Chapter 5: An Example of a Laboratory in the Field of Management Intervention-Research: The ISEOR Research Lab

The Socio-Economic Institute of Companies and Organizations (ISEOR) research center was created in 1974 by Henri Savall in order to carry out a research scheme focused on the discovery of a hidden value creation factor: Human Potential as the only genuine active factor of sustainable value creation; as opposed to passive factors such as capital, knowledge, and work. In a way, it calls to mind the Geneva particle physics lab, which includes a high-energy accelerator aimed at demonstrating the existence of the Higgs boson. Indeed, a number of scientific approaches (sociology, organizational psychology, education sciences, ergonomics, etc.) posited that there was a link between social and economic performance, but without succeeding in the demonstration of this link. In particular, there was a need to articulate sociology and economics and to create a “socio-economic” approach (i.e., the hyphen between socio and economic). The challenge of the ISEOR center was to pick up the gauntlet and develop a methodology to succeed.