December 1996
abstract
Gérer & Comprendre
Issue 46
Éditorial
By Pascal LEFEBVRE
TRIAL BY FACT
The impact of uncertainty in matters of regulations on strategies for disposing of special wastes: The chemical industry's example
L'exemple de l'industrie chimique
By Jean-Philippe Bonardi and Magali Delmas
Regulations for dangerous wastes are intended to limit the risks of pollution by reducing the production of such wastes and increasing the capacity for treating them. In the 1980s, there were predictions that the means for treating wastes would be insufficient; but nowadays, there is an overcapacity. What impact do regulations really have on transactions between chemists and waste disposal operators?
Learning computer technology in the hospital: An experience to share
Une expérience à partager
By Xavier Berbain
A service headed by someone who dreams of improving the organization An ad hoc collection of soft- and hardware designed out a concern for the quality of patient service A multitude of actors on whom the success or failure of the transplant depends All this is a familiar mixture. How do computer technology and the service's organization come into interaction? How do actors switch from learning to innovating? To see into all this more clearly, let's go back to the field
Getting the most out of computer technology
By Jean-Louis Peaucelle
In issue n Ú 41, F. Pavé highlighted the significant lag between the conviction of computer industrialists about the quite positive gains stemming from their technology and the perception of economists and sociologists when they try to measure the actual effects. The debate goes on Despite the improved means of analysis, the question still remains: does computer technology do more than cover its costs?
OVERLOOKED REALITIES
Prospects in the seed industry: When linguistics tracks what is left unsaid
By Vincent Mangematin and Marie-Sylvie Poli
According to a current saying, knowledge increases when it is shared. How do scientists share know-how? And how does this sharing enhance their knowledge of the techniques they hope to manage? An ingenious detour via linguistics sheds light on social actors' strategies and tactics for saying neither too much nor too little.
Assessment studies between strategy and methodology: The example of public wetland policies
L'exemple des politiques publiques en matière de zones humides
By Laurent Mermet
Between saving an exceptional environmental heritage and promoting development projects, the conservation of wetlands is one priority of policies for protecting nature. But do such policies work? This question implies making assessments, a shifting field where the experts of an emerging science face off the practitioners of public affairs.
Mosaics
All of management! On: Traditional management and beyond: A matter of renewal by Omar Aktouf
By Sylvie Chevrier
For a global view of the society where we live
On L'ordre économique de la société moderne. Un réexamen de la théorie de la régulation by Bernard Billaudot
By Vincent Mangematin
Societies sick of work? On: Le travail, une valeur en voie de disparition by Dominique Méda
By Frédérique Pallez
The firm's horizons
On Comptes et récits de la performance. Essai sur le pilotage de l'entreprise by Philippe Lorino
By Guy Érard
It's not easy being a manager!
On Les illusions du management by Jean-Pierre Le Goff
By Jean-Luc Metzger
DEBATES
Capital control and shareholders' rights
By Laurent Batsch and Bertrand Collomb
In Gérer et comprendre's June issue, Bertrand Collomb, the Lafarge Group's president of the board and CEO, mentioned the changes in this group's policy with regard to its shareholders, and discussed differences between French and Anglo-American practices. A researcher has opened the debate. By reviewing corporate law, he raises questions and asks Bertrand Collomb for specifics.
A certain view from norway
By Isabelle Knock
Isabelle Knock
OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES
A major innovation in management: Discounted cash flow and the profit-earning capacity of investments during the 1960s
L'actualisation et la rentabilité de l'investissement dans les années 60
By Anne Pezet
Till now discounted cash flow has remained a nearly exclusively Anglo- American practice. The history of how firms have slowly adopted this quite old technique fits into the history of technology and its concepts. The French case turns out to be instructive given how early this innovation - which came out of a long tradition of economic calculations -arose. This case sheds light on the relation between innovation in management and the socio-economic context. This relation is more a sort of loose determinism than a rigid causality.
IN QUEST OF THEORIES
Changing sights in the fight against joblessness
By Michel Berry
Society expects firms to pull it out of the current recession; and economists, to provide the appropriate remedies. But these expectations are unreasonable given the competitive pressures bearing down on companies. In fact, they even stem from a diagnostic error: society does not suffer just from a job crisis but from a crisis of meaning. By seeing the ways meaning is produced in- and outside firms and by reinforcing them, we can examine the crisis of meaning and, in addition, create jobs. To help set off such a trend, persons enrolled on unemployment could be placed in the service of certified associations.