La thèse porte sur l’étude d’un dispositif d’accompagnement à la mobilité professionnelle au sein d’une ancienne administration d’État devenue société anonyme. Réalisée dans les centres financiers de la Banque Postale, l’enquête ethnographique combine entretiens et observations pour analyser conjointement la mobilité en cours de carrière comme l’agencement subjectif des séquences d’une vie, et la mobilité comme modalité de gestion du personnel d’une entreprise en transformation. Dans un contexte où l’individualisation des politiques de l’emploi se joint à celle des dispositifs de gestion des ressources humaines (Gazier, 2010), la thèse propose une analyse de la mobilité en contexte organisé, qui met en évidence le caractère normatif d’une injonction à la réalisation de soi par le travail. Elle met en avant le caractère multidimensionnel des transactions qui se jouent dans une épreuve de mobilité (sur le plan biographique, sur celui des usages – et détournements – des dispositifs de gestion, sur le rôle joué par les managers ou encore le cadre collectif négocié par les organisations syndicales). Ainsi, la thèse dissout les catégories dichotomiques utilisées pour décrire les parcours professionnels (mobilité subie ou choisie) en montrant que des mobilités dites subies peuvent être l’expression de véritables choix de carrière au service d’un projet de vie et que des mobilités dites choisies peuvent s’avérer foncièrement contraignantes. Au final, la thèse montre que le rapport entretenu par les individus avec leur carrière et l’usage qu’ils font de la mobilité comme outil au service de celle-ci, s’avère bien plus déterminant. / The focus of the thesis is the study of a support mechanism for employee mobility in a former state owned public administration that became a limited company. Carried out in the financial centres of La Banque Postale, the ethnographic inquiry combines qualitative interviews with workplace observations in order to analyse both career mobility as a subjective combination of life sequences, and professional mobility as a way of managing people in a firm in a state of transformation. In a context where both employment policies and human resources management systems tend towards individualized actions (Gazier, 2010), the thesis offers an analysis of professional mobility within an organized and structured context that highlights the normative nature of an injunction to self-realization through work. It emphasizes the multidimensional nature of bargainings involved in the course of mobility (on a biographical level, on the use - and misuse - of management tools, on the role played by managers or the collective framework negotiated by Trade Unions). Thus, the thesis dissolves the dichotomous categories used to describe professional careers (imposed or chosen mobility) by showing that so-called imposed mobility can be the expression of true career choices to serve a life project and that so-called chosen mobility may be fundamentally constraining. Finally, the thesis shows that the relationship maintained by individuals with their career and the use they make of professional mobility as a tool in order to achieve it, is far more decisive.

Text in Afrikaans / Summaries in English and Afrikaans / The orthodox school's explanation for wage differentials, unemployment and labour market discrimination and the policy measures which they proposed did not offer workable solutions to the problems of the day. During the late 1960s and early 1970s a group of American labour economists conducted field studies in American urban ghettos which resulted in the formulation of the dual labour market theory. In contrast with the orthodox approach, which emphasises free market forces and investment in human capital, the dual labour market theory focuses on the dual structure of the labour market. The labour market is divided between a primary (high-wage) and a secondary (low-wage) sector, with little or no mobility between the sectors. An oversupply of labour in the secondary sector and unemployment are the results. These labour market phenomena and dualism also characterise the South African labour market and should be taken into account when policy measures are formulated. / Loonverskille, werkloosheid en arbeidsmarkdiskriminasie is algemene verskynsels in arbeids· markte wereldwyd. Die ortodokse denkskool se verklaring vir die verskynsels en die beleidsmaatreels wat bulle voorste~ het met verloop van tyd ontevredenheid ontketen omdat dit geen werkbare oplossing vir die probleme van die dag kon hied nie. Gedurende die laat ·1960s en vroee 1970s het 'n groep Arnerikaanse arbeidsekonome verskeie veldstudies in verskillende Arneri· kaanse stedelike ghetto's geloods op soek na 'n meer aanvaarbare verklaring vir hierdie verskyn· sels. Uit hierdie veldstudies is die dualistiese arbeidsmarkteorie geformuleer. In teenstelling met die ortodokse benadering, wat Idem le op die werking van vrye markkragte en investering in menslike kapitaal, benadruk die dualistiese arbeidsmarkteorie die tweeledige struktuur van die arbeidsmark. Die arbeidsmark is verdeel tusssen 'n primere (hoogbesoldigde) en sekondere (laagbesoldigde) sektor, met min of geen mobiliteit tussen die sektore nie. Werkers se toegang tot die primere sektor word beperk, met 'n ooraanbod van arbeid in die sekondere sektor en werkloosheid as die gevolg. Hierdie arbeidsmarkverskynsels en dualisme is ook kenmerkend van die Suid·Afrikaanse arbeidsmark en beleidsmaatreels moet daarmee rekening hou / Economics and Management Sciences / M. Comm. (Economy)

Text in Afrikaans / Summaries in English and Afrikaans / The orthodox school's explanation for wage differentials, unemployment and labour market discrimination and the policy measures which they proposed did not offer workable solutions to the problems of the day. During the late 1960s and early 1970s a group of American labour economists conducted field studies in American urban ghettos which resulted in the formulation of the dual labour market theory. In contrast with the orthodox approach, which emphasises free market forces and investment in human capital, the dual labour market theory focuses on the dual structure of the labour market. The labour market is divided between a primary (high-wage) and a secondary (low-wage) sector, with little or no mobility between the sectors. An oversupply of labour in the secondary sector and unemployment are the results. These labour market phenomena and dualism also characterise the South African labour market and should be taken into account when policy measures are formulated. / Loonverskille, werkloosheid en arbeidsmarkdiskriminasie is algemene verskynsels in arbeids· markte wereldwyd. Die ortodokse denkskool se verklaring vir die verskynsels en die beleidsmaatreels wat bulle voorste~ het met verloop van tyd ontevredenheid ontketen omdat dit geen werkbare oplossing vir die probleme van die dag kon hied nie. Gedurende die laat ·1960s en vroee 1970s het 'n groep Arnerikaanse arbeidsekonome verskeie veldstudies in verskillende Arneri· kaanse stedelike ghetto's geloods op soek na 'n meer aanvaarbare verklaring vir hierdie verskyn· sels. Uit hierdie veldstudies is die dualistiese arbeidsmarkteorie geformuleer. In teenstelling met die ortodokse benadering, wat Idem le op die werking van vrye markkragte en investering in menslike kapitaal, benadruk die dualistiese arbeidsmarkteorie die tweeledige struktuur van die arbeidsmark. Die arbeidsmark is verdeel tusssen 'n primere (hoogbesoldigde) en sekondere (laagbesoldigde) sektor, met min of geen mobiliteit tussen die sektore nie. Werkers se toegang tot die primere sektor word beperk, met 'n ooraanbod van arbeid in die sekondere sektor en werkloosheid as die gevolg. Hierdie arbeidsmarkverskynsels en dualisme is ook kenmerkend van die Suid·Afrikaanse arbeidsmark en beleidsmaatreels moet daarmee rekening hou / Economics and Management Sciences / M. Comm. (Economy)

Yes / In previous decades, the perception of Japan¿s employment practices has been strongly intertwined with its economic fortunes. From the 1970s, Japan¿s employment practices came to be seen as one of the cornerstones of its economic success. However, this perception changed, albeit with a substantial delay, when the economy proved incapable of returning to its former path of growth after the `bubble¿ burst at the end of the 1980s. Like so many of its economic institutions, the employment practices became the subject of substantial criticism in a debate on the revitalisation of Japan¿s economy. This study takes its position within this debate by discussing the likelihood, character, and economic consequences of change. Environmental changes, like the ageing of the population and the substantial decrease in economic growth, require Japanese firms to adapt their human resource management. However, the embeddedness of national practices limits the scope of firms to make these adjustments; and change is determined by the dialectics between their strategies and existing practices. The firm, as an institution, thus experiences the impact of both the embedded employment practices and the economic impact of environmental changes. Accordingly, it is at the centre of this study. Theories of the firm are used to discuss the contribution of employment practices on efficiency, capabilities, and competitive strength. Case-studies from four different industries ¿ automobile, electronics, construction, and retailing ¿ describe the adaptations made by individual firms. Subsequently, these findings constitute the basis for a discussion of industry-specific employment practices and provide an answer to whether developments such as the rise in performance-based pay and labour mobility have altered the logic of Japanese employment practices.

Le réseau des transports urbains lyonnais est exploité par la Compagnie des omnibus et tramways de Lyon (OTL), société anonyme fondée en 1879. Comme toutes les entreprises de service public, l’OTL octroie à certains de ses salariés, les « titulaires », des garanties d’emploi et des avantages sociaux en avance sur la législation. Grâce à des normes dans l’organisation du travail, la plupart des titulaires ont un emploi du temps et des affectations préétablis. Toutes ces dispositions sont définies dans des contrats collectifs de travail résultant de négociations avec le puissant syndicat cégétiste, au cours desquelles interviennent fréquemment les collectivités locales, ville de Lyon et département du Rhône.Mais l’OTL doit adapter ses effectifs aux variations de la charge de travail et cherche à réduire les dépenses de personnel. Elle définit dès le début du XXe siècle des formes de flexibilité qui s’articulent autour des rythmes, des temps et des postes de travail. Jusqu'en 1949, tous les salariés sont embauchés avec des contrats où se combinent durées déterminées ou indéterminées de l’emploi avec le travail à temps partiel ou à temps plein, avant d'obtenir éventuellement une place plus stable : les « auxiliaires » travaillent uniquement le dimanche, ou bien les jours de semaine mais uniquement selon les besoins du service et peuvent être licenciés sans indemnité. La flexibilité affecte aussi les titulaires, essentiellement au début de leur carrière.Des tendances fortes se dégagent. Premièrement, la conceptualisation et la sophistication des formes de flexibilité sont concomitantes de la construction du statut des titulaires. Deuxièmement, les normes temporelles du travail sont de plus en plus complexes. Troisièmement, la main-d’œuvre se partage entre des titulaires qui restent trente ans dans l’entreprise et de très nombreux auxiliaires ou titulaires présents quelques semaines seulement, démissionnaires à cause des salaires médiocres et des conditions de travail mauvaises. / The public transportation system of Lyons – France’s second most populous city, is operated by the Compagnie des omnibus et tramways de Lyon (OTL). This private corporation was founded in 1879. In common with all French public service companies, OTL pre-empted employment legislation by providing employment guarantees and social benefits for certain grades employees, the “incumbents”. Thanks to working rules, most of incumbents, employees with set schedule and assignement, were able to forecast forthcoming hours or working places. All these measures were defined in the collective agreements which OTL entered into with the strong union and the local authorities – the city of Lyons and the département du Rhône.But OTL also had to adapt its workforce to the numbers of passengers conveyed and kilometers covered against a background of wild workload fluctuations and sought to reduce costs. So as early as the dawn of the 20th century the OTL company defined flexible working practices built around working paces, times and occupations. Until 1949, all staff was hired with employment contracts that combined open or fixed-term contracts with part-time or full-time work, before they possibly were offered a more stable post: the “casuals” were hired to work only on Sundays or weekdays on an as needs basis and could be fired without compensation. Internal flexibility also affected the “incumbents”, primarily at the start of their careers.Three strong trends emerge from analyzing the history of OTL personnel management. First, the conceptualization and sophistication of flexible practices were concomitant with the advent of guarantees achieved by the incumbents. Second, the temporal working rules became more and more complex. Third, the workforce was divided between incumbents who stayed in the firm thirty years and lots of casuals or incumbents who resigned because of low wages and flexibility, who worked a few weeks.