Loyautés organisationnelle et professionnelle et choix de carrière : le cas des professionnels en ressources humaines au Québec

Abstract

Cette étude, réalisée auprès de 1 133 professionnels en ressources humaines au Québec, a identifié, au moyen d'une analyse typologique des loyautés professionnelle et organisationnelle, trois groupes de professionnels. Plusieurs différences de perception concernant les facteurs de remise en question de la carrière ont servi conjointement avec d'autres variables sociodémographiques et de carrière à distinguer et nommer ces trois types de professionnels. Il s'agit des « professionnels établis », « en voie d'être établis » et « non établis ». Une discussion replace ces résultats dans le contexte du renouvellement de la fonction « ressources humaines » qui influence non seulement les tâches et rôles des professionnels du domaine, mais aussi certaines facettes de leur carrière.During the past few years, the human resource function has undergone major transformations. This renewal process will probably have an impact in the near future not only on the content of human resource professionals' tasks and roles, but also on several aspects of their career. The purpose of this study is to better understand a facet of this transformation by identifying factors that would motivate professionals to reconsider their career choice. Furthermore, this topic is examined in more depth by analyzing the joint effect of professional and organizational commitments on the relative importance that human resource professionals give to these factors in reconsidering their career choice.The results of this research are based on data collected by questionnaire. A total of 4283 questionnaires were sent to human resource professionals from lists provided by the two Quebec associations in the field. Out of these, 1155 human resource professionals responded and 22 of the responses were rejected, giving a sample of 1133 respondents or a response rate of 26.4%. Results revealed that different types of professionals would reconsider their career choice for different reasons.First, the respondents were asked to assess the importance of 24 reasons that would push them to reconsider their career choice by answering a number of questions on scales varying from 1 (would not play a role at all) to 5 (would play a totally important role). Principal component analysis of these items revealed five dimensions which, by decreasing order of importance, are as follows: "lack of professional challenges" (e.g., lack of interest, limited roles, dead-end positions), "lack of intrinsic recognition" (i.e., related to the nature of work, such as work not being recognized for its value, being blamed more often than praised, vague performance criteria), "lack of professional stimulation" (e.g., obstacles coming from colleagues or bosses, results too far in the future), "lack of statutory recognition" (being confined to low status positions, to counselling rather than decision-making roles, receiving lower salaries in this profession as opposed to other professions), and "ambiguity due to new roles" (being asked to play new roles without having sufficient competenc...