Human Resource Management in the DRC, how to Manage the Unmanageable?

This article offers an in-depth reflection on human resource management (HRM) practices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), through the analysis of three case studies that illustrate the country’s organizational diversity: a hospital, a public administration, and a mining company. These cases, selected for their representativeness and the authors’ intimate knowledge of them, highlight the wide range of practices and constraints faced by managers in the DRC. The study adopts a contextual approach, drawing on an adaptation of the PESTEL framework—expanded to include historical dimensions (PHESTEL)—to examine the influence of the external environment on HRM. It shows how managers must constantly juggle individual expectations, internal constraints, and societal pressures, using the IOS model (Gosse & Cornet, 2023a). The article highlights the structural challenges confronting HRM in the DRC: a weak state, lack of effective regulation, and a strong influence of international standards. These factors often result in arbitrary practices (Pichault & Nizet, 2013). In response, the authors recommend adapting HRM practices to local specificities, rather than transplanting universal models ill-suited to unstable contexts (Kamdem & Apitsa, 2024a), in order to promote more coherent and sustainable human resource management in the DRC.