TESTIFYING

Subcontracting and the social transition: The example of the CNÉS

Guy Nabet

Switching suppliers is a sensitive operation with possibly painful social consequences. At the National Center of Space Studies (Centre National d’Études Spatiales, CNÉS) in Toulouse, renewing suppliers’ contracts has been an opportunity for setting up an original procedure, which revives the idea of “industrial districts” of an Italian sort. Who is better placed than parties in the same local labor market for forming an exact idea of existing resources? Who can be more determined to maintain jobs and preserve qualifications? Proceeding from this observation, CNÉS designed a process of “social transition” between those who give contract work out and subcontractors, those selected as well as those who are not. The agreements signed concern all “network members”, but responsibility for managing this transition falls onto the selected industrial group. When bidding for a contract, the latter has to take into account the enlightened interests of competitors… on condition that they return the favor later on!

TRIAL BY FACT

Delegating the management of a public service: Private strategies tested

Cédric Richet and Bastien Soule

Can “public service” be maintained when management is turned over to the private sector? Can the latter manage when it has to take into account the general interest? What strategies do different parties adopt to overcome obstacles, strike compromises and maneuver? The study of a “delegation of public service” (DSP) in the case of an swimming pool complex in France shows how much weight sectorial strategies carry in relation to the general interest. The lack of experience of civil servants and the incompetence of elected officials sometimes augments the ability of various parties to defend vested interests and profit from a privileged situation. An actual network forms that actually organizes the DSP; its special status protects the latter from moral laxity. This raises a broader question: what contractual dimension for the public management of industries and businesses?

 
Relearning to tell a story: The social entrepreneur’s origins

François Rousseau

Is efficient management compatible with activism? Can a non-profit organization, when it grows, be managed like a firm without selling its soul? How are managers “trained” to run these hybrid outfits? The “social entrepreneur” who often has to cope with critical situations will soon come to see that it is worthwhile learning how to manage by having a grasp on the concepts, languages and tools of the managerial sciences. But since activist organizations are bound to “transgress” and become “involved”, he will go even farther and develop means for managing meaning. The story of the adventures of the head of a non-profit organization illustrates this ongoing quest. Whether in written or oral form, the organization’s memory is tapped to collectively work out a meaning, in particular when local projects have little relation to a social cause.

 
OVERLOOKED…

What prices for saving water?

Marielle Montginoul

Setting prices for the water supply is a touchy political issue. It determines the behavior of each and all, and conditions how this resource will be managed. The predominant idea is to save water, but local authorities’ overriding objective is to cover costs. In December 2006, members of both houses of parliament in France heatedly debated an act on the water supply. A broad survey conducted in 2003 helps us better understand the driving forces and issues in this debate, which will lead local authorities to rehaul the pricing of the water supply. A realistic, integrated approach is indispensable if the results are not to clash with the essential objective of saving water.

OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES

Vauban: Standardized work before Taylor?

Jean-Louis Peaucelle

Did Vauban not have the same managerial preoccupations as Taylor two centuries later? Obviously not, but he did imagine innovative procedures; and he showed as much concern as the American economist with rationalizing work and regulating its pace and pay. In Instruction sur le remuement des terres, Vauban sought to quantify the phases in a process, set production standards and thus improve productivity. But the instruments of measurement did not yet exist for satisfying his aspirations; wages were not individualized; and truly repetitive tasks would not be created till the age of mass industry. Vauban wanted both productivity and low wages, whereas Taylor thought that part of the earnings due to increased productivity should be returned to workers. Other times, other places?

IN QUEST OF THEORIES

Coordination inside organizations: A new conceptual framework

Eric Alsene and François Pichault

Much has been written about coordination inside organizations, and several conceptual approaches have been proposed. A new framework can be developed by inquiring into the very idea of coordination and delving into the complexity of actual situations at the workplace. A typology of such situations can help us better understand what coordination means. One of the reviewers of this article has criticized this approach because of the way it switches from the diversity of observed situations to the general concept. The authors have responded. A “quarrel over universals” in the field of management?

 

MOSAICS

 
Olivier Lenay: Searching for generalist technicians: On Paul Rabinow’s Une France si moderne: Naissance du social, 1800-1950 (Buchet-Chastel, 2006).

 
Hervé Laroche: Managers all worked up: On Frederik Mispelblom Beyer’s Encadrer: Un métier impossible? (Paris: Armand Colin, 2006), Harold Leavitt’s Top down: Why hierarchies are here to stay and how to manage them more effectively (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2005), Rosette Bonnet and Jacques Bonnet’s Du manager novice au manager expert (Paris: Hermès-Lavoisier, 2006) and Michel Barabel and Olivier Meier’s Manageor (Paris: Dunod, 2006).