December 2005
abstract
Gérer & Comprendre
Issue 82
Editorial
By Francis LEFEBVRE
Secrétaire général du Comité de rédaction
TRIAL BY FACT
Public debate and expertise: Between rationality and legitimacy
By Sébastien DAMART
and Bernard ROY
Université Paris-Dauphine
How to explain why the French Police and Gendarmerie are so attached to using an array of statistical indicators in order to uphold the rule of law and defend the general interest? How to assess the performance of security services given that they achieve their purpose whenever certain actions are thwarted and nothing happens? Following a criticism of how the Organic Budgetary Act (Loi Organique relative aux Lois de Finances, LOLF) has been adapted to managing police forces, questions are raised about the relevance of a managerial approach that sets objectives for public services and about the legitimacy of a tool that has gradually been imposed as being self-evident and a matter of consensus. Might this tool not be a doctrine or a powerful dogma that should arouse the critical spirit of managers in the public administration ?
Globalization and employment: The new organizational strategies of transnational agribusinesses in Europe
Les nouvelles stratégies organisationnelles des multinationales agro-alimentaires en Europe
By Amélie SEIGNOUR
and Florence PALPACUER
Enseignants-Chercheurs en Sciences de Gestion, ERFI Université de Montpellier II
OVERLOOKED…
Illusory synergy in mergers and buyouts, an autopsy of the BioMérieux-Pierre Fabre “theranosis”
Autopsie du Théranostique chez BioMérieux - Pierre Fabre
By Philippe MONIN
and Eero VAARA
Professeurs, Unité Pédagogique et de Recherche Stratégie et Organisation, E.M. Lyon
What institutional arrangements for the maintenance of aircraft materials in the defense system?
By Denis BAYON
Chargé d'étude, Institut des Sciences de l'Homme, Lyon
and Thierry KIRAT
CNRS, IRIS-CREDEP
Mosaics
A debate with Francois Dupuy
On François Dupuy’s La fatigue des élites – Le capitalisme et ses cadres (Paris: Seul 2005).
By Arnaud TONNELE
The audited society?
On Michael Power’s La société de l’audit: L’obsession du contrôle (Paris: Éditions de la Découverte, 2005) translated from English by Armelle Lebrun.
By Carlos RAMIREZ
But what is the police doing?
On Cpt. J. Terry and E. Bourguinat’s 1000 jours pour vaincre l'insécurité (Paris: Éditions Creaphis, 2005).
By Frédérique PALLEZ
An emerging management theme, sustainable development
On Franck Aggeri, Eric Pezet, Christophe Abrassart and Aurélien Acquier’s Organiser le développement durable: Expériences des entreprises pionnières et formation de règles d’action collective (Paris: Vuibert 2005).
By Michel VILLETTE
A question for Christian Morel
By The USB key
OVERLOOKED…
Edison versus Westinghouse: The first modern battle over an industrial standard?
By Pascal CORBEL
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines
TESTIFYING
When France discovered auditing
Entretien avec Edouard Salustro mené par Bernard COLASSE, Paris IX Dauphine, DRM-CREFIGE, et Francis PAVE, CSO-ENPC