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;

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;

Rationaliser, dominer, discipliner. Une revue des recherches critiques en contrôle de gestion

Le courant dominant de la recherche en contrôle de gestion repose sur des théories économiques ou fonctionnalistes de l'organisation. Des recherches critiques, s'appuyant sur des cadres théoriques sociologiques ou philosophiques et sur des méthodes souvent qualitatives ou historiques, se sont développées depuis une trentaine d'années. Ces approches permettent d'interroger la rationalité, la neutralité et l'objectivité de ces dispositifs et d'en questionner l'universalité.contrôle de gestion; études critiques

Les contrôleurs de gestion, « médiateurs » de la financiarisation.

De nombreuses études illustrent une montée en puissance de la fonction financière dans les organisations, qui traduirait un processus de financiarisation universel et inéluctable. Par une étude ethnographique, nous avons tenté d'analyser les impacts concrets sur les pratiques quotidiennes de gestion de cette tendance. Nous avons alors montré que la trajectoire de la financiarisation était influencée par la compétition qui s'instaure entre groupes professionnels dans les organisations. En retour, son apparente universalité peut être utilisée pour légitimer les arguments de certains acteurs au détriment des autres. Nous montrons donc dans ce papier comment les contrôleurs de gestion et leurs dispositifs jouent le rôle de passeurs de la financiarisation, sans négliger les adaptations et compromis, locaux et contextuels, nécessaires pour la faire entrer dans les pratiques concrètes d'une organisation.financiarisation, contrôleurs de gestion, lutte intraorganisationnelle, ethnographie

Les pratiques occultes des contrôleurs de gestion:une étude ethnographique du «sale boulot»

(VF)À partir d’une étude ethnographique, nous analysons les pratiques occultées de contrôleurs de gestion. Nous montrons que,souhaitant s’identifier à des consultants internes, ils ne vont pas chercher à « se vendre » auprès des managers. Au contraire, ils adoptent une stratégie d’évitement, tentent de déléguer, ou de dissimuler, les tâches qu’ils considèrent comme impures et qui constituent leur sale boulot. Le rapport des contrôleurs à leur travail, leur choix d’orienter l’attention vers certains phénomènes plutôt que d’autres, influencent les pratiques de contrôle dans l’organisation.(VA)Based on an ethnographic study, this paper analyzes hidden activities in management controllers’ practice. We show that, while they wish to appear as business partners, they do not “sell” themselves to managers. On the contrary, they adopt avoidance strategies, intending to delegate or dissimulate the tasks they consider as impure, that is to say those that constitute their “dirty work”. We argue that management accountants’ feelings about their job shape control processes within the organisation.contrôleurs de gestion;ethnographie;sale boulot;management controllers;ethnography;dirty work.

Mesurer et définir la valeur des marques - un enjeu dans la concurrence entre groupes professionnels

(VF)Les pratiques de contrôle de gestion sont influencées par différents groupes professionnels, leurs interprétations et leur recherche de pouvoir. Cette recherche porte sur une entreprise dont la stratégie, comme la gestion quotidienne, reposent sur des enjeux non financiers, et notamment sur le concept de « marque ». Nous montrons comment les contrôleurs de gestion y associent une mesure financière, et donc une définition issue de leur champ d’expertise, ce qui leur permet de s’approprier ce concept. En imposant des interprétations financières des concepts centraux d’autres groupes professionnels, les contrôleurs de gestion étendent le domaine de la comptabilité et consolident leur position.(VA)Management control practices are influenced by different professional groups, their interpretations and power struggles. We study a company whose strategy and daily management rely on non financial stakes, notably upon the concept of “brand”. We show how management accountants introduce a financial measure of "brand", thus proposing a definition inspired by their field of expertise. By imposing financial interpretations of major concepts of other professional groups, accountants extend the field of accounting and consolidate their position.concurrence entre groupes professionnels; appropriation du savoir; définitions légitimes;valeur financière des marques;professional competition; knowledge appropriation;legitimate definitions;financial value of brands.

New dating of the Matalascañas footprints provides new evidence of the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 9-8) hominin paleoecology in southern Europe

Hominin footprints were recently discovered at Matalascanas (Huelva; South of Iberian Peninsula). They were dated thanks to a previous study in deposits of the Asperillo cliff to 106 +/- 19 ka, Upper Pleistocene, making Neandertals the most likely track-makers. In this paper, we report new Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating that places the hominin footprints surface in the range of 295.8 +/- 17 ka (MIS 9-MIS 8 transition, Middle Pleistocene). This new age implies that the possible track-makers are individuals more likely from the Neandertal evolutionary lineage. Regardless of the taxon attributed to the Matalascanas footprints, they supplement the existing partial fossil record for the European Middle Pleistocene Hominins being notably the first palaeoanthropological evidence (hominin skeleton or footprints) from the MIS 9 and MIS 8 transition discovered in the Iberian Peninsula, a moment of climatic evolution from warm to cool. Thus, the Matalascanas footprints represent a crucial record for understanding human occupations in Europe in the Pleistocene.We thank the Territorial Delegation in Huelva of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucia for permission to conduct research. Furthermore, this work has been financial support from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (grant no. PID2019-104625RB-100), the Andalusian Government to the Research Group RNM276 and Basque Government to the Research Group EJ IT1418-19. In addition, AGO is supported by a Ramon y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-22558) and by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (grant no. PGC2018-093925-B-C33, MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE). We would also like to give special thanks to Alicia Medialdea Utande, Head of the Luminescence Research Line of the National Center for Research on Human Evolution-CENIEH, for her help and collaboration in the treatment and interpretation of the data

Exo-zodi Modeling for the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer

Habitable zone dust levels are a key unknown that must be understood to ensure the success of future space missions to image Earth analogs around nearby stars. Current detection limits are several orders of magnitude above the level of the solar system's zodiacal cloud, so characterization of the brightness distribution of exo-zodi down to much fainter levels is needed. To this end, the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) will detect thermal emission from habitable zone exo-zodi a few times brighter than solar system levels. Here we present a modeling framework for interpreting LBTI observations, which yields dust levels from detections and upper limits that are then converted into predictions and upper limits for the scattered light surface brightness. We apply this model to the HOSTS survey sample of nearby stars; assuming a null depth uncertainty of 10^(–4) the LBTI will be sensitive to dust a few times above the solar system level around Sun-like stars, and to even lower dust levels for more massive stars

Layered convection as the origin of Saturn's luminosity anomaly

As they keep cooling and contracting, Solar System giant planets radiate more energy than they receive from the Sun. Applying the first and second principles of thermodynamics, one can determine their cooling rate, luminosity, and temperature at a given age. Measurements of Saturn's infrared intrinsic luminosity, however, reveal that this planet is significantly brighter than predicted for its age. This excess luminosity is usually attributed to the immiscibility of helium in the hydrogen-rich envelope, leading to "rains" of helium-rich droplets. Existing evolution calculations, however, suggest that the energy released by this sedimentation process may not be sufficient to resolve the puzzle. Here, we demonstrate using planetary evolution models that the presence of layered convection in Saturn's interior, generated, like in some parts of Earth oceans, by the presence of a compositional gradient, significantly reduces its cooling. It can explain the planet's present luminosity for a wide range of configurations without invoking any additional source of energy. This suggests a revision of the conventional homogeneous adiabatic interior paradigm for giant planets, and questions our ability to assess their heavy element content. This reinforces the possibility for layered convection to help explaining the anomalously large observed radii of extrasolar giant planets.Comment: Published in Nature Geoscience. Online publication date: April 21st, 2013. Accepted version before journal editing and with Supplementary Informatio