The Dynamic of Building a Societal HRM in a French SME of the Social and Solidarity Economic Sector

In our globalized world, the actors’ playground is no longer confined to structure, but is now extended to territory. The blurring of organizational boundaries tends to encourage the development of a partnership logic, including in Human Resource Management (HRM), in the face of socio-economic environmental upheavals. It is in this current context that a new form of HRM is emerging, that falls within a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) approach that is no longer restricted to only certain social aspects.

The objective of this article is to study an alternative approach to HRM that is more societally based. We focus on answering the following question: How is a societalbased HRM established in SMEs? Using the contextual approach of Pichault and Nizet (2013), we emphasize the importance for organizational leaders to mobilize both internal and external actors in order to achieve this objective. Considering the case of a French SME in the social and solidarity economic sector, we explore from life stories, semi-structured interviews, participant and non-participant observations, as well as documentary analyses, the process of building this new form of HRM.

Our results highlight three key steps: 1- the emergence of this type of HRM around the creation of a social pact; 2- its evolution resulting in both support and frustration; and finally, 3- the diffusion of this alternative HRM to external partners.

Keywords: alternative management, societal HRM, contextualism, small and mediumsized enterprise (SME), social and solidarity economic sector.