Social Thinking and Managerial Practices: An Exploratory Study among Managers

Current societal phenomena concerning the ecological transition or the recent Covid-19 health crisis are helping to accelerate changes in work and employees’ relationships with it. A private French agri-food group wanted to initiate a reflective approach on the new strategic issues of attractiveness and employee loyalty by questioning management. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers to explore their representations. Among these managers, half were promoted inside the enterprise (internal promotion) and the other recruited outside the enterprise (external recruitment). A content analysis made it possible to compare the representations of the two groups. We observe more important themes depending on the group. The results are discussed with regard to elements of literature.