10 research outputs found
Figures, tensions et intensités organisationnelles à Médecins sans frontiÚres : une approche ethnographique
Cette thĂšse sâapplique Ă rendre compte de la maniĂšre dont des tensions sâincarnent et sâexpriment dans les activitĂ©s quotidiennes dâune organisation humanitaire, MĂ©decins sans frontiĂšres. Pour ce faire, nous faisons appel Ă une approche dite « constitutive » de la communication, approche qui vise Ă montrer que les tensions organisationnelles que vivent les intervenants humanitaires dans leur travail peuvent sâanalyser Ă partir des figures qui animent leurs conversations et leurs activitĂ©s de tous les jours. Par tension, nous entendons lâexpĂ©rience dâune incompatibilitĂ©, antinomie ou opposition vĂ©cue ou perçue entre deux ou plusieurs logiques dâaction, tandis que la notion de figure renvoie Ă ce qui anime ces mĂȘmes logiques dâaction, soit toute prĂ©occupation, valeur ou intĂ©rĂȘt au nom desquels un acteur sâexprime ou agit. Dans cette thĂšse, nous avons ainsi identifiĂ© puis analysĂ©, grĂące Ă une approche dâinspiration ethnographique, cinq figures, trois tensions et trois « scĂšnes communicationnelles » qui, selon nous, illustrent dâune maniĂšre fidĂšle les activitĂ©s humanitaires de MSF.
La prĂ©sente thĂšse se veut donc une dĂ©monstration empirique, via les pratiques communicationnelles des acteurs, de ces figures et tensions Ă gĂ©rer au quotidien, comblant du coup certaines lacunes dans la littĂ©rature portant sur les tensions organisationnelles et lâaide humanitaire. Ces lacunes sâarticulent principalement autour dâun manque dâintĂ©rĂȘt pour, dâune part, la rĂ©alitĂ© des pratiques des acteurs en tant que telles, et, dâautre part, lâapplication dâune vision de la communication proprement constitutive de lâorganisation, câest-Ă -dire une vision qui reflĂšterait et exprimerait ce qui anime ses principaux acteurs au quotidien.
Comme nous le montrons, ce qui semble animer ou prĂ©occuper MSF (et ses acteurs), ce sont, dâune part, certains principes ou valeurs tels lâindĂ©pendance de pratique, la neutralitĂ© ou encore lâexpĂ©rience et le scrupule. Ces idĂ©aux, que les volontaires de MSF cultivent dans leurs conversations et leurs activitĂ©s, sont donc constamment pris en considĂ©ration lors de la mise sur pied et la rĂ©alisation des missions de cette cĂ©lĂšbre organisation. Dâautre part, une autre source dâanimation se retrouve aussi au niveau des lieux et environnements complexes dans lesquels les soins mĂ©dicaux sont prodiguĂ©s aux populations en danger. Au final, et grĂące Ă lâapproche communicationnelle mise Ă profit dans cette thĂšse, il nous a Ă©tĂ© possible de dresser un portrait rĂ©aliste de ces mĂȘmes pratiques - les « sources » de ce qui les anime -, reflĂ©tant Ă la fois le mode dâĂȘtre et dâagir de MSF, dans toutes ses intensitĂ©s et toutes ses tensions.This thesis illustrates the ways by which some tensions enbody and expresses themselves in the daily activities of a humanitarian organization, Doctors without borders (MSF). To do so, we mobilize a "constitutive" approach to communication, an approach that allows us to show that organizational tensions faced by (humanitarian) actors can be analyzed from the figures that animate their conversations and activities on a daily basis. By tension, we mean every practices of inconsistency, contradiction or opposition experienced or perceived between two or more logics of action, while the notion of figure refers to what drives these logics of action, that is, any concern, value or interest on behalf of which an actor comes to speak or act. In this thesis, we thus identified and analyzed, through an ethnographic approach, five figures, three tensions and three "communicative scenes" that we believe illustrate quite faithfully the humanitarian activities of MSF.
This thesis is therefore an empirical demonstration, via the communication practices of actors, of these figures and tensions that have to be managed on a daily basis. Consequently, we were able to fill some âgapsâ in the literature on organizational tensions and humanitarian aid. These gaps correspond with a lack of interest for the actual practices of organizational actors as such, and secondly, as well as for an approach to communication conceived as being constitutive of an organization, that is to say, an approach that reflects and expresses what drives or guides organizational actors on a daily basis.
As we show, what seem to animate or preoccupy MSF (and its actors) are, on one side, some principles and values such as independence of practice, neutrality or experience and scruples. Thus, these ideals that actors cultivate in their conversations and activities are constantly taken in account when missions are planned and carried out for this famous organization. On the other side, another source of animation lies in the complex environments in which medical care is provided to populations in distress. Through our constitutive approach to communication, we were thus able to draw a realistic picture of these practices - the "sources" of what animates humanitarian action - reflecting both the mode of being and acting of MSF, in all its intensities and tensions
L'aide humanitaire d'urgence en actions. Une approche ethnographique : le cas de MĂ©decins sans FrontiĂšres
Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothÚques de l'Université de Montréal
Rebuilding Babel: a constitutive approach to tongues-in-use
The argument that communication constitutes organizations (also known as CCO) is increasingly accepted in communication studies. However, what tongue â idiom â is being used and how it relates to the constitution of the organization seems to be overlooked to a large degree. In this paper, we suggest that the Montreal School (TMS) tradition of organizational communication offers a fruitful analytical framework that allows to better take into account the way people practically deal with plurilingual situations as they go on with their daily activities and contribute to shaping their organizations. We identify six core features of TMS and show their analytical power in studying plurilingual interactions. TMS, we argue, is conceptually well equipped to reveal the ways in which multiple tongues are dealt with in everyday organizational settings and to uncover the constitutive nature of tongue-in-use
Being followed by an organization: A hauntological perspective on organizational ethnography
This chapters proposes to reverse the conventional assumption regarding research methods, according to which researchers follow their object of study. When studying an organization, researchers must let themselves be followed â we voluntarily use the passive voice â and make their body available as a surface where different principles, artefacts, sensations, feelings and other figures are articulated and therefore get organized. We use the case of the first authorâs experience in a Doctorâs Without Borders field hospital at a refugee camp in South Sudan to describe and analyze the ways in which the organization and its extreme environment affected him. The organization, rather than an external object available for his observation, took shape and became available for study as he experienced it in an embodied way
Materializing Ethical Matters of Concern: Practicing Ethics in a Refugee Camp
This article explores the collective practices through which ethics is handled at the humanitarian aid organization Doctors Without Borders. As an international nongovernmental organization operating in 72 countries, many times facing extreme contexts and yet able to uphold its ethical standards, we consider that studying the practical achievement of ethics at Doctors Without Borders is an occasion to learn how workers themselves deal with it. Our analysis of ethnographic data suggests that the question of what is right or wrong is materialized through what we call ethical matters of concern. We focus on the communicative practices through which apparent individual ethical decisions are in fact collaborative in the sense that they imply people, principles, and other artifacts that substantiate organizational ethics in everyday work
To speak or not to speak the language of numbers: accounting as ventriloquism
International audiencePurpose : The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on accountingâs performativity by developing a ventriloquial perspective that directs the attention to the reciprocity between the accounting signs and the accountants: they both do things by making each other speak. This oscillation explains where accounting numberâs authority, materiality and resistance come from. Design/methodology/approach : In order to show the relevance of this approach, the authors examine various ways numbers manage to speak or do things in the context of video-recorded conversations taken from fieldwork completed with MĂ©decins sans frontiĂšres (also known as Doctors without Borders) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Findings : The analyses show how this ventriloquial perspective can inform the way the authors interpret what happens: when numbers do not say the same thing; when numbers are competing with other figures; and when numbers backfire on their own promoters. Research limitations/implications : Even if some of the numbers studied are sometimes far from accounting per se , it shows how the absence or presence of accounting can make a difference. Practical implications : The authors then discuss the implications of this research for accounting social innovation through accounting inscriptions. Social implications : This perspective helps to understand that numbers can give great power, but that everything cannot be told with numbers. This is why making numbers speak is a great talent. Originality/value : This refreshing perspective on accounting could be extended to other fields such as auditing and auditing
La culture en tant que cultivation : vers une conception communicationnelle de la culture organisationnelle
Bien que le lien entre organisation, culture et communication
soit Ă©tabli de longue date,
de façon surprenante, hormis quelques exceptions, peu de
chercheurs semblent avoir étudié la culture organisationnelle en train de se
re-produire, Ă partir dâune perspective rĂ©solument communicationnelle. La
plupart des études qui ont tenté de le faire se sont surtout basées sur des
entrevues, et non pas sur lâanalyse dâinteractions qui aurait permis de
comprendre comment les acteurs produisent et reproduisent la culture par
leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Ce texte tente de pallier ce manque en
adoptant une approche dâanalyse dâinteractions pour montrer comment la
culture peut ĂȘtre conçue comme un processus communicationnel, par lequel les
acteurs mobilisent des Ă©lĂ©ments â valeurs, principes, documents et autres â
quâils positionnent comme guidant, orientant ou animant leurs actions. Cette
perspective situe la culture au niveau des interactions observables, rendant
concrĂšte cette notion trop souvent intangible.Although organizational culture research is well established,
surprisingly few researchers have studied how culture is a communicative
accomplishment. By relying on the analysis of interviews, rather than
interactions, many studies do not provide insight into how various actors
produce and reproduce organizational culture in the practice of
communication. This paper addresses this issue by adopting a ventriloquial
perspective to show how culture can be viewed as a communicative process in
which actors mobilize values, principles, documents, and so on that they
position as guiding or animating their actions. Hence, this paper situates
culture at the level of observable interactions and communicatively
âconcretizesâ this concept
La culture en tant que cultivation : vers une conception communicationnelle de la culture organisationnelle
Bien que le lien entre organisation, culture et communication soit établi de longue date, de façon surprenante, hormis
quelques exceptions, peu de chercheurs semblent avoir étudié la culture organisationnelle en train de se re-produire,
Ă partir dâune perspective rĂ©solument communicationnelle. La plupart des Ă©tudes qui ont tentĂ© de le faire se sont
surtout basĂ©es sur des entrevues, et non pas sur lâanalyse dâinteractions qui aurait permis de comprendre comment
les acteurs produisent et reproduisent la culture par leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Ce texte tente de pallier ce manque
en adoptant une approche dâanalyse dâinteractions pour montrer comment la culture peut ĂȘtre conçue comme un
processus communicationnel, par lequel les acteurs mobilisent des Ă©lĂ©ments â valeurs, principes, documents et autres
â quâils positionnent comme guidant, orientant ou animant leurs actions. Cette perspective situe la culture au niveau
des interactions observables, rendant concrĂšte cette notion trop souvent intangible
Varia 2020
Communiquer, Revue de communication sociale et publique contribue à une meilleure compréhension des phénomÚnes de communication humains. Cette thématique est abordée dans son ensemble, qu'elle soit organisationnelle, interculturelle et internationale, interpersonnelle et de groupe, marketing et publicitaire, politique ou qu'elle touche à la santé, l'environnement, les technologies, la communication scientifique, les relations publiques, sans que ces indications ne soient exhaustives