September 2020
abstract
Gérer & Comprendre
Issue 141
OVERLOOKED…
Managing a metaproblem: Space debris
By Hervé Dumez and Camille Toussaint
Given the drafting of new plans for Moon or Mars, and the growth of the market for satellites, both private and military, the space industry is booming. However the exponential increase in the quantity of trash in orbit around Earth jeopardizes its growth — a situation typical of what has been called a metaproblem, which requires coordination among many different actors. The problem of space debris has three interdependent momentums, each requiring different forms of action: contain the present situation to keep it from deteriorating; stimulate the invention of solutions for the future; and clean up existing debris to eliminate this heritage from the past. Four ways to settle this problem are identified with the help of scenario planning (Schoemaker, 1995; Wiebe et al ., 2018), each taking account of the variety of actors (public and private) and of possible forms of coordination (market and regulations).
Citizen participation and e-participation in the democratic transition in Tunisia
By Anissa Ben Hassine and Kamel Farhati and Aida Haouala
In the democratic transition under way in Tunisia since 2011, the roles are examined of the three main players (politicians, top officials from public administrations and NGOs) who have took part in a plan for the e-participation of the citizenry: Open Government Partnership (OGP). Adopting the posture of participant-observation allowed for immersion in this project. Despite strong demands for participation, the mobilization of citizens remained low, despite the use of accessible means like online platforms. This low participation can be explained by the fact that various partners in the project were more motivated by their own than by collective interests, which hinge on the legitimation of the new role they were trying to play. This places the enthusiasm for “participatory” approaches, in particular via the Internet, in perspective and raises broader questions about the virtues of participatory democracy.
Rationalizing the work of engineers in public organizations
By Lambert Lanoë
Since the development of industrial society, engineers have been in the position of “objectifying” the work of other categories of employees. In this sense, scientific management gave them a special position in firms. However, the many changes and plans for rationalization that have been introduced in large public organizations have made engineering more complex. The historical trend stemming from the Taylorist division of labor, in which engineers were leading actors, is finally, in turn, affecting them. This can be interpreted as an application of Darwinism: the engineers, who originally objectified the work of other employees, are now seeing their own work being objectified by managers and machines.
TRIAL BY FACT
A community dynamics in implementing lean management at Yves Rocher
By Johan GLAISNER
Chaire « Management du Travail Vivant », Ircom
and Olivier MASCLEF
Chaire « Management du Travail Vivant », Ircom Chercheur Associé au LEMNA, Université de Nantes
In 2006, Group Rocher Operations (GRO), a subsidiary of Yves Rocher Group’s production and supply chain, started adopting lean management in order to optimize production and distribution processes. Twelve years later, the conclusion can be drawn that this operation has been a genuine success. Not only has the firm reached its industrial and economic objectives, but also lean management has been deployed and widely accepted in an extremely positive social climate. This success leads us to wonder why lean management has been so often criticized (for its “social demolition”, inefficiency and lack of respect for “real work”) and why it was accepted at GRO? This success is related to the fact that the firm functions like a work community (a cohesive dynamics created by a commons, coexistence and a common approach to the world) where management deliberately played its part.
Designing for all but with whom? Three cases of codesign with disabled persons
By Estelle PEYRARD and Cécile CHAMARET
Institut Interdisciplinaire de l’Innovation – i3 (UMR 9217) Centre de Recherche en Gestion (CRG) – École polytechnique
Ever more firms are adopting codesign, which seeks to involve users in the process of innovation. The participation of user groups with specific needs in codesign could be helpful for delimiting these needs, taking them into account and moving toward a “universal” product design. However few approaches mix universal design and codesign; and the reciprocal effects of these two approaches have seldom been studied. In the three cases of codesign with disabled persons reported herein, user participation opened onto a global approach toward universal design that took into account all of a product’s aspects and related uses. Specific characteristics of codesign with users who are disabled persons are pointed out that are related to the posture and beliefs of designers and of users. Recommendations are formulated for designers; and perspectives for further research, suggested.
Mosaics
“A book on work that can be read like a novel
On Damien Collard’s Le travail, au-delà de l’évaluation (2018)”.
By Vincent Meyer