Description:
Regulating and governing organizations : For a sociology of managerial action The sociology of managerial action proposed herein differs from the sociology of organized action based on a principle of autonomy and the sociology of the firm grounded in the principles of participation and trust. Instead, the notion of constraint is placed at the center of analysis. In increasingly decentralized organizations, the question of locally supervising and controlling the principles of governance becomes a key issue. Thus has emerged a contemporary form of governing firms described as «gentle domination». A quite real menace, namely market-related constraints, leads to changing the means of management and the corresponding occupations. Project management is discussed in order to show that certain actors cannot avoid this form of management, which entails the ideas of precariousness and success thanks to a «structuration» by external factors, such as codes of ethics or standardization and certification procedures. This new way of governing organizations both more deeply involves individuals (to the point that it tends to «enlist subjectivities» ) and shifts part of the work of regulation outside the firm.
Cet article propose une sociologie de l'action managériale qui se démarquerait de la sociologie de l'action organisée avec son principe d'autonomie, et de la sociologie de l'entreprise et ses principes de participation et de confiance. Il propose de placer la contrainte au centre de l'analyse. Dans des organisations de plus en plus décentralisées, la question du contrôle et de la surveillance localisée des principes de gouvernement, devient centrale. Cela conduit à l'émergence d'une forme de gouvernement contemporain des entreprises qualifiée de «domination douce».