Prof. Laurent Taskin, professor in human resource management, coordinator for the domain in Strategy and Organizations (STOR) and holder of the LaboRH Chair, has published and coordinated three books in the field:
1. "Management Humain", 2nd edition, published by De Boeck Supérieur, coll. Manager RH (with Anne Dietrich)
Overview: managing men and women as resources is neither acceptable nor effective. Yet, in most organizations, the management of people and work remains rooted in models of HRM and organizational behaviour that were developed in the last century and that do not take into account the major social transition we are experiencing. Human Management is an alternative to the instrumental and financialized model that dominates business management today.
Human Management pursues three ambitions: firstly, to bring together in a single work two fields of knowledge and practices that are often separated in textbooks, even though they are largely intertwined in the running of organizations and the daily management of men and women at work: human resource management and organizational behaviour; secondly, to put them into perspective in order to critically analyze their concepts, theories and practices and, finally, to propose an alternative based on a renewed vision of the human being, the aims and purpose of his or her management, emphasizing the need to rethink the working community.
This second edition, which has been extensively revised, updates the data used and integrates the analyses and reflections of recent research work, particularly in the study of the relationship to work and to the company and the ethical issues associated with the practice of Human Management. In particular, it clearly positions human management in relation to traditional HRM policies and practices and the aims of theories of organisational behaviour. It thus makes work and its recognition the central object and purpose of Human Management.
2. "Les temporalités de la recherche critique en gestion : Enjeux et alternatives", Presses Universitaires de Laval, coll. Sciences de l'administration (collective directed with Véronique Perret)
Overview: the productivist, instrumental and short-sighted perspective that structures the production of scientific knowledge today is neither desirable nor tenable. It is undesirable because it impoverishes the field of knowledge by standardizing the formats of research; it is untenable because it profoundly transforms the research ethos, mishandles identities and neglects the working conditions of those who produce it. The contributors to this book, teachers and researchers in management sciences, share this observation and propose to examine "the possibility of an island", i.e. the possibilities of sustainable, durable and responsible research.
The aim is, first of all, to provide a basis for discussion in order to characterise the spaces and times in which such management research can have its place. Secondly, it is a question of giving the floor to researchers engaged in critical management research. By offering a reflexive point of view on singular research paths, these testimonials allow us to draw the contours of engagement - individual, collective and institutional - in the alternative construction of innovative knowledge. Finally, in the face of the social and environmental emergencies that fundamentally challenge our contemporary societies, this book aims to offer a remedy to the melancholy that lurks in the critical management community by re-founding the academic hypothesis on an ethos of commitment.
3. "Vers un Management Humain ?" (collective directed by Laurent Taskin)
Overview: companies, their management and their workers are facing difficult challenges: energy, social and technological transitions. While we need to move "faster" and show "agility", it also seems that more than ever, we need to find meaning in and through work. How can we transform the organization and institutions of work, as well as their management, in a way that is sustainable for all? How can we reconcile the imperatives of efficiency with respect for people? What if the management of human "resources" is no longer up to these challenges? What if the time has come for Human Management? Management practitioners (company managers, human resources managers and experts) and researchers have accumulated valuable experience and knowledge in order to answer the following questions.
"Working with companies to build a better world for work"