September 2013
abstract
Gérer & Comprendre
Issue 113
Editorial
By Pascal LEFEBVRE
Éditorialiste
OVERLOOKED
The rail network, geographical mobility and territorial dynamics
By Pierre MESSULAM
Responsable de la direction de la Stratégie, de l’Innovation, de la Recherche et de la Régulation de la SNCF
and Nacima BARON
Professeur à l’Université Paris Est, membre du laboratoire Ville Mobilité Transports
How are the relations between the rail grid for passengers, the urban network for commuters and the mobility of the French changing? This historical analysis of the rail system since it was laid in the 19th century till our times focuses on the changing geography of urban development and industry in France. The railroad has shaped the system of relations between towns; and the supply of rail services has responded to changes in the mobility of the French population, given new choices about the place of residency and new uses of space and time. These considerations lead to three proposals, which were examined during discussions about a “national schema of mobility”. First of all, investing in rail services in major metropolitan areas is a priority to be taken into account through a decomparmentalized management of rail lines inside and surrounding these areas and a reinforced mixture of forms of transportation. Secondly, the development of high-speed lines can be maintained but with a narrower focus on interconnections with European rail networks. Thirdly, the servicing of stations in rural areas should be redesigned in view of the possibilities for traveling by road so as to support individual mobility.
Fraud and the general interest: the problems of misappropriation
By Brigitte PEREIRA
Professeur de Droit et de Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises – EM Normandie, Laboratoire Métis – Chercheur associé – NIMEC, IAE de Caen Basse-Normandie
Among the acts of fraud committed by corporate executives is the misappropriation of funds (abus de biens sociaux). This violation, contained in a specific provision in French law, seeks to protect the firm’s general interest (intérêt social). However the latter is not defined by the law. Is it the interests of shareholders, of the firm in general or of the firm against which the act of fraud has been committed? The law conflates it with the interest of the business as a legal entity. Accordingly, the interests to be protected reach beyond shareholders – in line with recent analyses and critiques of the agency theory. Taking the general interest into account in cases of misappropriation can also extend beyond the concept of a juristic person to cover the interests of the firm and its stakeholders.
TRIAL BY FACT
Fertile marriages? Understanding the diversity of forms of organization for creativity
By Thomas PARIS
CNRS, GREG HEC/HEC Paris
Studying the forms of organization of the firms and institutions involved in creation intriguingly reveals different, evolving, crisscrossing patterns independent of the firm’s status as a public or private enterprise. A study of organizations devoted to creativity in various sectors sheds light on these patterns, detects the parameters shaping them and raises questions about underlying issues. We can thus move beyond the usual, simplistic categories (talent, ideas) and list the resources tapped during the process of creation. A proposed typology of the forms of organization takes into account the meeting between creators and the resources they use to create.
The value added through a brick-and- mortar social network: the bridges built by the crédit agricole du crédit agricole
By Anne JULIEN
Enseignant chercheur, Reims Management School, Titulaire de la Chaire Bancassurance Crédit Agricole du Nord Est et membre du Centre de recherche Magellan (Lyon)
Some banks that are mutual benefit societies have wanted to grow bigger, but have often lost sight of their founding values. The Crédit Agricole, in particular its affiliate in northeastern France, has developed a social network that, far from being virtual, creates concrete solidarity among its many stakeholders. This network’s economic and social performance is analyzed by using the “dominant service” criterion. Questions are raised about how this type of organization will evolve during a recession.
OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES
The hybridization through ethnicity of human-resource practices in multinational firms operating in Africa
By Suzanne Marie APITSA
Docteur ès Sciences de Gestion – Chercheur à l’Université du Havre (NIMEC-Le Havre) – Intervenante à l’EMN de Caen dans le cadre du cours de management interculturel en contexte africain
The concept of ethnicity sheds new light on the practices in human resources in multinational firms operating in Africa. Data from fieldwork conducted on human resource management in three Cameroonian subsidiaries of French multinationals show that local cultural factors strongly affect the actual application of the human resource policies decided in corporate headquarters. The findings draw attention to the need to make room for the ethnic dimension in the everyday practices of human resource management. Room should also be made for ethnicity in debates about the multicultural dimension of this management at the international level; it should be seen as a source of competitive advantage — not as a costly, but as a necessary, compromise.
IN QUEST OF THEORIES
Line managers and qualifications: a situated approach
By Damien COLLARD
Maître de conférences – Université de Franche-Comté, Chercheur au LEG, UMR 5118 Université de Bourgogne, CNRS
Nathalie RAULET-CROSET
Maître de conférences – IAE de Paris, Université de Paris 1, Chercheur au PREG-CRG, UMR 7176 École Polytechnique, CNRS
Régine TEULIER
Chargée de recherche – CNRS, PREG-CRG, UMR 7176 École Polytechnique, CNRS
and Jean-Baptiste SUQUET
Enseignant-chercheur – Reims Management School, CMAC (Centre de recherche sur le Management des Clients), Chercheur associé à l’IRG, EA 2354 Université de Paris Est, CNRS
Qualifications have seldom been analyzed as closely as possible to the operational level, a possibility of special interest to line managers and a genuine issue for research and management. Supervisors are continually in the position of making judgments about the qualifications of the persons and work teams whose activities they organize to reach the objectives set. Starting from observations conducted in several situations at the workplace, the concept of a “qualification oriented toward the situation” is drawn up around three dimensions: situation, qualification and performance. Its usefulness is empirically illustrated in the case of a big transportation firm; and its operational nature for human resource management, brought under discussion.
WHILE READING...
An inside view of a dominant paradigm: orthodox economics seen by andré orléan
By Daniel FIXARI
Professeur à Mines ParisTech
The originality of André Orléan’s book, L’Empire de la valeur – Refonder l’économie (Paris: Seuil 2001), is its invitation to review the underpinnings of the free- market paradigm in economic theory. It thus brings to light a hidden, original sin that keeps this paradigm’s tenants from understanding the current financial crisis, namely their belief in the objectivity of “value”.
Mosaics
Islam facing democracy
On Philippe d’Iribarne’s, L’Islam devant la démocratie , (Paris: Gallimard, 2013).
By Alain HENRY
The sociology of the other (or the revenge of the black sheep)
On Norbert Alter’s, La force de la différence, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2012).
By Jérôme SAULIÈRE