Spotlight on the new management challenges!

Multicultural teams, dematerialised organisations, videoconferences… How have the new international and virtual working practices changed today's management sector? That was the question raised during the exceptional meeting organised jointly by the HR Club of EDHEC, ESCP Europe, EM Lyon, Rouen Business School and Reims Management School Alumni Associations on March 8. Now that it's possible for employees to work wherever they want, the topical issues involving new managerial practices gave rise to heated debate. The new technologies have completely changed the employment landscape by dematerialising time and place work factors.

The debate was introduced and chaired by the HR Club ambassadors, Susanne Ohn (Edhec 1980) and Bruce Roch (EM Lyon 1996), with top-flight, 100% feminine testimonials, which fitted in nicely with International Women's Day:

• Delphine Chevallier, EMEIA Learning & Development Leader at Ernst & Young,
• Nancy Bragard, consultant at Akteos, interculturalist and specialist in collaborative methods and distance management,
• Nicole Turbé-Suetens, consultant and distance working specialist at Distance-Expert,
• Pascale Bourdon-Charpiot, HR Manager at Accenture.

The speakers addressed over 100 participants. Their highly complementary backgrounds enabled them to cover a wide range of issues concerning this virgin management territory:

• From the manager's point of view first of all, as distance work fundamentally changes the nature of an employer's relationship with his or her team in terms of coaching, confidence, communication, reporting, and conflict and career management.
• Secondly, from a legal point of view as, despite some resistance still from employers, distance working contracts nonetheless need to be covered by a specific legal framework for the employees concerned.
• Lastly, regarding the organisation's internal processes, for while new distance working technologies are developing at breakneck speed, they need to be backed up with specifically adapted codes and practices for effective use… and they may at times appear ill-adapted when highly-charged issues requiring the teams' physical presence crop up.
• The heated debate ended with a lively multi-school networking cocktail. The next HR Club meeting is scheduled for the new academic year 2011. It will focus on the same question but this time from the employees' angle. Make sure you save the date now!