LES ANNALES DES MINES

Gérer & Comprendre n°110 décembre 2012

FOR OUR ENGLISH-SPEAKING READERS

OVERLOOKED

COMPANY NEWSLETTERS, THEIR IMPROBABLE DURABILITY
Gérald GAGLIO and Olivia FOLI

There are several arguments, such as costs or the lack of interest by employees, for stopping paper editions of inhouse newsletters. Nonetheless, the latter are still being printed. A survey of “communicators” inside big firms serves to analyze the reasons for this improbable durability. After describing their origins, it is shown how company newsletters present an “organizational order” that, approved by top executives, makes up for the lack of directions given to “communicators”. Three exploratory hypotheses are formulated. The company newsletter: a) simulates control in ever less stable contexts; b) seeks to provide evidence of an apparent harmony between words and deeds; and c) reinforces prevailing beliefs about social bonds and the acceptance of change.


TRIAL BY FACT


LEGAL AND MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR FIGHTING AGAINST PSEUDO SPONSORS
Gerlinde BERGER-WALLISER, Björn WALLISER and Franck VALENCIA

Various forms of “pseudo” sponsorship as well as the legal tools and marketing strategies for countering them are described. Whether in France, Germany or the United States, the legal arsenal — mainly grounded on rights derived from brands and brand names, from contracts and from laws on unfair competition — has proven especially useful in combating direct cases of pseudo sponsorship. In the case of subtler forms however, it is hard to undertake legal action given the freedom of commerce and the constitutional freedom of speech. It is, therefore, indispensable for sponsors and the organizers of events to work together to delimit the problem. The interest of organizers is: to clearly define vested rights and turn them to account; to reduce the categories and levels of sponsorship; and to decry actions of pseudo sponsors so that consumers can tell the difference between a sponsor, a pseudo sponsor and a mere advertiser.

 THE AMBIGUITIES OF COACHING IN THE LIGHT OF FUNCTIONALISM
Jean NIZET and Pauline FATIEN DIOCHON
Professional coaching in the field of management is often considered, both by those who study it and by persons in the field, to be ambiguous, confused, and chaotic. These negatively perceived characteristics underlie what has been said and written for the purpose of clarifying the objectives and postures of coaches, and distinguishing coaching from other follow- up actions such as counseling, mentoring or training. In contrast with these attempts to reduce or even eliminate ambiguities from this activity, this article takes the aforementioned characteristics to be inherent to coaching. Light is shed on them by adopting Merton’s functionalism and showing, through a case study, that coaching usually fills several functions — some obvious, others latent, and still others dysfunctional. In line with this approach, coaching practices are described as a tangle of functions specific to each case. This hypothesis is applied to other managerial practices, such as the management of quality.

 

OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES

THE GENEALOGY OF “INNOVATOR”
Jean BÉHUE
The natural hero of the society of innovation is, for those who use the word “innovator, a figure that refers to different realities with cultural connotations. To clear up the confusion, a history, based on an exploration of archives at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, is presented of this word in French. While clarifying the relations between innovator, on the one hand, and novateur, genius and innovation on the other, light is shed on two major meanings: the historical one that, especially in the arts and sciences, refers to the individual who incarnates what is new by bearing the embers for a renaissance; and the more contemporary meaning in economics, which refers to the company or other organization that seeks to draw profit from an innovation. Given the currently prevailing usage in the second sense and, thus, the quite real risk of no longer paying heed to those who continue using “innovator” to refer to persons who spark a renaissance, speakers who want to refer to the latter should adopt the perhaps more explicit expression of “innovator of genius”.

IS THE CONDUCT OF WESTERN SUBSIDIARIES IN TUNISIA “ETHICAL”?
Rym HACHANA

A practical, qualitative approach to the study of eleven subsidiaries of Western firms in Tunisia was adopted to analyze the degree to which the managerial processes of planning, organization, direction and control fall in line with ethical standards. The topics brought up in accounts collected from twenty-two directors in these eleven subsidiaries were analyzed to draw up a grid of four types of subsidiaries: ethical, responsible, neutral and unethical. This typology comes out of a combination of two parameters, the degree of the parent firm’s ethical commitments toward its subsidiary and the subsidiary’s adherence to ethical standards.

IN  QUEST OF  THEORIES

NEUROMARKETING, BETWEEN SCIENCE AND BUSINESS
Bertille FOUESNANT and Alain JEUNEMAÎTRE

The neurosciences study how individuals make choices during interactions. Neuromarketing proposes to apply these sciences to designing and selling products. What are the prospects for this approach, which sets up a network joining scientists who study how the brain operates with consultants and firms? Will it radically change our understanding of the why and how of consumer actions?

WHILE READING...

A MYTHOLOGY OF ENLIGHTENMENT: PHILIPPE D’IRIBARNE ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF MODERNITY
 Michel MATHEU
Why do production and maintenance differ so much in French and American factories? Why have we not imported the policies for fighting against joblessness that have proven their mettle in northern Europe? Why do the French distrust money and those who make a lot? Philippe d’Iribarne’s books shed light on these questions. In an interview, he proposes a guideline: a theory of modernity as a myth.

 

MOSAICS

Pierre-Jean BENGHOZI: THE ERA OF THE MULTITUDE — ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND GOVERNANCE FOLLOWING THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION:
On Nicolas Colin and Henri Verdier’s, L’Âge de la multitude, Entreprendre et gouverner après la révolution numérique (Paris: Armand Colin, 2012).

Sylvie CHEVRIER: INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT — A FRENCH-SPEAKER’S PERSPECTIVE:
On Ulrike Mayrhofer and Sabine Urban’s, Management international. Des pratiques en mutations (Pearson, 2011).

Hervé DUMEZ: MEGAPROJECTS:
On Flyvbjerg Bent’s, Megaprojects and risk: An anatomy of ambition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Hervé DUMEZ: WHY CAN BRIDGES STILL FALL DOWN IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
On Petroski Henry’s, To forgive design: Understanding failure (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 2012).

Arnaud TONNELÉ: THE NEW WAR OF SECESSION:
On Thierry Pech’s, Le Temps des riches – Anatomie d’une sécession (Paris, Seuil, 2011).

 




 

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