means giving thought to how societies function and are transformed. How do players construct and coordinate their activities? What relations do individuals have with society? Based on rigorous empirical work, the sociology of organizations provides keys to understand local managerial specificities. This kind of approach appears essential for anyone who wants to work in Africa. The point I would like to make here is just how important context is and why it is in the manager’s interest to listen to sociologists.

Should I take this job? Will this new experience help me to get a promotion in future, or will I waste my time trying to master something that I am not good at? Those are questions that one would ask if proposed a job in another functional unit. Cross-functional transitions (moves between different functional units within an organization) may seem useful to boost one’s career, but what is better for long-term career advancement: to specialize or to diversify?

Innovation thrives in teams where diverse thinking is not only encouraged but proactively encouraged. Gender diverse teams are shown to have improved performance. Despite the evidence demonstrating the impact of diversity, we still witness mixed reactions to gender diverse teams with the situation exacerbated following the pandemic. As organizations are rebuilding after the initial waves of the pandemic, we focus on why gender diversity needs to be at the heart of this transformation.

Matteo Winkler is a law professor at HEC Paris, focusing an important part of his research on international human rights and on teaching Diversity and Inclusion. Professor Winkler also chairs the HEC Paris Diversity Committee. Eloïc Peyrache is a professor of economics. He began his research career with a study of gender diversity in admissions to French Grandes Ecoles. He was nominated Dean of HEC Paris in January 2021. Both professors share their insights on the stakes in Diversity and Inclusion, ways to address discrimination and proposals to include diversity through research. These, they say, are just some of a panoply of initiatives being explored at HEC Paris.

In this interview with Knowledge@HEC, a dozen of professors and Ph.D. students from HEC Paris share the key findings of their latest research on diversity and inclusion. They also share insights for managing one’s career in challenging contexts and give analysis on how education and the new generations can change the workplace culture.

What comes out of our collaborations with artificial intelligence? What happens in the minds of humans who are involved in interactions with smart non-humans? Does AI change how we come up with new ideas and work together on bringing them into life? Daria Morozova, Ph.D. student at HEC Paris’s Management and Human Resources department, explains how her research on AI-human interactions can help establish best practices for creative work involving artificial intelligence. 

How to lead positive change within organizations in order to adapt to the coronavirus crisis, and yet continue to inspire and motivate people under such highly uncertain circumstances? Mathis Schulte, Associate Professor in Management & Human Resources at HEC Paris, elaborates on social psychology’s terror management theory, and what we can do to prepare for the disruptive changes ahead of us.

What we are experiencing is similar to an earthquake of strong magnitude. Everyone agrees that there will be a before and after Covid-19. Whilst this earthquake assails us all, we do have control of the choices and decisions to be made. These will determine how crippled or strengthened we will be by the end... As always in times of crisis there are losers and winners, the cards are redealt.