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Eric Jean

La compétence centrée sur les pratiques habilitantes du gestionnaire de proximité et la perception de détresse psychologique des PAB oeuvrant en CHSLD

Sophie Beauchamp and Lise Desmarais
This article examines the association between the psychological distress of personal care attendants (PCA) working in long-term care centres (LTCC) and the empowering management practices implemented by their immediate supervisor. It aims to better distinguish the association between the three aspects of empowering management practices (delegation, coaching, and recognition) and PCA psychological distress. We present the results of a multicenter study conducted in the Quebec health and social services network (RSSS) between 2021 and 2022, with 213 PCAs working in 23 LTCCs across three integrated health and social services centres (CISSS) and integrated university health and social services centres (CIUSSS) in Quebec. Data were collected through questionnaires given to PCAs. Analyses were performed using a simple mediation model (Hayes, 2022). Our variables were first tested by considering all empowering management practices of the immediate supervisor, and then a second time by considering each of the three sub-dimensions individually. Our results suggest that the frequency of use of empowering management practices by the immediate supervisor is negatively associated with the psychological distress of personal care attendants (PCAs). Furthermore, each of the sub-dimensions of empowering management practices is negatively associated with PCA psychological distress. In conclusion, the empirical results of this research allow to identify practical managerial implications that could guide the development of immediate supervisor skills to reduce PCA psychological distress explain the low retention rate of newcomers in this province. It highlights the need to focus not only on their economic integration but also on their social integration, particularly through the acquisition of cultural skills, within a broader perspective.

Discours, pouvoir et maturité collaborative : une analyse discursive de la maturité collaborative dans deux organisations canadiennes

Caroline Coulombe, Jonathan Harvey, Sara Rankohi, Catherine Haineault and Myriam Gakwaya
This study analyses how a discursive co-construction process fosters the normalization and gradual appropriation of collaborative skills in complex public infrastructure projects. Two Canadian organizations served as comparative sites. Three cycles of action research were conducted, leading to the shared results. These processes involved focus groups, interviews, and the iterative development of two collaborative skills frameworks adapted to the organizations. The discursive approach made it possible to follow the trajectory of the proposed statements to their final version deployed to the employees. The results show that a lexical micro-engineering converts spontaneous suggestions into normative prescriptions and reveals the interplay of three registers of power. The hierarchical register encodes accountability through imperative verbs and indicators; the professional register densifies a jargon that confers symbolic capital on experts; and the cultural register disseminates a triad of values (trust, blamelessness, commitment) that serves as a behavioural regulation mechanism. The inter-organizational comparison highlights a gradient of collaborative maturity reflected in the language: Organization A, more advanced, uses specialized vocabulary to refine roles, while Organization B, in the adoption phase, favours a pedagogical narrative and KPI-type indicators to legitimize change. These observations suggest that the co-construction of maturity models is not simply a technical exercise, but rather a social negotiation. These subtle dynamics guide collaborative initiatives and provide organizations with leverage to move beyond prescriptive frameworks in favour of more context sensitive approaches.

L’hybridité réflexive : vers une compétence interculturelle critique

Karine Rajoelisolo Debergue, Marie Pierre Leroux and Andrée-Anne Deschênes
This article proposes a rethinking of intercultural competencies through the concept of reflexive hybridity, understood as a critical, embodied, and situated posture. Drawing on a phenomenological approach and an immersive fieldwork experience in Madagascar, it shows how identity tensions, embodied sensations, and subtle relational adjustments can become drivers of intercultural learning. The proposed model is structured around four interdependent dimensions: embodied awareness, ethical vigilance, relational humility, and critical reflexivity. By foregrounding situated knowledge and often-silent dynamics, reflexive hybridity offers an alternative to traditional technical approaches and reveals the transformative potential of hybrid experiences when critically examined. This framework is intended for practitioners, trainers, and managers seeking to cultivate practices attentive to power asymmetries in environments characterized by cultural plurality and uncertainty.

Les facteurs explicatifs du faible taux de rétention des immigrants au Nouveau-Brunswick

Gilles Marcoux and Alidou Ouedraogo
Over recent years, the labour shortage in various economic sectors in New Brunswick has led many businesses in the province, as in the rest of Canada, to seek international workers. However, given New Brunswick's demographic data regarding its aging population, the low proportion of immigrants relative to the province's total population, and its low five-year immigrant retention rate, it is important to examine the factors that may lead these newcomers to leave New Brunswick. If nothing is done in this regard, there is a significant risk that New Brunswick will become merely a transit point for many immigrants. It is in this context that this article is fundamentally intended to understand these factors from the perspectives of managers and employees working in immigrant settlement agencies in the francophone part of New Brunswick. This study reveals three main factors that may explain the low retention rate of newcomers in this province. It highlights the need to focus not only on their economic integration but also on their social integration, particularly through the acquisition of cultural skills, within a broader perspective.

Transformation numérique de la fonction RH - Les compétences numériques au coeur de la légitimité de la fonction RH ?

Adeline Medjane N, François Bolduc and Sylvain Luc
This article suggests to contribute to the reflection on digital transformation of the HR function. It provides the results of research carried out in Quebec and documents the views of HR professionals on the evolution of the HR function and the related skills. The results highlight an evolution in the HR role of professionals and the need for HR professionals to acquire new skills to adapt to the new reality of the profession. Digital transformation of the HR function is seen by these actors as an opportunity to increase their importance in strategic decision-making, and to recognize and enhance the status of HR professionals. These results are discussed in light of the issues raised by this evolution for the future of the HR function and its legitimacy.

Loi du 1% : entre intentions législatives et expérience des gestionnaires de formation sur le terrain

Roxane Meilleur, Catherine Bédard, Audrey Plourde, Catherine Laperle, Myriam-Isabel Ducharme, Anaëlle Moreau, Éloïse Bastien and Maxyme LeBlanc
In Quebec, skills development is governed by the Act to promote the development and recognition of workforce skills, commonly known as the 1% Act, which aims to improve workforce skills through investment in workplace training activities. This mechanism requires organizations with a payroll of $2 million or more to invest at least 1% of that amount in training. The major changes taking place in the job market raise questions about the adequacy of this Act in the current context, as it has undergone only minor changes since its adoption in 1995. With these considerations in the foreground, the professional order representing human resources advisors in Quebec joined forces with a researcher to conduct a collaborative research project aimed at documenting training managers' perceptions of the 1% Act and its application. Twenty-six training managers were interviewed in group discussions, and 3 people representing organizations (e.g., unions) were interviewed in complementary individual interviews. A thematic analysis of the data highlights the benefits of the law, but also the challenges in terms of the accessibility of information available for its application, support for the strategic aspect of training, and accessibility to training for all job categories.

La prospective comme compétence managériale : accompagner l’agir en situation complexe avec un dispositif créatif (le Vortex)

Anne-Laure Saives, Édouard Le Maréchal, David Lachapelle and Sophie Harvey
The objective of this article is to explore how and in what ways professionals and organizational managers can be endowed with forward-thinking capacity for self-development. The aim is to support them in identifying and developing their competencies to proactively guide their career trajectories, in response to the challenges posed by the complexity and uncertainty of today’s professional world. To this end, the authors rely on a qualitative, exploratory study conducted with 56 participants from three distinct cohorts of an executive MBA programme. These participants experimented with the Vortex framework, a tool designed to clarify complex situations based on a non-linear approach to decision-making and strategic intent. Their reflective comments were analyzed using textual content analysis software. The results and analysis of the corpus suggest three potential contributions. Firstly, the foresight posture supported by the Vortex framework appears to foster the emergence of critical reflexivity, encouraging managers to systematically re-examine their beliefs and choices from a systemic perspective. Secondly, through this framework, it may help clarify professional ambitions and strengthen the alignment between personal values and career projects. Finally, the framework can act as a catalyst for action, stimulating a proactive dynamic of learning, networking, and the realization of intentions. These exploratory findings highlight the value of incorporating a creative approach, such as the Vortex framework, into competency development initiatives to strengthen managers’ forward-thinking mindset and ability to anticipate change.

Perspectives sur les besoins en compétences pour les usages de l’IA dans l’industrie 4.0 au Québec

Camille Zinopoulos, Simon Parent, Gabrielle Teyssier-Roberge, Andréane Sabourin-Laflamme, Frédérick Bruneault, Sébastien Tremblay and Alexandre Marois
Over the past few years, the use of AI in the workplace has become widespread. However, a digital divide appears to be emerging, particularly in Quebec, as highlighted by several reports published by the « Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie » regarding the integration of AI in economic sectors critical to Quebec's digital transformation. In this context, it seems essential to determine the exact nature of the AI technologies actually integrated into these sectors, as well as the skills arising from these technologies and the entailments for staff training. The objective of this article is to identify current uses of AI in sectors critical to AI integration, as defined by the government of Quebec in 2024, and to highlight the expected skills and training needs for professional staff in these sectors. Through a narrative review, various uses of AI in the manufacturing, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and professional services sectors are presented. An emergent analysis then discusses the digital, personal, methodological, and interpersonal skills related to the uses described in each economic activity sector. Finally, the training needs for these Quebec sectors are addressed. This article provides an up-to-date overview of the actual uses of AI in the aforementioned sectors and identifies critical skills and training priorities that Quebec's Industry 4.0 can benefit from.

Compétences organisationnelles en gestion de projets majeurs pour la création de valeur

Maude Brunet and Alejandro Romero-Torres
Managing major projects comes with its share of criticisms and challenges, and requires exceptional skills to successfully complete these projects and generate added value. The question of required skills, both individually and at the organizational level, remains relatively undocumented in the literature and is fundamental to understanding the practices of value creation and distribution in major projects. This conceptual article, illustrated by empirical examples of large-scale projects in Quebec, aims to identify the organizational skills required in managing major projects to create value. A literature review provides the mechanisms underlying value creation and the main organizational skills required in project management. A conceptual framework is then developed, articulating four interrelated and interdependent areas of practice that enable value generation in projects, and are illustrated empirically: structural, procedural, technological and relational. A discussion outlines the main theoretical contributions and practical applications of this framework, and reminds us of the importance of developing organizational skills rooted in the organization's context to enable the implementation of these practices and a culture oriented on value-creation.

Réduire l’écart des compétences des travailleurs : le rôle des parties prenantes dans les systèmes de gestion de la performance orientés vers le développement des employés

Dimitris Giamos, Marie-Ève Lapalme and Olivier Doucet
The rapid transformations that characterize the world of work are leading to a redefinition of the skills required for organizational success. This context creates a gap between the skills employees possess and those deemed essential for current and future needs. To address this situation, organizations are reviewing their human resource management processes and are increasingly adopting performance management systems geared towards employee development. This article explores this approach, while examining the roles and skills that key stakeholders (human resource professionals, managers and employees) must adopt to effectively support this alternative way of managing performance in the workplace. Furthermore, we also explore the obstacles to implementation and how this form of performance management can be implemented by managers. Theoretically, the study enhances our understanding of the role and specific skills that each stakeholder must possess in a development-oriented performance management context. Practically, our study provides guidance for ensuring successful implementation within organizations.

La formation en milieu de travail : un nouveau regard sur le développement des compétences

Barbara Pentimalli and Sylvie Ouellet
The numerous changes observed in the world of work over the past few decades have influenced productive organization, the nature of the work to be performed, and consequently, the learning needs of the staff. With these changes, the concept of competence has become ever present in human resource management, particularly in training. Theoretically, the concept of competence allows us to recognize that a person is able and authorized to take initiative in their work. However, its disconnection from the concrete content of work in practice within organizational settings has been reported by several authors, particularly regarding the concept of competency frameworks. We can then question how training professionals have appropriated the concept of competence and what approaches could enable competencies to better explain and represent the reality of work situations. Is training focused on the application of procedures and the correct, one-size-fits-all work method, or is it designed to enable professionals to assess situations, adapt to them resourcefully, and make appropriate decisions? To answer these questions, this paper explores the impact of the definition of competence on training, its types, its content, and the training methods. The analysis given draws on studies in ergonomics and sociology, as well as accounts from professionals enrolled in the workplace trainer programmes at UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal).

Formaliser les compétences : enjeux et tensions des démarches de conception des référentiels de compétences

Béatrice Pudelko
In the context of rapid work transformation, competency frameworks have become key tools for articulating professional recognition, individual development, and organizational management. This article provides a critical analysis of the design approaches of these frameworks, merging knowledge from ergonomics, work sociology, and educational sciences. It highlights the tensions between prescription and autonomy, standardization and recognition, organizational strategy and experiential knowledge. Based on three notions of competence (performance, knowing how to act, action rule), it analyses design methods, forms of participation, and the intended or diverted uses of frameworks. The article advocates a reflective, inclusive, and evolving approach, aligned with the challenges of future competencies, particularly in view of the emergence of generative artificial intelligence.

Repenser les compétences à l’ère de l’intelligence numérique

Gabrielle Teyssier-Roberge, Delphine de Hemptinne, Joël Gagnon and Sébastien Tremblay
In the age of digital intelligence, the so-called “21st-century skills” are playing an increasingly important role in educational policies, organizational practices and training frameworks. This rise in importance has been accompanied by a proliferation of conceptual, national and sectoral frameworks, which has generated semantic fragmentation that is detrimental to the coherence, comparability and implementation of skills in the labour market. This article provides a critical analysis of this dynamic, examining the evolution of skill definitions, the multiplication of frameworks, and the practical consequences of this dispersion. Based on a literature review and the analysis of data from different skill frameworks, the article identifies three main phenomena: the redundancy of skills across the frameworks, their semantic overlap, and the diversity of reference points according to geographical and institutional contexts. This article proposes three possible solutions: grouping skills into coherent meta-categories, harmonizing existing frameworks by developing shared taxonomies, and standardizing digital and artificial intelligence skills through adaptive tools that integrate emerging technologies. The goal is to build more integrative frameworks capable of reconciling both conceptual robustness and contextual flexibility of skills, to better meet the demands of a constantly evolving labour world.

La force discrète des organisations : le +1 et le Modèle de l’Engagement Réciproque

Olivier Gagnon
This article examines what enables collective work to actually take place in organizations, beyond formal prescriptions and management systems. It begins with the observation that many workplace transformations do not result in visible incidents or immediate performance disruptions, but rather in gradual shifts in ways of working. These transformations particularly concern the discreet adjustments through which teams coordinate their activities, provide mutual support, and handle what is not anticipated anywhere. Building on this observation, the author introduces the concept of "+1," defined as a voluntary, situated micro-contribution through which a person temporarily does slightly more than their prescribed role requires in order for work to continue. The +1 is neither an individual trait nor an engagement indicator, but rather reveals the conditions under which initiative remains practicable. The article then proposes the Reciprocal Engagement Model (REM), which conceptualizes engagement as an implicit and evolving relationship among the organization, the collective, and individuals. A case study illustrates how the circulation, visibility, and subsequent withdrawal of these contributions progressively modify the texture of work. This framework suggests a managerial approach focused less on producing engagement than on preserving the organizational and relational conditions that make these contributions possible.

Le « management-coaching » : en quoi le coaching change-t-il la posture et le métier du manager ? Conversations avec des practiciens.nes

Isabelle Loss, Camille Gauthier, Gregory Enjalbert and Valérie Lucchini
This article, with a touch of self-ethnography, provides the merging of knowledge and a sharing of ideas on the joint evolution of management and the coaching profession, focusing on the shift in the managerial paradigm (empowering rather than controlling) that has given rise to management-coaching and the manager-coach figure in organizations. Firmly rooted in a critical perspective on management, it takes the form of co-development, namely excerpts from reflective interviews with commentaries between four seasoned practitioners in coaching individuals and groups. The mindset, manager's view of the world, and the objectives of management are examined in this manager-coach role. Within the critical perspective of management-coaching that emerges from these discussions, a rehumanized vision of the manager is revealed, with an emphasis on the role of managing discrepancies and inconsistencies in context, of facilitating individual alignment through the creation of meaning, and restoring coherence to organizations within the context. Management- coaching can therefore be seen as a management philosophy and a mobilisation of the ever-evolving manager, whose core skills and abilities include listening and questioning in context, self-awareness, and being open to experimentation in openness to others and in the humility of peer review. This is achieved while remaining aware of the limitations of a utilitarian and technical approach to management.

Les promesses de la singularité technologique : principes scientifiques et considérations éthiques

Philippe Leroux and Serge Larivée
This text explores the concept of technological singularity, envisioned as a hypothetical future where a sudden leap in artificial intelligence capabilities enables it to surpass human intelligence. Three parts make up this text. The first describes the context and historical trajectory of the technological singularity. The second takes a critical look at the arguments in favor of the technological singularity and its scientifically like façade. It argues that, like many pseudoscientific claims, proponents of the technological singularity often employ scientific language to lend credibility to speculative and unfounded predictions about the future. Counterarguments are rooted in the fundamental principles that guide rigorous scientific inquiry. The last part examines the intentions of the proponents of the technological singularity and the consequences of their actions. It calls for caution regarding the true motives of these so-called messiahs of technological singularity and highlights the risks posed to the survival of critical thinking. Consequently, it raises reflections on establishing a balance between science, work, and society to ensure that technology genuinely serves humanity without compromising the ethical foundations that guide it.