A Person Rather Than a Resource
What in fact is a “person”? In a sense, it is the opposite of a
centaur: we know what it is without ever being able to point one
out in the flesh. (Lenclud, 2009, p. 4)
The term person is widely present in common language.
However, although everyone seems to be familiar with its
meaning, grasping it specifically remains difficult. How do
we then truly define a person?
A Subject Rather Than an Object
If we consider a non-human resource, it is for us an object or
an instrument devoid of will power. Because of its human
nature, a person must be treated with respect and approached
differently from other resources (Melé, 2009c). A person is
first and foremost defined as a subject, that is, a source of
influence and intervention. According to Morin (1999), a subject
“is both an obvious and mysterious notion” (p. 144).4
Nevertheless, it is possible to imagine a subject as the cause
of its own action because of the subject’s interiority, freedom,
and personal autonomy (Melé, 2009c). Yet, this autonomy
and freedom cannot be separated from certain dependencies,
even from subservience (Morin, 1999). Subjects oscillate
between selfishness and altruism. On one hand, subjects can
be egocentric—placing themselves in the center of their own
world until they disintegrate at the time of death—while others
may mean nothing to them. On the other hand, subjects
can be altruistic, devoted to others and not seek all the attention
(Morin, 1999). We will come back to this complexity of
the subject, and thus the person (cf. A Complex View of
Human Nature Rather Than a Reductionism View of Human
Nature section) and to these notions of altruism and selfishness
(cf. Oriented Toward Other, but Strategic Rather Than
Egoistic section).
A Flesh and Blood Being Rather Than a Category
HRM defined human beings as resources; this founding definition
is theoretical categorization, which has profound practical
impacts. A resource can be easily “tagged” and that
helps us know in which compartment we can “store” it for its
eventual use. A resource has no say in this regard. The same
could be done with a person even though a person is whole
and complete, in body and soul, and could object to our type
of categorization. In this respect, Mounier (1952) explains
what is a person:
One might expect that personalism would begin by defining the
person. But one can only define objects exterior to man, such as can
be put under observation. Here is my neighbour. He has a unique
feeling of his body, which I cannot have; but I can look at this body
from without, examine its dispositions, its heredity, its form, its
maladies; in short, I can treat it as an object of physiological,
medical, or other knowledge. He exercises functions, and there is a
functional order and a functional psychology, which I can apply to
the study of his case, although they are not he, the whole man in his
total reality. Moreover, and in the same way, he is a Frenchman, a
bourgeois, a socialist, a Catholic, etc. But he is not a Bernard
Chartier, he is Bernard Chartier. The thousand ways in which I can
distinguish him, as an example of a class may help me to understand
him, and above all to make use of him, they show me how
practically to behave towards him. But these are merely sections
taken, in each case, through one aspect of his existence. (p. xvii)
The term person comes from the Greek word prosôpon,
which means a face, a thing, an individual in the flesh, or a
concrete individual who is playing a role (Housset, 2007). It
is what others see of the self and of its identity (Vernant,
1996). This concrete individual and his or her identity make
this person a unique being. The conception adopted here of a
person rests more specifically on personalism. Indeed,
despite its heterogeneousness perspective, personalists agree
on a person’s uniqueness and dignity (Melé, 2009c). More
precisely, personalism differs greatly from any other form of
collectivism, because, in a community, a person retains
autonomy and individual freedom. The person is not only an
individual who can simply be counted as part of a community
but rather a unique being that can neither be replaced nor
registered as abstraction (Melé, 2009c). A person also differs
from individual, because a person is not seen as someone
leading an isolated existence, linked to others solely through
a social contract. On the contrary, a person is seen as a social
being intrinsically related to others and leading an interdependent
existence (Melé, 2009c).
Consequently, a person is both unique and multifaceted,
different from others. Hence, a person cannot be understood
by observing only one facet, and though grasping all of them
may seem difficult, researchers and specialists must keep in
mind a person’s multifaceted composition. Mintzberg (2009)
explains that individualism is a beautiful idea as it produces
incentives, promotes leadership, and fosters development.
However, persons are also social animals and need social
glue to unite them for their own good. This is what Mintzberg
calls “community.” The community entails taking care of
work, colleagues, and one’s place in the world. He positions
community spirit between individualistic leadership, on one
hand, and collective citizenship, on the other. This view of
community is very close to the one that Melé (2009c)
describes, in which a person shares with others common
goals and goods that belong to the community, while maintaining
a sense of individuality.
A Creative Being Rather Than an Underling
When we use a resource, we just want it to respect our plans or
proceedings. Material resources have no inner drives so to speak;
they cannot transform themselves, and they are passive and
mostly predictable. Person has already been proposed as a notion
fostering human wealth (from a psychological standpoint) from
Downloaded from by guest on September 23, 2015
4 SAGE Open
the perspective of enhancing capabilities (Giovanola, 2005,
2009). Imagination (the traditional madwoman of the house)
helps persons find original solutions to contingencies they are
faced within daily life. This possibility has always disturbed
rationalists who, at best, saw it as an aesthetical side to the mind
and, at worst, an irrational aspect that must be eliminated through
rigor and logic. Yet, imagination implies the possibility of moving
forward, creating, innovating, and being visionary. Human
beings are able to gravitate toward an ideal even if they cannot
fully attain it and, what is more, they seem to be able to question
received ideas. Persons, as creative beings, are also intuitive and
base their actions on impulses, which lead them to reach their
goals (Shlien, D’Arifat, & Ducroux-Biass, 2007). Although their
actions are turned toward the future, which is to say toward their
goals, they are not mechanical. Being creative is more an instinctive
process, set apart from the intellect (Bergson, 1946). It is true
that “a creative mode of thought operates outside of the visible
limits of a problem. It requires a sense of freedom that enables a
person to focus on a problem by using his or her imagination”
(Shlien et al., 2007, p. 78). Persons are therefore subjects, which
imply that they are free, notably free to act in a creative way in
any given situation and according to their own views. As bureaucratic
organizations tend to foster hierarchical procedures where
creativity is anathema, at least when it comes from below, this
poses a serious problem for anyone wishing to standardize and
control human behavior from above. In practice, the underlings
have the unfortunate habit of behaving unpredictably at times,
which leads to elaborate contraptions to control this nefarious
tendency. In that controlling sense, HRM could be seen as one of
the best models to date. Last the notion of “human richness”
(Giovanola, 2005) offers us a range of varied possibilities that
are tangibly embodied within capabilities, as meant by Sen
(2009) and Nussbaum (2011). It seems preferable to find all possible
means to enable people to express their abilities in society
and within organizations and to try to reduce inequalities instead
of waiting for the perfect system, which may never come to exist.
It appears that, in its actual form, HRM is incapable of enabling
the full expression of human capabilities, whence the importance
of evolving toward persons management.
Oriented Toward Other, but Strategic Rather
Than Egoistic
Human resources, if we follow economic lore, are individualistic
and selfish. More realistically, Flahault (2008), like
Morin (1973), demonstrates that a person can be altruistic and
selfish, as well as nice and mean to others. Consequently, it is
possible for selfishness to inhabit a person who is nonetheless
opening up to others. Instead of denying this phenomenon,
being aware of it and taking it into consideration might be
preferable. Human nature, as a concept, seems to condition a
person’s ethical standpoint and moral behavior. From a
restricted view, human nature becomes onedimensional,
whereas, from a broader view, human nature
can expand in a more complex and realistic fashion (e.g.,
Jonas’s ethics
A Person Rather Than a ResourceWhat in fact is a “person”? In a sense, it is the opposite of acentaur: we know what it is without ever being able to point oneout in the flesh. (Lenclud, 2009, p. 4)The term person is widely present in common language.However, although everyone seems to be familiar with itsmeaning, grasping it specifically remains difficult. How dowe then truly define a person?A Subject Rather Than an ObjectIf we consider a non-human resource, it is for us an object oran instrument devoid of will power. Because of its humannature, a person must be treated with respect and approacheddifferently from other resources (Melé, 2009c). A person isfirst and foremost defined as a subject, that is, a source ofinfluence and intervention. According to Morin (1999), a subject“is both an obvious and mysterious notion” (p. 144).4Nevertheless, it is possible to imagine a subject as the causeof its own action because of the subject’s interiority, freedom,and personal autonomy (Melé, 2009c). Yet, this autonomyand freedom cannot be separated from certain dependencies,even from subservience (Morin, 1999). Subjects oscillatebetween selfishness and altruism. On one hand, subjects canbe egocentric—placing themselves in the center of their ownworld until they disintegrate at the time of death—while othersmay mean nothing to them. On the other hand, subjectscan be altruistic, devoted to others and not seek all the attention(Morin, 1999). We will come back to this complexity ofthe subject, and thus the person (cf. A Complex View ofHuman Nature Rather Than a Reductionism View of HumanNature section) and to these notions of altruism and selfishness(cf. Oriented Toward Other, but Strategic Rather ThanEgoistic section).A Flesh and Blood Being Rather Than a CategoryHRM defined human beings as resources; this founding definitionis theoretical categorization, which has profound practicalimpacts. A resource can be easily “tagged” and thathelps us know in which compartment we can “store” it for itseventual use. A resource has no say in this regard. The samecould be done with a person even though a person is wholeand complete, in body and soul, and could object to our typeof categorization. In this respect, Mounier (1952) explainswhat is a person:One might expect that personalism would begin by defining theperson. But one can only define objects exterior to man, such as canbe put under observation. Here is my neighbour. He has a uniquefeeling of his body, which I cannot have; but I can look at this bodyfrom without, examine its dispositions, its heredity, its form, itsmaladies; in short, I can treat it as an object of physiological,medical, or other knowledge. He exercises functions, and there is afunctional order and a functional psychology, which I can apply tothe study of his case, although they are not he, the whole man in histotal reality. Moreover, and in the same way, he is a Frenchman, abourgeois, a socialist, a Catholic, etc. But he is not a BernardChartier, he is Bernard Chartier. The thousand ways in which I candistinguish him, as an example of a class may help me to understandhim, and above all to make use of him, they show me howpractically to behave towards him. But these are merely sectionstaken, in each case, through one aspect of his existence. (p. xvii)The term person comes from the Greek word prosôpon,which means a face, a thing, an individual in the flesh, or aconcrete individual who is playing a role (Housset, 2007). Itis what others see of the self and of its identity (Vernant,1996). This concrete individual and his or her identity makethis person a unique being. The conception adopted here of aperson rests more specifically on personalism. Indeed,despite its heterogeneousness perspective, personalists agreeon a person’s uniqueness and dignity (Melé, 2009c). Moreprecisely, personalism differs greatly from any other form ofcollectivism, because, in a community, a person retainsautonomy and individual freedom. The person is not only anindividual who can simply be counted as part of a communitybut rather a unique being that can neither be replaced norregistered as abstraction (Melé, 2009c). A person also differsfrom individual, because a person is not seen as someoneleading an isolated existence, linked to others solely througha social contract. On the contrary, a person is seen as a socialbeing intrinsically related to others and leading an interdependentexistence (Melé, 2009c).Consequently, a person is both unique and multifaceted,different from others. Hence, a person cannot be understoodby observing only one facet, and though grasping all of themmay seem difficult, researchers and specialists must keep inmind a person’s multifaceted composition. Mintzberg (2009)explains that individualism is a beautiful idea as it producesincentives, promotes leadership, and fosters development.However, persons are also social animals and need socialglue to unite them for their own good. This is what Mintzbergcalls “community.” The community entails taking care ofwork, colleagues, and one’s place in the world. He positionscommunity spirit between individualistic leadership, on onehand, and collective citizenship, on the other. This view ofcommunity is very close to the one that Melé (2009c)describes, in which a person shares with others commongoals and goods that belong to the community, while maintaininga sense of individuality.A Creative Being Rather Than an UnderlingWhen we use a resource, we just want it to respect our plans orproceedings. Material resources have no inner drives so to speak;they cannot transform themselves, and they are passive andmostly predictable. Person has already been proposed as a notionfostering human wealth (from a psychological standpoint) fromDownloaded from by guest on September 23, 20154 SAGE Openthe perspective of enhancing capabilities (Giovanola, 2005,2009). Imagination (the traditional madwoman of the house)helps persons find original solutions to contingencies they arefaced within daily life. This possibility has always disturbedrationalists who, at best, saw it as an aesthetical side to the mindand, at worst, an irrational aspect that must be eliminated throughrigor and logic. Yet, imagination implies the possibility of movingforward, creating, innovating, and being visionary. Humanbeings are able to gravitate toward an ideal even if they cannotfully attain it and, what is more, they seem to be able to questionreceived ideas. Persons, as creative beings, are also intuitive andbase their actions on impulses, which lead them to reach theirgoals (Shlien, D’Arifat, & Ducroux-Biass, 2007). Although theiractions are turned toward the future, which is to say toward theirgoals, they are not mechanical. Being creative is more an instinctiveprocess, set apart from the intellect (Bergson, 1946). It is truethat “a creative mode of thought operates outside of the visiblelimits of a problem. It requires a sense of freedom that enables aperson to focus on a problem by using his or her imagination”(Shlien et al., 2007, p. 78). Persons are therefore subjects, whichimply that they are free, notably free to act in a creative way in
any given situation and according to their own views. As bureaucratic
organizations tend to foster hierarchical procedures where
creativity is anathema, at least when it comes from below, this
poses a serious problem for anyone wishing to standardize and
control human behavior from above. In practice, the underlings
have the unfortunate habit of behaving unpredictably at times,
which leads to elaborate contraptions to control this nefarious
tendency. In that controlling sense, HRM could be seen as one of
the best models to date. Last the notion of “human richness”
(Giovanola, 2005) offers us a range of varied possibilities that
are tangibly embodied within capabilities, as meant by Sen
(2009) and Nussbaum (2011). It seems preferable to find all possible
means to enable people to express their abilities in society
and within organizations and to try to reduce inequalities instead
of waiting for the perfect system, which may never come to exist.
It appears that, in its actual form, HRM is incapable of enabling
the full expression of human capabilities, whence the importance
of evolving toward persons management.
Oriented Toward Other, but Strategic Rather
Than Egoistic
Human resources, if we follow economic lore, are individualistic
and selfish. More realistically, Flahault (2008), like
Morin (1973), demonstrates that a person can be altruistic and
selfish, as well as nice and mean to others. Consequently, it is
possible for selfishness to inhabit a person who is nonetheless
opening up to others. Instead of denying this phenomenon,
being aware of it and taking it into consideration might be
preferable. Human nature, as a concept, seems to condition a
person’s ethical standpoint and moral behavior. From a
restricted view, human nature becomes onedimensional,
whereas, from a broader view, human nature
can expand in a more complex and realistic fashion (e.g.,
Jonas’s ethics
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