Executive Managers’ Perceptions of Workload in the Context of Skills Management
Nowadays, the skills management model has become common in many organizations and seeks to develop employees' performance and preserve their employability (Dietrich et al., 2010). In spite of the advantages widely put forward in the literature (autonomy, employee requalification, career progress), the skills management model can also be associated with some psychosocial risks (Bouteiller and Gilbert, 2005; Reynaud, 2001). Indeed, this model engenders a transformation of employees' work—in particular that of executives—because tools and practices inherent in this model could generate an additional workload (frequent reporting, evaluation, repeated training, and strict behavioural requirements). The objective of this article is to characterize executive managers' perceptions of their workloads in organizations using the skills management model. To do this, we conducted exploratory and qualitative research by carrying out twenty interviews with executives. Results suggest that executives' perceptions of workload in a context of skills management consist of three modified parameters (working time, demands of the position, relationships with others) and a new emerging parameter (related to the demands of maintaining and developing skills).