No / There is widespread debate within critical management studies (CMS) as to the possibility of introducing CMS principles and ideas into organizational life. There is similarly a critique of its potential to replace the hegemony of `mainstream' business school thinking with an alternative hegemonic practice. In this article we use a reflexive analysis of our involvement as critical thinkers within the delivery of leadership-development programmes to consider these debates and explore CMS perspectives with participants. Our initial attempts were naive, but a more nuanced understanding given by theorizing our own practices offers some ways of avoiding the substitution of one hegemony with another. Although working as critical thinkers within mainstream programmes will always be problematic, we suggest that using a dialogical approach in leadership training programmes is one way of struggling with the inherent difficulties, while introducing participants to different ways of theorizing their worlds.

Yes / In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of ‘critical performativity’, a concept designed to debate relationships between theory and practice and encourage practical interventions in organizational life. Notwithstanding its laudable ambition to stimulate discussion about engagement between CMS researchers and practitioners, we are concerned that critical performativity theory is flawed as it misreads foundational performativity authors, such as Austin and Butler, in ways that nullify their political potential, and ignores a range of other influential theories of performativity. It also overlooks the materiality of performativity. We review these limitations and then use three illustrations to sketch out a possible alternative conceptualization of performativity. This alternative approach, which builds on Butler’s and Callon’s work on performativity, recognises that performativity is about the constitution of subjects, is an inherently material and discursive construct, and happens through the political engineering of sociomaterial agencements. We argue that such an approach – a political theory of organizational performativity – is more likely to deliver on both theoretical and practical fronts than the concept of critical performativity.

Yes / In this rejoinder, we draw attention to some of the possible performative effects of Spicer et  al.’s (2016) commentary and reaffirm the importance, in our eyes, of the fundamentally political and material dimensions of performativity.

Cette recherche vise à interroger la façon dont des dispositifs organisationnels (formels et informels) façonnent la démarche d’alerte, lancée par un employé qui souhaite témoigner d’une fraude ou d’un manquement à l’éthique organisationnel.Inscrite dans un paradigme interprétativiste, notre design de recherche repose sur des entretiens qualitatifs ainsi que sur des récits de vie conduits avec des lanceurs d’alerte. Nos résultats permettent de montrer l’inopérance des dispositifs formels (outils de recueil de l’alerte) mis en place par l’organisation pour recueillir la parole de l’employé, qui manquent de traiter correctement l’alerte qui leur est signalée ; d’autre part, nous caractérisons l’idée selon laquelle d’autres dispositifs, plus informels, placent eux-mêmes, par leur non-réponse ou réponses ambiguës, l’employé en situation de lancer l’alerte, en dehors des dispositifs qui avaient été mis en place par l’organisation. Enfin, nous interrogeons la possibilité qui est laissée à un employé d’exprimer un doute lorsque celui-ci concerne le bien-fondé éthique de certaines pratiques organisationnelles. / This research aims to examine the way in which organizational mechanisms (both formal and informal) shape the whistleblowing process initiated by employees wanting to expose a fraud or a breach of organizational ethics.Our research design adopts an interpretivist paradigm and is based on qualitative and life-story interviews conducted with whistleblowers. Our results show the ineffectiveness of the formal mechanisms implemented by organizations to collectemployee testimonies (tools for gathering employee warnings), which fail to correctly address the whistleblowing that is signaled to them. We also describe the suggestion that other, more informal, mechanisms, by failing to respond or byproviding ambiguous responses, place employees in a situation where they feel compelled to blow the whistle, outside the mechanisms implemented by the organization. Finally, we examine the possibilities available to employees to express doubts concerning the ethical soundness of certain organizational practices.

Cette thèse contribue aux réflexions critiques sur l’autonomie et le travail en se plaçant sous le prisme encore peu exploré du travail non subordonné en coopérative d’activité et d’emploi (CAE). Les travailleurs non subordonnés sont des individus qui souhaitent vivre de leur savoir-faire et de leurs compétences sans passer par le cadre salarial traditionnel. Ils trouvent eux-mêmes leurs opportunités de travail rémunéré en proposant des biens ou des services à des clients. La thèse s’intéresse à l’expérience qu’ils font de l’autonomie à travers la problématique suivante : dans quelle mesure la non subordination permet-elle aux travailleurs de conquérir de l’autonomie individuelle et collective dans un système néolibéral caractérisé par la figure de l’individu-entrepreneur ? Elle s’appuie sur une démarche inductive dans le cadre d’une enquête ethnographique. Elle s’inscrit dans l’épistémologie constructiviste et les théories critiques en management. La thèse étudie d’abord la dimension individuelle de l’autonomie en se penchant sur le travailleur non subordonné en tant que figure. En particulier, elle compare cette figure à celle de l’individu-entrepreneur néolibéral et mobilise le concept de micro-émancipation. La thèse examine aussi la dimension collective de l’autonomie au niveau global de la gouvernance de la CAE et au niveau des collectifs d’entrepreneurs-salariés qui se forment en interne. Le cadre théorique de l’anarchisme, très peu mobilisé en sciences de gestion, s’avère fécond pour l’analyse. Parallèlement à la réponse à la problématique, la thèse apporte trois contributions. Premièrement, elle propose une cartographie des situations de travail contemporaines qui montre le caractère obsolète de la distinction entre statut salarié et statut indépendant. Deuxièmement, elle établit une typologie des trajectoires professionnelles des travailleurs non subordonnés en CAE : profils « souffrance dans le salariat », « sans emploi », « nomade » et « entrepreneur ». Troisièmement, elle fournit des pistes managériales pour aider des collectifs de travailleurs à se structurer de façon non hiérarchique. / This thesis contributes to critical reflections on autonomy and work through the study of non-subordinated work in business and employment cooperatives (BEC). The concept of non-subordinated workers, close to that of freelancers, refers to individuals who attempt to forge a living out of their skills outside of the traditional salaried worker system. They find themselves their work opportunities by offering their goods and services to clients. The thesis explores the kind of autonomy that these workers practice by asking the following question: to what extent does non-subordinated work allow workers to attain individual and collective autonomy in a neoliberal system characterised by the individual-entrepreneur figure? It is based on an inductive approach carried out during an ethnographic study. It belongs to the constructivist epistemology and to critical management studies. To begin, the thesis studies the individual dimension of autonomy by looking into the non-subordinated worker as a figure. In particular, it compares this figure to that of the individual entrepreneur and builds on the concept of micro-emancipation. The thesis also examines the collective dimension of autonomy at the level of the governance of the BEC and at the level of the non-subordinated workers’ collectives that are created within the cooperative. Anarchism, rarely used in management sciences, proves to be an interesting analytical framework for the analysis. In parallel, the thesis provides three contributions. Firstly, it establishes an overview of contemporary work situations that demonstrates, amongst other things, that the distinction between the legal status of an employee and that of a self-employed person is outdated. Secondly, it proposes a typology of non-subordinated workers’ career paths which includes four profiles: “suffering in the salaried worker system”, “unemployed”, “nomadic”, “entrepreneur”. Thirdly, it offers managerial advice to help collectives of non-subordinated workers organise in a non-hierarchical way.

La question principale de cette thèse peut être formulée ainsi : Comment les discours, normes et pratiques spatiales peuvent, dans le cadre d’une relation inter-organisationnelle, produire un bon comportement spatial des agents dans une relation de délégation ? Ancré en management stratégique, notre cadre théorique mobilise des approches issues de la géographie et le concept foucaldien de dispositif. La méthodologie de recherche déployée repose sur une étude de cas unique portant sur la gestion de la santé en région Centre-Val-de-Loire. L’analyse du matériau empirique fait ressortir la création d’une chaîne d’auto-régulation inter-organisationnelle permettant de propager ce dispositif reposant sur trois types d’espace, absolu, relatif et relationnel en donnant l’illusion à chacun des maillons qu’il est responsable de ses actions. Nous mettons aussi en évidence le caractère autonome du dispositif qui produit à la fois des marges de manœuvres pour les acteurs et des résultats parfois contre-productifs vis-à-vis de la politique initialement portée par le mandant. / The main question of this thesis can be formulated as follows: How can discourses, norms and spatial practices, in the context of inter-organisational relations, produce good spatial conduct of agents in a relation of delegation? Rooted in strategic management, our theoretical framework mobilise approaches from the domain of geography and the Foucauldian notion of dispositif. The methodology we used is based on a unique case study: the health system in the region of Centre-Valde- Loire. The analysis of the empirical material shows the creation of an inter-organisational self-regulation chain, enabling the dissemination of this dispositif based on three types of space (absolute, relative and relational) by giving the illusion to each one of these links that he is responsible for his actions. We also highlight the independent nature of the dispositif that can create room for manoeuvre for actors as well as results that are sometimes counter-productive with regard to the original policies of the mandator.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6558.pdf: 2316927 bytes, checksum: 9f1446e32ffbc36559054932bd298384 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-15 / The context of the financialization of the global economy and the corresponding world-class organizations have posed major challenges to the 21st century managers. Those responsible for their professional education - including professors and Business Schools - have faced uncertain and complex contexts. The validity of management education programs has been increasingly questioned. This study aims to investigate the changes in the Business Administration field in Brazil after the 90 s; more specifically, it focuses on the knowledge involved in management education and on the agents and their respective institutions that provide this knowledge. This includes specifically the activities of professors and researchers engaged in Master's and Doctoral programs in Business Administration at Higher Education Institutions affiliated with the government agency called CAPES, a foundation whose central purpose is to coordinate efforts to improve the quality of higher education in Brazil. Therefore, this research was conducted based on the analysis of the structure of the field of these professors and researchers in Business Administration in Brazil after the 90 s. Pierre Bourdieu s theoretical and methodological apparatus was used due to the possibility of relational understanding of social space, where the agents - whose power is asymmetrically distributed - occupy and fight over positions. Several studies demonstrate the predominance of American authors in the Brazilian scientific production, which is, therefore, basically functionalist. On the other hand, around the 90 s, the American hegemony became refuted, especially by researchers who started to demonstrate greater intellectual independence to that traditional mainstream epistemology. This emerging group has been inspired by the Critical Management Studies (CMS), originated in the UK. The conclusion of the present study allowed the understanding of part of the oppositions and affinities that organize this field, its transformations, and the strategies of two rival groups of agents, constituting the arena of the organizational studies. On the other hand, although weakly adherent of the 'new entrants' denomination, the changes that took place after the 90 s can be said to be easily identified and often institutionalized. This study also revealed the intensified debates and systematization towards the construction of a particular epistemology of this discipline, which not only contribute to the improvement of the administrative theory, but also provides means to promote the future development of Business Administration. / O contexto da financeirização, da economia global e correspondentes empresas classe mundial , invocam constantes desafios aos gestores do século XXI. Os responsáveis por sua formação incluindo aí professores e Escolas de Negócios deparam-se, de forma análoga, com cenários complexos e incertos. Questionamentos sobre a validade dos modelos de formação de gestores são frequentes neste momento. O presente trabalho se propõe a investigar as transformações ocorridas no campo de estudos em Administração no Brasil pós anos 90. Mais exatamente, interessa-se pelo conhecimento que responde pela formação do gestor. Os agentes e respectivas instituições - que produzem este conhecimento constituem o foco da pesquisa. Consideramos como tal a atividade dos professores/ pesquisadores alocados nos programas de Mestrado e Doutorado dos cursos de Administração das Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) que se filiam obrigatoriamente ao organismo governamental denominado Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), responsável por melhorias no ensino superior no Brasil. A pesquisa foi construída, portanto, em torno da análise da estrutura do campo desses professores/ pesquisadores em Administração no Brasil pós anos 90. Optamos pela utilização do aparato teórico-metodológico de Pierre Bourdieu pela possibilidade de apreensão relacional do espaço onde os agentes cujo poder é distribuído de forma assimétrica ocupam e lutam por posições. Diversos trabalhos demonstram a predominância de autores americanos a embasar a produção nacional que, consequentemente, termina por ter forte inclinação funcionalista. Por outro lado, em torno dos anos 90, a hegemonia americana passa a ser mais fortemente contestada, especialmente por pesquisadores que passam a demonstrar maior independência intelectual em relação às tradições epistemológicas do mainstream. A inspiração para este grupo emergente são os chamados Critical Management Studies (CMS) originados no Reino Unido. A conclusão da pesquisa permitiu apreender parte das oposições e afinidades que organizam o campo, suas transformações e as estratégias dos dois grupos de agentes rivais, constituindo a denominada arena dos estudos organizacionais. Por outro lado, mesmo pouco aderentes à denominação novos entrantes , podemos assumir que são claras e muitas das vezes institucionalizadas as transformações ocorridas no pós anos 90. A pesquisa evidenciou ainda o aumento de debates e sistematizações no sentido da construção de epistemologia específica da disciplina, que não apenas contribuem para o aperfeiçoamento da teoria administrativa como também apontam caminhos para os desenvolvimentos futuros da Administração.