The history of the French tableau de bord (1885-1975): evidence from the archives

The history of the tableau de bord in France has never really been written. This paper sets out to draw up a history using the archives of three large industrial companies - Lafarge, Pechiney, and Saint-Gobain – as source material. This paper seeks to revisit the myth of the French tableau de bord as presented in a great many comparative management studies (typically, Tableau de bord vs. Balanced ScoreCard). This myth rests on more or less implicit assumptions regarding, for instance, the central role played by engineers in the emergence of tableaux de bord, the single and unified way in which this instrument is used in companies from top to bottom and, or course, its French specificity.French tableau de bord, scorecard, managerial innovation

Did the French tableau de bord appear in banks? The case of the Crédit Lyonnais 1870-1890.

Most of the research work concerning the French tableau de bord tends to locate its birth in industrial companies with engineers as lead roles and the State as supporting role (Lebas, 1996). Yet, a study in the Crédit Lyonnais archives shows that banks are not unequipped with this kind of managerial device. We have studied the period of birth and first development of the Crédit Lyonnais that is from 1870 to 1890. This period is characterized by the expansion of local branches, by the internationalisation of the bank and by the diversification of activities (Bouvier, 1961; Dagneau, 2003). Corporate managers then needed more information to control and compare their branches and activities. At the same time, and as a consequence of this quick growth, overhead expenses exploded. Therefore, the top management asked for more information, not only accounting information but also data concerning the number of clients per day, the number of complaints and the number of letters written to answer them, the number of market orders, etc. At the beginning, this form of tableau de bord was not very well formalised but, gradually, the management asked for more data in the shape of tables or cards. Comparisons year by year were also expected from branches. Furthermore, the Crédit Lyonnais corporate managers claimed for obtaining the same data than other French banks such as the Société Générale. In this paper, we will relate the apparition and progress of non accounting data as a precocious hint of the French tableau de bord. We will also describe the external and internal conditions of this apparition and progress.Tableau de bord; Crédit Lyonnais;

Competing institutional trajectories in organization.

Our paper is based on an ethnographic approach. One of the authors has conducted an ethnographic study at TechCo, a multinational aeronautic company, during 4 months. Following the actors, actants and allies at TechCo, we will show that two institutional trajectories compete for controlling the organization. Financial and technical rationales confront each other in order to control TechCo. Those two rationales or institutional trajectories are supported by discourses, inscriptions or managerial devices. By examining those discourses, inscriptions and devices, we will try to enlighten control in action through two competing institutional trajectories – financial and technical. This approach, which we qualify as “controlizing”, is necessary to observe practices in the field. Latour (2002) thus observed the manufacture of law. We have observed here the manufacture of control. Controlizing is characterised by the search for a highly hybrid content more than by the study of actors alone, containers (the tools), processes or outcomes.Management control; ethnography; Competing trajectories;

From intraorganizational struggle to co-operation between organisational professions. An ethnographic study of a French based industrial company.

Alors que la plupart des études illustrent une montée en puissance de la fonction financière, peu d'attention a été accordée à une coexistence possible entre plusieurs rationalités. En étudiant les pratiques de contrôle de gestion observées lors d'une enquête ethnographique, nous montrons comment la confrontation entre groupes divergents laisse parfois la place à des formes de négociation et de coopération. Plus que le pouvoir ou la domination, les groupes essayent parfois simplement de vivre ensemble.Little attention has been given to the coexistence that could exist between several rationales. Most studies illustrate the victory of the financial rationale, other groups trying in vain to resist change. In this paper, based on an ethnographic study of management control practices, we try to show how two groups oppose each other, following divergent rationales. More than power or domination, however, they seek to find a way to live with each other. Struggles and conflicts translate into negotiation and co-operation.Ethnography; Co-operation; intraorganizational struggle; Contrôle de gestion;

Text and artefacts for creating a "World of Investment Decision-Making" : an empirical study into investment procedures

The investment procedure prescribes the stages and tests through which all investment projects must pass before being accepted or not. It governs the conditions of acceptability and constitutes a powerful device of a priori control. In this paper, we intend to understand how investment procedures enable grand ideals regarding investment to be institutionalised. In particular, over and above the assumed effectiveness and rationale of these procedures, we identify the mechanisms through which these procedures construct social roles. In this respect, this research goes beyond the procedures’ technical functions and focuses on the very form of procedures. Indeed, the form of a procedure presents two features: it is written, generally consigned to a “manual”; and it relies on “cognitive artefacts” (Norman, 1991) or “technologies of the intellect” (Goody, 1977) such as lists, tables and formulae like Discounted Cash Flow. This paper shows how this specific form takes effect during the process of institutionalisation, through which grand investment ideals (e.g. competitiveness, value creation) are transformed into concrete devices and into roles (Miller, 1991). Thanks to an enquiry conducted in 2003 and 2004, investment procedures in six large companies in a French context are analysed. It is argued that (1) the formalisation of the objectives of the procedures, as well as the definitions of investment through typologies shape the actors’ boundaries of action; (2) valuation methods based on the domination of economic-mathematical formula favour short-term over long-term reflection; (3) the setting of decision-making thresholds formalise individuals’ tasks and responsibilities. Therefore, the very form of procedures shape each phase of the institutionalisation process as defined by Hasselbladh and Kallinikos (2000) and contribute to creates a singular world – that of investment decisions.procedure; investment; written text; artefacts; technologies of the intellect; institutionalisation

The making of the management accountant. Becoming the producer of truthful knowledge

In this paper, the authors analyse the practices through which the management accountant is constructed as a knowing subject and becomes a producer of truthful knowledge. They draw on a case study of an automobile equipment manufacturer in which management accountants play a central role. The centrality of their role is evidenced, among other aspects, by their participation in online reverse auctions, wherein they commit themselves and their company to long-term projects. This commitment is constitutive of their identity as knowing subjects and organisational truth tellers. However, the “validity” of the truth they produce can only be assessed over time. They argue that, in this firm, monthly performance review meetings constitute “accounting trials of truth” during which peers and senior management crossexamine the accounting truth presented. Preparations for these trials of truth constitute a form of subjectivation whereby management accountants act on their ways of being in the firm and become the producers of truthful knowledge.management accountant; subjectivation; trials of truth; Foucault

Integration versus subcontracting: The case of the French automotive industry (1945-1970).

Today’s car manufacturers resort widely to subcontracting, but the origins of this practice are not recent. From the beginning of the twentieth century, the car manufacturer Louis Renault committed the production of some components to external suppliers, although the company is often presented as a comprehensive model of vertical integration. This article aims to describe the evolution of subcontracting within the Renault firm from 1945 to the 1970s. This family business company constitutes a relevant case study because of its history. During the interwar period, Renault became the leading French car manufacturer. The company then undertook a broad diversification of its business activities (towards the production of tractors, airplanes, buses, tanks…), but finally chose to focus on its core activity: the automotive business. In addition, this firm’s history is particularly interesting due to its close links with the history of France in the 20th century (Fridenson, 1998; Sardais, 2005). During this century, the political, economic and social events affecting France strongly influenced the company’s activity and constituted crucial turning points in its history (war production, nationalisation, privatisation …). The study of Renault’s archives, such as activity reports and internal memoranda, allow us to distinguish four stages in the evolution of the company’s externalisation policy. The nationalisation of the firm, at the end of World War II, constituted an interlude in its history. Under state control, the firm’s managers started to reflect on the possibility of a subcontracting policy. However, this debate was interrupted by strikes in the Billancourt factories. A real subcontracting strategy was implemented from the 1950s, after being hotly debated by the firm’s stakeholders. A great number of memoranda on the subject reveal a passionate debate on the advantages and disadvantages of subcontracting. The premises of this policy were not clearly affirmed, but they constituted the beginning of an irreversible process.Subcontracting; Renault;

Introduction

Ce petit ouvrage a ainsi vocation, au travers de thématiques sélectionnées en fonction de leur actualité et de leur portée sociétale, à montrer que la recherche en management, mais aussi les autres sciences humaines et sociales, jouent un rôle dans l'explication de phénomènes économiques certes restreints, par rapport à la visée de la théorie économique, mais de manière « totale » (au sens de Marcel Mauss). On pourra leur reprocher de ne pas s'appuyer sur une théorie d'ensemble et sur des représentations formalisées c'est-à-dire mathématiques. Mais au moment où ces dernières ont montré leurs insuffisances, il devient urgent de proposer des modèles d'explication à moyenne portée pouvant effectivement soutenir des décisions politiques

RESPONSABILITE SOCIALE DE L'ENTREPRISE ET INVESTISSEMENT INDUSTRIEL : LA MAITRISE DES RISQUES A VENIR

International audienceL'objectif de cette communication est d'identifier des éléments de compréhension et d'explication permettant de saisir les fondements et les conditions de succès des pratiques de responsabilité sociale en matière d'investissement industriel au travers de trois études de cas. Trois pistes de réflexion seront ainsi ouvertes : une lecture institutionnelle, une lecture financière et, enfin, une lecture instrumentale

Les "french tableaux de bord" (1885-1975)

International audienceL'histoire des tableaux de bord en France n'a jamais vraiment été faite. Ce papier est une tentative d'élaboration d'une histoire à partir de sources d'archives de trois grandes entreprises industrielles, Lafarge, Pechiney et Saint-Gobain. Son objectif est double. Il s'agit tout d'abord, de revisiter le mythe des « French tableaux de bord » mis en scène dans d'abondants travaux de gestion comparée (typiquement tableaux de bord vs. Balanced ScoreCard). Ce mythe repose sur des hypothèses plus ou moins implicites telles que le rôle central des ingénieurs dans l'émergence des tableaux de bord, l'unicité de cet instrument de bas en haut des entreprises et, bien sûr, sa spécificité française. Il s'agit ensuite, à partir des nouveaux éclairages apportés par l'enquête historique, de reposer les questions de ce qu'est un tableau de bord et de son mode de fonctionnement. A partir des travaux de Hacking et de Goody, nous proposons dans ce papier de considérer le tableau de bord comme un microscope managérial voué à doter les dirigeants d'un couple representing / intervening pour, à la fois, se représenter des activités invisibles à l'oeil nu, du fait de la distance, et intervenir dans les situations de gestion le nécessitant