The management of emotions in companies is a necessity. It is nevertheless a difficult challenge, especially as emotions are associated with an inalienable liberty of the subject. At first, their spontaneous character appears to be in conflict with any attempts at management. Even when addressing the question of emotional control and distinguishing perception from emotional expression, at the risk of placing people in cognitive dissonance, a second objection to the potential management of emotions seems to reside in the possible intervention of a third party into an intrapsychic process that each individual is already struggling to channel. How can we move past the stage of philosophical debates like the ongoing one [DAR 95], opposing in particular the Earl of Shaftesbury¹ who, like the Stoics, called for a self-government outside of all external laws and all sanctions solely through the satisfaction of good deeds, and Immanuel Kant, for whom self-determination fell under individual will and consisted of imposing the application of moral law on oneself? For both, emotions are understood as passions that cloud or distort judgment. This is not a matter for management because managing emotions would be reduced to personal discipline, very far from the challenges of developing professional skills or interacting with others, and reinforcing traditional conceptions that place emotions outside of the field of management.

Delphine van Hoorebeke’s approach, developed based on several scientific disciplines including sociology, psychology and neuroscience, is very different and allows her to address the complexity of motivations and emotional processes while demonstrating that their integration into management practices is not only possible, but also represents an important performance factor. Approaching management like a relational exercise requiring the development of human qualities in the people who practice it [CHA 90], she treats emotion as a manifestation resulting in a bias, one consisting of “taking something at face value” [THO 96b]. Emotions come to play the roles of indicators or alerts. Their capacity to make certain aspects of professional situations intelligible leads to an evocation of the existence of a form of emotional intelligence in line with Sartre [SAR 38], who considered that “emotional consciousness is primarily consciousness of the world” or Robert Solomon [SOL 98], for whom emotions “do not just happen to us”, they help us to face other people. In its pedagogical development, this book shows us, step by step, how emotions intervene in each step of management and what mechanisms managers should use.

Over the course of these pages, a model emerges of a professional practice that, by considering the emotions of the subject and the role attributed to feelings toward other people, comes to promote the recognition of humanity in the other, while giving managers the opportunity to affirm their own existence as human beings. It is through the management of people, this emo-management that is so aptly named, that we can humanize management.

Martine BRASSEUR

Professor at the Université Paris-Descartes Chief editor of the interdisciplinary journal

Management, Homme & Entreprise

The management of organizations has experienced many evolutions and mutations in the last 50 years that are directly related to the multiple evolutions of our society (technological, human, economic and political) and the major organizational figures who compose it in the context of globalization. From the scientific organization of labor in Taylorian structures to different methods of participatory management that we can observe in our current societies, the changes have been numerous and varied. New research disciplines and rich, innovative conceptual contributions have appeared in human resources and management sciences under the necessary pressure of multiple social changes that we have observed in English-speaking countries. Subsequently, the globalization of these approaches appeared and today we find very similar management methods in different areas around the world, moving toward a kind of standardization in the management of human capital. The same organizational and managerial dynamics are found in major financial or industrial groups. In addition, there are also innovative areas, similar to small groups or networks, that can provide new modifications to the understanding of how our organizations work and outline new managerial development paths that highlight innovation, limitless creativity, boldness and emotional intelligence. Notably, we see this in the management models of companies in Silicon Valley that are increasingly discussed and that spotlight the spirit of innovation and risk-taking where imagination stands alongside large-scale industrial and financial projects. This is true for both the success of small start-ups that transform into titanic structures, like Elon Musk’s SpaceX company that offers private spacecraft launches, or the great monsters of GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) that are headed for world domination in their sectors. Sometimes insignificant in their infancy, these companies have succeeded in adapting and developing by relying on their human capital. To do this, many factors were necessary, including the consideration of emotional intelligence as a participative process of management. The role of emotions in companies is beginning to be felt in many organizations. First studied from a psychological angle in the 1980s, the consideration of emotions quickly became an essential and necessary element in the management of human capital in companies.

In practice, many HR managers address this question by trying to implement innovative approaches that allow them to develop and work on what some call “emotional competence” in order to make the most of it in the daily managerial practices of our colleagues. All the same, the concept is difficult and it is not so easy to integrate the management of emotions into the managerial best practices that an organization needs to optimize its performance. French university research in management sciences is only just beginning in this field and there are many ways to approach it. Of course, there are several methods of working on emotions in managerial practices, but what about their long-term effectiveness? HR practitioners today need precise methodological and conceptual foundations based on serious experimental research that has been proven in order to benefit from a real expertise on the subject, to provide clarity in a field that is still very abstract, and to be guided through this type of approach.

This is exactly the aim of Delphine van Hoorebeke’s book which, based on several years of research about managing emotions, brilliantly proposes a meticulous argument showing that emotions are found in most management, innovation and decision-making processes in large companies. Emotions have long been underestimated in companies. Here, the author shows how managerial practices are connected to managing emotions, whether it is at the level of decision-making, conflict management or emotional contagion. Her work highlights the important role of emotions in life skills and the professional interactions that we observe in the daily life of our organizations. Too long studied and perceived as a thinking machine, employees are emotional beings who need to thrive and use the emotional potential that they possess in order to optimize their individual and collective performances within their organization. Developing our emotional intelligence to optimize our managerial practices is becoming a necessity at the start of the 21st Century, where the dynamics of change are numerous and continue to accelerate. The future of our companies will need colleagues who can consider a larger facet of our cognitive potential and base themselves on what optimal emotional management can contribute to our daily work. Not accounting for emotions within companies is nonsensical. From now on, we must equip ourselves with solid and precise foundations for comprehension that allow practitioners in organizations to implement the use of this concept and provide pragmatic approaches that are adapted to the needs of organizations.

This book offers a new vision of management where emotions play an important role at both the individual and collective levels. Using a clear and didactic approach, the author offers us the possibility of constructing a precise understanding of emotional management and its implications at the level of individual and collective management processes that are necessary to all successful organizations. It is an innovative and indispensable tool for anyone who wishes to reflect on the matter and optimize the management practices of their companies in order to equip themselves with tools and especially specific frameworks that underscore the necessity of developing the emotional aspects of our modes of management that often still respond to the cold logic of past organizational models. The consideration of emotions in our managerial practices is now a necessity for responding to today’s growing performance requirements.

Claude BERGHMANS

HR Manager

Eurofoil Luxembourg SA