Process Based Management and the Central Role of Dialogical Collective Activity in Organizational Learning. The Case of Work Safety in the Building Industry

The notion of “process”, which describes the cooperation of heterogeneous practices and competences for a given output, has gained a major position in managerial practices for the last twenty years. This paper presents three ideas about organizational dynamics and processes and tests their applicability in the case of work safety improvement in a building company. The first idea is that the success of the process notion shows the central role of “conjoint” (as opposed to “common”) collective activity in organizational learning. Conjoint collective activity is dialogical (“acts speak”) and mediated by the utilization of semiotic systems (languages and technical and managerial tools). The second idea is that organizational learning is neither based on the actors’ individual subjectivity nor on the technological and objective artefacts engaged in the processes, but rather on the reflexive understanding and ongoing redesign of processes by the process actors themselves, in the frame of a reflexive inquiry, a “collective activity about collective activity” which is triggered and kept in motion by axiological judgments (process evaluation). The third idea is that the possibilities to configure processes in a given organization are multiple. The reflexive inquiry enacts a specific social, spatial and time configuration of the process, its “chronotope” in Bakhtin’s vocabulary, which plays a major role in the way actors can make sense of their collective activity and transform it. A longitudinal case study about work safety on the building yards shows that it is difficult to “control out” risk at work once designs have been established, in the frame of the “project execution” process, but it is easier to “design out” risk, when the actors of the process collectively design and redesign their collective activity, from the very first phases of a building project to the end. Therefore a major way to improve safety consists in extending the chronotope of the collective activity under consideration, overcoming the traditional separation between “design / planning” and “execution”. The conclusion summarizes the main theoretical, epistemological and practical issues involved in this research about conjoint collective activity.Business Process; Chronotope; Collective Activity; Collective Sense Making; Dialogism; Inquiry; Process-based Management; Safety Management

The Instrumental Genesis of Collective Activity. The Case of an ERP Implementation in a Large Electricity Producer

Collective activity should be a focal subject to study organizational dynamics, particularly in relation with the implementation of management systems such as ERPs. Collective activity is analyzed here as an ongoing dialogical construction by actors. It is always mediated by signs and particularly by instruments. To design and adapt collective activity, a reflexive dialogical exchange between actors, a “collective activity about collective activity”, mediated by instruments, is necessary: we call it “the instrumental genesis of collective activity”. We analyze the case of an ERP implementation at EDF, a large electricity company, in the purchase and procurement area of the production division. The design and implementation of the new system was not clearly viewed as the instrumental genesis of collective activity. Difficulties appeared particularly for cross-functional cooperation and for the construction of new professional profiles of competence. In the light of this case, we suggest that key conditions for the intelligibility and the actionability of collective activity are the establishment of communities and the hybridization of professional competences.Collective Activity; Collective Sensemaking; Community; Dialogical; ERP; Instruments; Instrumental Genesis of Activity; Interpretation; Sign

Stylistic Creativity in the Utilization of Management Tools

We analyze the role of management instruments in the development of collective activity and in the dynamics of organization, recurring to pragmatic and semiotic theories. In dualist representation-based theories (rationalism, cognitivism), instruments are seen as symbolic reflections of situations, which enable actors to translate their complex concrete activities into computable models. In interpretation-based theories (pragmatism, theory of activity, situated cognition), instruments are viewed as signs interpreted by actors to make sense of their collective activity, in an ongoing and situated manner. Instruments combine objective artefacts and interpretive schemes of utilization. They constrain interpretation and utilization, but do not completely determine them: they define genus (generic classes) of collective activity, but they leave space for individual or local interpretive schemes and stylistic creation in using them. A major part of organizational dynamics takes place in the permanent interplay between instrumental genus and styles. Whereas representation-based theories can be acceptable approximations in stable and reasonably simple organizational settings, interpretation-based theories make uncertain and complex situations more intelligible. They view emotions and creativity as a key part of the interpretive process, rather than as external biases of a rational modelling process. For future research, we wish to study how interpretation-based theories should impact managerial practices and improve, not only intelligibility, but also actionability of instruments and situations.Collective Activity; Genus; Instruments; Interpretation; Management Instruments; Performance Management; Pragmatism; Semiotics; Style

Coupling Performance Measurement and Collective Activity: The Semiotic Function of Management Systems. A Case Study

Theories about management instruments often enter dualistic debates between structure and agency: do instruments determine the forms of collective activity (CA), or do actors shape instruments to their requirements, or are instruments and concrete activity decoupled, as some trends of new institutionalist theory assume? Attempts to overcome the dualistic opposition between structure and activity stem from diverse sources: actors’ networks theory, structuration theory, pragmatism, theory of activity, semiotics. Performance measurement and management systems can be defined as structural instruments engaged in CA. As such they constrain the activity, but they do not determine it. Reciprocally, they are modified by the way CA uses them and makes sense of them. The central thesis of this paper will be that it is impossible to study the role of performance measurement as a common language in organizations independently from the design of the CA in which it is engaged. There is a not deterministic coupling between structure (i.e. management technical tools) and CA (i.e. business processes). The transformation of CA entails a transformation in the meaning of the “performance” concept, in the type of measurement required and in the performance management practices. The relationship between performance measurement and CA is studied here in the production division of a large electricity utility in France. The research extended over several years and took place when two new management systems were simultaneously implemented: a new management accounting system and an integrated management information system (ERP), both in the purchasing process. The new management accounting system was designed by the purchasing department; the new management information system was designed by the operational departments. Whereas the coherence between both projects could have been given by their common subordination to the rebuilding of CA (the purchasing process), their disconnection from concrete CA opened the possibility of serious dissonances between them. Both the new performance management system and the new ERP met difficulties to provide common languages, since the dimension of CA was taken for granted and consequently partly ignored in the engineering of both systems. When CA incurs radical transformations, actors’direct discursive exchanges about it, “collective activity about collective activity”, become necessary to ensure a flexible and not deterministic coupling between CA and new management systems. This reflexive and collective analysis of the process by actors themselves requires the establishment of “communities of process”, which can jointly redesign the CA and its performance measurement system. We conclude that performance measurement can be a common language as far as there is a clear and shared understanding of how CA should concretely take place and should be assigned to the different categories of actors.Business Process; Collective Activity; Community of Process; Management Instruments; Performance Measurement; Semiotics; Theory of Activity

LES LOGICIELS DE GESTION INTEGREE (ERP) ET L'HYBRIDATION DES METIERS DE GESTION – LE CAS D'UN GRAND GROUPE INDUSTRIEL

International audiencePartant d'une étude de cas approfondie (mise en œuvre de SAP dans les processus d'achat et d'approvisionnement d'une grande entreprise industrielle), nous constaterons que l'architecture de processus sur laquelle est fondé l'instrument SAP déstabilise l'organisation fonctionnelle existante. Elle provoque un « choc abductif » qui peut donner lieu tout aussi bien à des apprentissages nouveaux et l'invention de formes d'action collective plus performantes qu'à des régressions défensives et de fortes tensions. Nous proposerons une lecture théorique des ces situations fondée sur une conceptualisation pragmatique des instruments, les ERP étant vus comme une sorte de « méta-instruments » organisateurs d'autres instruments et reliés à l'organisation selon une relation à trois niveaux : transactionnel, organisationnel et managérial. Nous examinerons les deux dynamiques d'action complémentaires qui peuvent permettre à l'organisation de se saisir de ce type d'instrument pour créer de nouvelles connaissances et inventer des formes d'organisation efficaces : • la mise en place d'un fonctionnement transverse en communautés de processus, • l'hybridation des compétences des métiers concernés. Nous tenterons d'appréhender de manière plus précise le contenu de ces deux orientations, puis les enjeux théoriques et pratiques correspondants

Competence-based Competence Management: a Pragmatic and Interpretive Approach. The Case of a Telecommunications Company

In this research we explore the issue of “competence management”, as usually defined in the corporate vocabulary, mostly in the human resource (HR) function, and more particularly of “strategic competence management” (long run management of competences which are critical to achieve strategic goals). We try to show that competence management is a dynamic organizational competence. We analyze it in the case of a large European telecommunications company, France Télécom, in the years 2001-2003. The telecommunications sector is characterized by quick changes in technology, markets and industrial structures, and therefore a high level of uncertainty. It is also a high tech activity, based upon continuously evolving personal skills which require long education and training times. There is an apparent contradiction between uncertainty, which makes planning difficult, and the necessity to plan new competence development with long response times. This contradiction cannot be solved if competences are defined in a static way, as structural attributes of actual or potential employees or groups of employees. The strategic competence management issue must be considered rather in the frame of a dynamic, process-based view, which involves an on-going collective and reflexive activity of actors themselves to define and manage their competences. We tested process-based competence management in the case of two telecommunication domains: high bit-rate ADSL telecommunications and Internet services to small and medium businesses. The reflexive and collective competence management process had to be instrumented with instruments which did not aim at an accurate representation of competences as objects, but rather tried to offer a meaningful support for actors’ continuous (re)interpretation of present and future work situations in terms of critical competences. As a conclusion we extend the example of competence management instruments to the general issue of management instruments, in the context of uncertain and dynamic environments. Information-based theories of instruments view instruments as specular representations of situations, which allow optimal or satisficing problem-solving procedures. But when business environments continuously evolve and resist prediction, we must move towards an interpretive view of management instruments as meaningful signs, which help actors to make sense of the situations in which they are involved. Their relevance is not an absolute ontological truth but the practical effectiveness of their context-situated utilization and interpretation. A semiotic and pragmatist theory of activity and instruments can then be proposed.Business Process; Competence; Competence Management; Interpretation; Management Instruments; Pragmatism; Semiotics; Telecommunications

LE BALANCED SCORECARD REVISITE : DYNAMIQUE STRATEGIQUE ET PILOTAGE DE PERFORMANCE EXEMPLE D'UNE ENTREPRISE ENERGETIQUE

Le tableau de bord (TdB) repose sur des jugements managériaux ayant trait à la pertinence stratégique des indicateurs (liaison cause-effet avec les objectifs stratégiques), leur pertinence opérationnelle (validité pour " mesurer " un type précis d'action) et leur efficacité cognitive (aptitude à " faire signe " pour les acteurs). Il semble donc plus pertinent de structurer le TdB sur la base des axes stratégiques, des processus d'action et de l'ergonomie cognitive, plutôt sur les perspectives " actionnaire ; client ; management interne ; innovation " de Kaplan et Norton dans leurs travaux sur le " balanced scorecard ". La contingence stratégique du TdB s'accommode mal d'une structure standard. On présentera le cas d'un TdB de direction pour une entreprise du secteur énergétique.indicateurs - performance ; tableau de bord ; processus - stratégie - pertinence ; causeeffet ; efficacité cognitive

Research Methods for Non-Representational Approaches of Organizational Complexity. The Dialogical and Mediated Inquiry

This paper explores the methodological implications of non-representational approaches of organizational complexity. Representational theories focus on the syntactic complexity of systems, whereas organizing processes are predominantly characterized by semantic and pragmatic forms of complexity. After underlining the contribution of non-representational approaches to the study of organizations, the paper warns against the risk of confining the critique of representational frameworks to paradoxical dichotomies like intuition versus reflexive thought or theorizing versus experimenting. To sort out this difficulty, it is suggested to use a triadic theory of interpretation, and more particularly the concepts of semiotic mediation, inquiry and dialogism. Semiotic mediation dynamically links situated experience and generic classes of meanings. Inquiry articulates logical thinking, narrative thinking and experimenting. Dialogism conceptualizes the production of meaning through the situated interactions of actors. A methodological approach based on those concepts, “the dialogical and mediated inquiry” (DMI), is proposed and experimented in a case study about work safety in the construction industry. This interpretive view requires complicating the inquiring process rather than the mirroring models of reality. In DMI, the inquiring process is complicated by establishing pluralist communities of inquiry in which different perspectives challenge each other. Finally the paper discusses the specific contribution of this approach compared with other qualitative methods and its present limits.Activity; Dialogism; Inquiry; Interpretation; Pragmatism; Research Methods; Semiotic Mediation; Work Safety

LES LOGICIELS DE GESTION INTEGREE (ERP) ET L'HYBRIDATION DES METIERS DE GESTION – LE CAS D'UN GRAND GROUPE INDUSTRIEL

Partant d'une étude de cas approfondie (mise en œuvre de SAP dans les processus d'achat et d'approvisionnement d'une grande entreprise industrielle), nous constaterons que l'architecture de processus sur laquelle est fondé l'instrument SAP déstabilise l'organisation fonctionnelle existante. Elle provoque un « choc abductif » qui peut donner lieu tout aussi bien à des apprentissages nouveaux et l'invention de formes d'action collective plus performantes qu'à des régressions défensives et de fortes tensions. Nous proposerons une lecture théorique des ces situations fondée sur une conceptualisation pragmatique des instruments, les ERP étant vus comme une sorte de « méta-instruments » organisateurs d'autres instruments et reliés à l'organisation selon une relation à trois niveaux : transactionnel, organisationnel et managérial. Nous examinerons les deux dynamiques d'action complémentaires qui peuvent permettre à l'organisation de se saisir de ce type d'instrument pour créer de nouvelles connaissances et inventer des formes d'organisation efficaces : • la mise en place d'un fonctionnement transverse en communautés de processus, • l'hybridation des compétences des métiers concernés. Nous tenterons d'appréhender de manière plus précise le contenu de ces deux orientations, puis les enjeux théoriques et pratiques correspondants.LOGICIELS DE GESTION INTEGREE ;ERP;L'HYBRIDATION DES METIERS DE GESTION;

GESTION DES RISQUES ET PROCESSUS STRATEGIQUES

La conduite du changement dans un environnement incertain est un thème à l'ordre du jour. Il amène de nombreuses entreprises à investir dans leur système de pilotage et la gestion des risques est une composante majeure de ce pilotage. Dans cette communication nous tenterons de montrer que, pour gérer les risques, il convient de travailler sur le système d'action de l'entreprise, c'est à dire sur ses activités et ses processus et ce, de façon dynamique, c'est à dire en prenant constamment en compte les nouveaux événements qui se produisent, les informations acquises et l'apprentissage organisationnel réalisé. Dans un premier temps, nous tenterons de préciser la notion de risque, puis nous développerons un modèle d'analyse et de gestion du risque, fondé sur une conception de la firme comme système d'action constitué de processus ; enfin, nous mettons en oeuvre cette approche sur un cas de gestion des risques, dans une grande entreprise de transport.Risque; Processus; Pilotage