The professionalization of HR management: towards an analytical framework for social enterprises

At the present time, the social enterprise sector is undergoing important changes: increased activity, diversification of social demands, increased complexity of legal framework and institutional landscape, transformation of public funding mechanisms (contractualisation setting up competition between providers in a quasi-market) (Dees & Elias, 1998; Mertens, 2010). At the same time, we may observe a trend towards the professionalization of social enterprises (Bode, Evers, & Schulz, 2006; Comeau & Davister, 2008; Davister, 2010; Petrella & Richez-Battesti, 2010). This movement toward professionalization brings changes, among others, with regard to evolutions in human resources management (HRM) practices (Davister, 2010; McCandless Baluch, 2012; Theuvsen, 2004): increasing formalization of procedures, developments of senior staff training, a changeover from a militant attitude on the part of directors toward a managerial attitude, development of pay-for-performance plans, etc.

That concept of professionalization knows a large echo in the working world, not only in the social enterprise sector. Wilensky (1964) was already talking about the « professionalization of everyone? ». But what does professionalization mean? Various understandings of that concept co-exist. Indeed, according to Wittorski (2008), the notion refers either to the constitution of a group of people sharing the same activity (professionalization-profession), to the development of competences of a professional by its education (professionalization-training), or to the fact of “putting in movement” individuals within work contexts (professionalization-efficiency). The tendencies to professionalize have been studied but in a quite heterogeneous and fragmented way (Le Naëlou, 2004; Maier, Steinbereithner, & Meyer, 2012) with various dimensions and forms of the concept being possible.

This paper intends to apprehend the professionalization of human resource management in all its complexity. Relying on the model proposed by Hatchuel and Weil (1992), we develop a nuanced approach of the professionalization of HRM, by declining the concept in three major dimensions: a technical substrate, a vision of the actors’ roles, and a managerial philosophy (Gilbert, 2012; Hatchuel & Weil, 1992; Oiry, 2006). Each of those three dimensions knows different degrees of elaboration, going from a human resource management qualified as few professionalized to one strongly professionalized. This model has to be understood as an “ideal type”, in the Weberian sense, an intellectual construction obtained by accentuation of certain traits of the considered subject (Coenen-Huther, 2003). That ideal type, that model in three dimensions, constitutes a measurement standard from which the comparison between various situations of HRM professionalization in different organisations is made possible. Two questions resume our approach: what means professionalization of human resource management (conceptual approach)? And what is the scope of the professionalization of HRM in the social enterprises sector in Wallonia (empirical results)?

To answer those questions, a twofold research design is necessary. To understand more precisely what professionalization of HRM is, a strong analysis of the literature on professionalization, managerial devices and HRM allows constructing an analytical framework to apprehend the concept. But, the model also allows designing a broad picture of the human resource management in the social enterprises’ sector. For that second question, the data collection is accomplished through the administration of an online questionnaire given to a sample containing 2000 social enterprises, chosen from an exhaustive database of Belgian social enterprises . A first statistical analysis allows constructing a descriptive picture of what happen in the social enterprise sector in terms of HRM in Wallonia. In order to determine the influence of contextual elements such as the size of the organization, its level of subvention, its sector of activity, etc, cross tabulation is necessary. We will use the method of descriptive analysis by clusters that is often used in order to constitute typologies. It will enable us to isolate profiles of social enterprises in terms of their human resource management and its professionalization.

By the construction of a conceptual model on the HRM professionalization, our paper contributes to enrich the understanding of that concept while apprehending its complexity. Gathering data on HRM in social enterprises is useful to design the scope of HRM professionalization. Though, that kind of data has not yet been collected and mobilized in Belgium. Our research will also contribute to better understand the influences of the organization’s size, level of subvention or sector of activity on the HRM professionalization.