From Resource to Human Being:
Toward Persons Management
Abstract
Modern human resource management (HRM) has been found to be unsatisfactory as a model and as a praxis concerning
human beings in organizations. This article proposes a conceptual change from resource to human being, which we define
as “persons management.” After addressing what a person is (a subject navigating between individualism and collectivism; a
creative, ethical, and complex being), this text examines how persons can be managed, remembering that persons manage
persons. In a dialogical sense, they can help each other and work together, even if they are adversaries. In that sense, persons
management must strive to be sustainable at the human, organizational, and environmental levels. We examine certain
theoretical and conceptual aspects implied by this restructuring of the field.