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TESTIFYING
Psychosociology’s
free electron
Max
Pagès interviewed by Gilles Arnaud and
Francis Pavé
Gérer
et Comprendre pursues
its interviews with the pioneers of
psychosociology. After WW II, everyone was asking how mankind had
fallen
to such a barbarous level. These pioneers thought that attention should
be
turned to the relations inside groups; and firms were a special case
worth
studying. The post-war period: the “30 glorious years” of economic
growth in
France, the attraction exercised by psychology, the fascination with
America… a
field to be cleared and worked in France… joint approaches, conflicts,
ruptures… but their outlook has remained so young that these pioneers
can still
provide insight into human relations in a world that has nothing to do
with the
1950s.
In
his younger years, Max Pagès, now 81 years old, traveled
abroad, became
familiar with various social environments, and suffered from the
misunderstanding between his parents. We thus better understand his
open-mindedness, ability to adapt, faculty of observation and quest for
reconciliation. These qualities served him well during his lifelong
research on
effecting changes by acting on the “socio-mental” system. Experimental
psychology, American experiments in groups dynamics, nondirectivity, interventions in big firms… everything
interested this pragmatic, curious pioneer. He never stopped launching
new
projects and was convinced that the practice of change is inseparable
form the
practice of research. Max Pagès became a psychotherapist. This
uncontrollable
force in psychosociology now wonders whether “radical moderation” might
not be
a decisive concept for coping with contemporary political violence
— a new
field of research?
TRIAL
BY FACT
Opening
the black box of dismissals for personal
reasons
Amélie Seignour,
Florence
Palpacuer and Corinne Vercher
How
are dismissals for personal reasons handled in terms of unemployment?
There are
now thrice as many dismissals for this reason as for redundancy in France. What
accounts for this? What does this breach of the employment contract
tell us, in
particular about white collars and about how organizations operate? Are
dismissals for personal reasons being made in place of preretirement,
since
government aid for the early withdrawal of wager-earners from the
workforce is
drying up? Sixty eye-witness accounts bring to light the tactics
adopted by
employers, wage-earners and labor unions. The process of a dismissal
for
personal reasons is often staged so as to comply with the law while
dodging it,
the individual and collective levels being played off against each
other. It is
time to better regulate how labor courts and organizations deal with
the exit
of white collars from the labor force if a breach of contract is to be
avoided
that is opaque and unfair.
OTHER
TIMES, OTHER PLACES
Why are
the US Navy and
US Army
adopting information and communication
technology so differently?
Cécile
Godé-Sanchez
How
to control the introduction of new technology in an organization? Why
is
information and communication technology being adopted so differently
in
organizations as similar as the US Navy and US Army, even though both
expect
the same benefits? Feedback from American officers on duty in Afghanistan
and Iraq, and
interviews with French officers move us beyond a situation-based
perception of
how to use this new technology. Each corps’
mentality,
which crystallizes battlefield exigencies and accumulates experiences,
turns
out to be a decisive factor. A training adapted to this
diversity plays
a critical role that will or will not enable managers to control
technology-induced changes. The US Navy quickly learned to set up
procedures
for countering the inflation of information so as to remain
operational. The US
Army has chosen to rely on training, since the introduction of the new
technology has transformed the conduct of soldiers in
combat. Technological changes must be adapted to the diversity of
mentalities.
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OVERLOOKED…
The dark
side of a project, when work on a
project threatens individuals and social groups
Alain
Asquin, Gilles Garel and Thierry Picq
Project-related
activities often figure in the myth of fortune in writings on
management.
Invest in your job! Find self-fulfillment through involvement in the
company’s
project! But does a project not also destroy meaning, destabilize
personnel and
convey the germs of new diseases? Projects have become means whereby a
firm
makes requirements of individuals and judges them. A project has its
dark side.
A review of (incipient) managerial writings on this topic and verbatim
accounts
from persons involved in projects provide data for this analysis. For
working
conditions to worsen in proportion to an increase in the stimulation to
outdo
yourself through involvement in a company project, something has to
have gone
awry in the realm of human resources inside the firm — in the very
heart of
capitalism.
Standards
of practice and codes of conduct:
The ethics paradox
Brigitte
Pereira
Firms
have consecrated ethical principles and values by adopting codes of
conduct and
standards of practices, but how do these texts affect wage-earners?
True, many
of these documents are so laconic that we wonder whether the
formulation of
ethical principles does not simply amount to a declaration of
intentions.
However the interconnections between these principles provide us with a
glimpse
of new obligations toward wage-earners that might enter into
contradiction with
the stipulations in employment contracts. This is the paradox. Given
globalization, these codes and standards do not seem useless and are,
in
certain regards, even necessary. Furthermore, they might extend the
firm’s
social responsibility.
TRIAL
BY FACT
The role of conducting change in
ERP’s
success in Air France
Redouane El Amrani
An
interesting case: a big firm that, it is said, succeeds where others
have
failed. What reasons underlie this success? The phases are analyzed
whereby Air France
implemented an Enterprise Resource Planning program, with its
implications for
a thoroughgoing transformation of operations and managerial tools.
Everything
depended on how the change was conducted. If the right analysis was not
made of
the impact of future organizational changes, or if the right price was
not set
on the phase of analyzing future users’ needs, the efforts of all
parties
involved — and the company’s investment — would come to
naught. Might
the chain of learning be endless? Might it not be necessary to train
the persons
who train others who are responsible for…
MOSAICS
Arnaud
Tonnele: Freedom, equality, inheritance. On Thomas Philippon’s Le
capitalisme d'héritiers - La crise française du travail (Paris: Seuil, 2007).
Hervé
Dumez: Reforming organizations: Hope ever anew. On Brunsson
Nils’ Mechanisms
of hope: Maintaining the dream of the rational organization (Copenhagen:
Copenhagen Business School Press, 2006).
Aurélien
Acquier: Social responsibility in firms: A question of
communication? On Patrice de la
Broise and Thomas
Lamarche’s (eds.) Responsabilité sociale: Vers une nouvelle
communication
des entreprises? (Presses
Universitaires du Septentrion, 2006).
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