Anglo-French Management: more than the “bon mot”

November 2010 – In this interview, that Antoine Tirard gave to Robert Dick, Director of the Global Talent Network (GTN), he explains what needs the HR Anglo-French Dictionary addresses, how difficult it was to write and keep up-to-date, and what it brings us, beyond the strict translation.

What made you decide that an HR Anglo-French Dictionary was needed?

This dictionary was born out of personal necessity in the 1990s. My co-author Christopher James and I were both working in Paris as HR directors of international companies. We were regularly challenged in French-English communication and found very few HR words and expressions in the usual dictionaries. So we started to jot down lists of terms for our own use. As these lists grew bigger, we realised that our work could be helpful to other HR professionals. That’s how we came up with the idea of writing a specialized HR dictionary. We wanted it to include all language which HR managers might encounter in the course of their everyday work – from broad people management concepts to specific HR jargon.

What were the practical challenges of writing a dictionary like this?

It took us four years to write the first edition of the dictionary. The first challenge was to gather all the relevant entries, and our everyday life became a hunting ground. We picked up words or expressions from many sources such as magazines, employee handbooks, training manuals, reports, and from interactions with our English speaking colleagues.

A second challenge is that often there is no one-to-one correspondence between French and Anglo-Saxon. For example, in France, ‘Grandes Ecoles’ is unique to the French education system, a straightforward translation is both impossible and useless. We explain such expressions rather than translate them. For example a ‘Grande Ecole’ is “a prestigious French business or engineering school with highly selective entrance exams”.

Is it kept up to date?

That is the third challenge of writing the book: it’s a never-ending story!  HR management is constantly evolving. Every year brings legislation or new management practices. That’s why the dictionary is in its 4th edition. We keep on updating it. In the last edition for example we covered new terms around sustainable development, diversity, inclusion, employee engagement and employer branding.

What feedback do you get from users?

Our ‘readers’ tell us that the dictionary is a precious support to their everyday activities. They use it for translations, to find alternative ways of expressing something or just to check the meaning of a new term. It is clearly not like a management book to read and put on a shelf. It is really a tool, and like any good tool, people like to keep it close at hand. A senior employment lawyer told me that a copy of the dictionary was sitting on her desk all the time, and in fact she needed to buy another one because the pages were all dog-eared and torn.

Where has the dictionary sold best?

The dictionary has sold over 15,000 copies since its launch in 1995. Sales initially came mostly from the French market. We have since witnessed increased sales from the UK, Canada and the U.S. largely driven by the emergence of E-commerce websites such as Amazon.com.

Surely there are other barriers to working in an Anglo-French environment, not simply finding the “bon mot”?

That’s very true. Often, even going beyond the literal translation and ‘explaining’ an HR term isn’t enough to get the essence of its meaning. If you take the topic of retirement for example, you can certainly define some of the most commonly used words in each country but this doesn’t give the reader a full understanding of how retirement systems work. That is why, in the second edition, we added a new section featuring tables, maps and diagrams to explain some of the most important areas of HR such as education, employment law, litigation, pension systems and stock options.

The Anglophone world extends far wider than the Francophone world. Apart from the UK and USA, how does the dictionary help in, say, Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean etc. where English usage has distinctive characteristics?

The dictionary so far covers the HR vocabulary used in France, the UK, and the USA as these three countries represent a wide portion of business readers. I believe an Australian HR professional using the dictionary will find most of what she/he needs, even though some specific Australian HR terms might not be covered. But this is a good suggestion we should consider for our next edition! With regard to the French section, the focus is on the HR vocabulary used in France. We might consider for future editions specific HR terminology used in say Canada, Belgium or French-speaking Switzerland.

Can you give a specific example of an HR practice where even better use of language is not sufficient?

A fascinating thing with language is that it tells a lot about one country’s culture, customs and practices. We were amazed to realise for instance that the English words ‘feedback’, ‘empowerment’ or ‘accountability’ had no good equivalent in French. The best we could come up with was ‘retour d’information’ for feedback, ‘délégation de responsabilités’ for empowerment and ‘devoir de rendre compte’ for empowerment. But obviously none of these somewhat lengthy and awkward translations reflect the actual spirit of these managerial practices.

French companies are known for being more hierarchical than Anglo-American ones. For example, first names are not used so commonly. How does your dictionary help with these kinds of circumstances ?

The three examples I gave above nicely illustrate your point about French companies being more hierarchical. Indeed, the French managerial culture tends to be more centralised, authoritarian and top down. Managers’ credibility is highly associated with intellectual capacity and technical competence. With these cultural characteristics, it not so surprising to find that words like ‘coaching’ or ‘empowerment’ – which are more consultative approaches – are not really part of the French managerial lexicon.

Many innovations in business originate in the USA. How has this influenced your dictionary?

This had an influence on the page numbering! The English section of the dictionary is about 10% longer than the French section. What is true for innovations in business in general is also true for innovations in HR management. I experienced this first hand when I worked in the USA. I found the HR/TM/OD community constantly tries to create and sharpen its tools and practices. The quest to ‘professionalize’ the function is taken more seriously. This is backed by universities – such as Michigan or Cornell – which devote significant resources to research and to fostering partnerships with HR professionals.

Is it true that the French HR system is more procedural compared to a more “free market” Anglo-American approach?

This is probably true if you look at HR systems from the labour legislation perspective.  In the last two decades, French governments switched power many times, and both the Right Wing and Left Wing created their own new legislation, overlaying it on the older one. The most striking example is the 35-hour working week. It was adopted in France in 2000 under a plural Left government, but then challenged by the Right wing which created new measures ‘around’ it to soften its scope, but never took it away. As a result, HR managers working in France constantly have to adapt their policies and practices, and often negotiate new collective agreements.

However, in many other areas of HR, it is almost the opposite situation. Take succession planning for example. A number of French companies do not approach this with the same degree of rigor and discipline. In contrast, in the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission just issued a new rule which intends to scrutinize the succession planning practices of public corporations – placing a further burden of responsibility on the shoulders of corporate directors.

You can buy the “Dictionary of HR management” on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr