September 2008
abstract
Gérer & Comprendre
Issue 93
Editorial
By Francis LEFEBVRE
TRIAL BY FACT
How to change the mentalities of supervisors? A case study in a retail chain
Le cas de la grande distribution
By Yvan Barel
Maître de conférences en Sciences de gestion, Centre de Recherche en Gestion Nantes-Atlantique (CRGNA), Université de Nantes
and Sandrine Frémeaux
Professeur Associé, Audencia, Ecole de Management, Nantes
An experimental method for acting at an organization’s “cell” level — in this case, two departments in a hypermarket store — is used to detect the conditions for successfully changing the behavior of lower-level managers: on the one hand, the head of the household products department who had excellent results while practicing a “social management”; and on the other, the head of the delicatessen who had disappointing results while practicing a very “direct management”. We would expect the first to be promoted instead of the second, who would be led to change his behavior. But that did not happen. Senior management apparently judged these supervisors more on the “normalcy” of their managerial practices (above all, their authority) than on their economic results. Superiors thus impeded a change of mentality among low-level supervisors. However it is hard to imagine that the staff in retail chains can, for very long, remain more attached to a supervisor’s style of management than to his economic performance.
Replacements in nurseries, a child’s game?
By Emmanuel Dumont
ancien élève de l'Ecole des Mines de Paris, BNP-Paribas
and Antoine Rotger
ancien élève de l'Ecole des Mines de Paris, McKinsey & Company
What procedures has Paris implemented to cope with absenteeism among the personnel in nurseries? Information is presented from a study conducted for the city with the objective of improving how replacements are managed. This study, carried out in close interaction with personnel in the field, led to designing an experimental pilot program for a few nurseries. This program was exempted from existing managerial rules and currently used indicators. Lessons for managing a public service are drawn from this experiment; organizational variables and human resources are taken into account in a politically and socially sensitive context. This examination of a particularly complicated case also focuses on the conditions for generalizing this experiment and on the shift toward criteria for continuously monitoring services for the public, even though the administration still focuses on pre-existing norms for earmarking resources.
Virtual work teams: a disappointment
By Yves Frédéric Livian
Professeur Emérite - IAE Université Lyon 3, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3
and Isabelle Parot
Centre de recherche Magellan, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3
“Virtual work teams” have arisen out of the need for organizations to respond to the challenges of flexibility, speed and a world marketplace. Thanks to the information and communication technologies, firms can obtain access to new markets and coordinate the work done by persons who are distant geographically from each other. But does this represent a new form of team work? The results are presented from research carried out in a high-tech firm where new means of communication were being set up. Far from being a new sort of team work, the collective work done by persons not geographically present creates fragile organizational forms and does not constitute a solid basis for creating new teams based on cooperation and sharing. However these results have been gleaned from research conducted in a single firm…
OVERLOOKED…
The wealth of a pastime: An analysis of the philatelic market and of the factors enhancing the value of stamp collections
By Antony Kuhn
Maître de Conférences à Nancy Université, CEREFIGE
and Yves Moulin
Maître de Conférences à l'Université Robert Schuman de Strasbourg, CESAG
How does a collector’s item acquire a value through transactions? What strategies do suppliers pursue to protect the value of such objects? The philatelic market is analyzed to shed light on these questions. In this market, conventions interfere with micro-economic adjustments in supply and demand, and thus in the value of stamps. New information technology has had an impact on the traditional socioeconomic rationale of the stamp market. The question of trust is raised in the context of the digital economy.
LIVE
On assignment in the North Sea: Managing close quarters
By Lionel Honoré
Professeur des Universités, CRGNA-Sciences Po Rennes
A ship was sent in an emergency to repair a damaged cable at the bottom of the North Sea. The head of the task force, under pressure from the firm that owns the cable, and the ship’s commanding officer were involved in this assignment. The job was a success despite the hostile environment on the high sea and despite problems with managing personnel (the ship’s crew vs. the team from the firm). Given this mutual suspicion, what accounted for the success? The need to be efficient seemed, to the French naval officers — concerned about uncertainties related to their profession (new equipment, globalization, etc.) — to be a way to vouchsafe their professional identity in dealings with persons who were not seamen. This “defensive implication” enabled them to stand back from regulations and from the role set by the firm. Deviancy for the sake of legitimacy?
IN QUEST OF THEORIES
Gratitude/ingratitude, a subject for thought in firms?
By Myriam Monla
Docteur en philosophie, Professeur chercheur à Advancia
Gratitude is not a topic that spontaneously comes to mind when thinking about the profit-seeking activities of firms. This article with philosophical connotations subtly shows how much the gift-debt-gratitude threesome has implications for all of society: for its survival, serenity, cohesion and creativity — according to Marcel Mauss, it was the grounds for “laying down weapons”. This reading provides an excellent basis for reflecting on human nature, social relations, violence, and the feelings of belonging, recognition and betrayal — everything that characterizes the corporate world!
Mosaics
Can a “French-style” management be acclimated in the USA?
On Hamid Bouchikhi and John Kimberly’s The soul of the corporation: How to manage the identity of your company (Wharton School Publishing, Pearson Education 2008).
By Michel Villette