Trandisciplinarity and Organizational change - Christophe ASSENS

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 & 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

TAMARA JOURNAL 

for Critical Organization Inquiry 

(Cover Photo : Courtesy of Sylvie Allouche) 

Double Issue 

6.3 Rodolphe Ocler Guest Editor: Special Guest Issue: 

Trandisciplinarity and Organizational change 

6.4 David Boje Guest Editor: Special Guest Issue: 

Critical Feminism

TAMARA JOURNAL TABLE OF CONTENTS 6.3 & 6.4 

ISSUE 6.3 Special Guest Issue: Trandisciplinarity and Organizational Change 

(Guest Editor: Ocler Rodolphe) 

(Cover photo courtesy of Sylvie Allouche http://www.sylvie-allouche.com) 

1. Rodolphe Ocler - Introduction to special issue: Transdisciplinary and 

Organizational Change 

2. Jack Appleton - Eclectism Facilitates the Analysis of Organizational Evolution 

3. Helène Fine - Transdisciplinarity: Trying to Cross Boundaries 

4. Laurent Cappelleti, Miguel Delattre and Florence Noguera - Introducing the First 

Management Control System in Independent Professions: A Qualimetric Enquiry 

5. Christophe Assens and Alessandro Baroncelli - L'Enchevetrement 

Organisationnnel Du Groupe Vivendi 

6. Florian Sala. - « Faire vivre la pluridisciplinarité : un défi surmontable ? » 

7. Richard Delaye, Marie Peretti, et Patrice Terramorsi - RSE et diversité 

confessionnelle : une responsabilité en clair-obscur 

p. 16 

p. 23 

p. 43 

p. 69 

p. 83 

8. Rodolphe Ocler - The Influence of Martial Arts on Companies p. 98 

ISSUE 6.4 Special Guest Issue: Critical Feminism p. 113 

(Guest Editor: David Boje) (Cover photo courtesy of Early Canadiana Online 

http://www.canadiana.org/eco.php?doc=privacy http://www.canadiana.org/citm/_images/common/c009652.jpg) 

1. David M. Boje - Introduction to speical issue: Critical Feminism 

p. 115 

2. Heather Höpfl - Master and Convert: women and other strangers 

3. Graeme Lockwood, Patrice Rosenthal & Alexandra Budjanovcanin - Sexual 

Harassment Litigation in Britain:A Window on the Socially Irresponsible Workplace 

4. Alexis Downs & Donna M Carlon - Viewing organizing through a feminist lens: 

The discursive and material creations of individual and organization identities 

5. Adrian N. Carr & Cheryl A. Lapp - Vive La Difference in the workplace: Feminism 

meets liberal theory in Las Vegas Casinos 

6. David M. Boje - Boje Feminism: Parallel Storyability of Male Vietnam Veteran and 

Female Sweatshop Body Traumas 

7. Lisa A. Zanetti - Musings on Feminism, Surrealism, and Synthesis 

8. Matthew Eriksen, Wanda V. Chaves, Angela Hope & Sanjiv S. Dugal - 

Creating a Community of Critically Reflexive Feminist Scholars 

p. 5 

p. 8 

p. 116 

p. 132 

p. 145 

p. 166 

p. 184 

p. 209 

p. 222

TAMARA BOARD ROOM 

Founding Editor David Boje 

New Mexico State University, dboje@nmsu.edu 

Co-Editor Heather Höpfl 

University of Essex, hopfl@essex.ac.uk 

Associate Editor Yue Cai-Hillon 

University of Central Oklahoma, ycaihillon@ucok.edu 

US Editorial Assistant Claudia Gomez, cgomez@nmsu.edu 

UK Editorial Assistant Sumohon Matilal 

University of Essex, smatil@essex.ac.uk 

Production Editor David Boje 

EDITORIAL BOARD 

Mats Alvesson - Lund University, Sweden 

Marta P. Baltodano - Loyola Marymount 

University, U.S. 

James R. Barker - University of Waikato, 

New Zealand 

Daved Barry -Universidade Nova De Lisboa 

Portugal 

Edwardo Berrerra - University of Texas at 

El Paso, U.S. 

Nic Beech - University of Strathclyde, UK 

Carole Brooke - University of Lincoln, UK 

George Cairns - University of Strathclyde, 

UK 

Adrian Carr - University of Western Sydney, 

Australia 

Victoria Louise Carty - James Madison 

University, VA, U.S. 

John Child - University of Birmingham, U.S. 

David Collins - Essex University, UK 

Jacques-Henri - Université Lumière Lyon 2, 

France Coste 

Julie R. Wolfram Cox - Monash University, 

Australia 

Alexis Downs - Emporia State University, KS 

Michaela Driver - East Tennessee State 

University, U.S. 

Norman Fairclough - Lancaster University, 

UK 

Susanne Margaret Fest - Antioch 

University McGregor, OH 

Dale Fitzgibbons - Illinois State University, 

U.S. 

Martin Fuglsang, - Copenhagen University, 

DK 

Steve Fuller - University of Warwick, UK 

Herman Garcia - New Mexico State 

University U.S. 

Carolyn Gardner - Kutztown University , 

U.S. 

Robert Gephart Jr. - University of Alberta, 

Canada 

David Grant - The University of Sydney, 

Australia 

Peter Hancock - Edith Cown University, 

Australia 

Hans Hansen - Texas Tech University, U.S. 

John S. Hassard - University of Manchester 

Institute of Science and Technology, UK 

3

Mary Jo Hatch - University of Virginia, U.S. 

Heather Hopfl - University of Essex, UK 

Keith Hoskins - Warwick Business School, 

U.K. 

Arzu Iseri - Bogazici University, Turkey 

Andrew Devi Jankowicz - Luton Business 

School, UK 

John Jermier - University of South Florida, 

U.S. 

Campbell Jones - University of Leicester, 

UK 

Jannis Kallinikos - London School of 

Economics, U.K. 

Douglas Kellner - University of California at 

Los Angelas, U.S. 

Linzi Kemp - State University of New York, 

U.S. 

Ole Fogh Kirkeby - Copenhagen University, 

DK 

David Knights - Keele University, UK 

Monika Kostera - Växjö University, Sweden 

Eric Kramer - University of Oklahoma, U.S. 

Nimisha Ladva - Bryn Mawr College, U.S. 

Hugo Letiche - University of Humanist 

Studies, The Netherlands 

Cheryl Ann Lapp, Labyrinth Consulting, 

Canada 

Stephen Linstead - York University, UK 

John Teta Luhman - University of New 

England, U.S. 

Slawek Magala - Erasmus. University, The 

Netherlands 

Albert J. Mills - Saint Mary's University, 

Canada 

Cliff Oswick - University of Leicester , UK 

Martin Parker - Leister, U.K. 

Nelson Phillips - Imperial College London , 

UK 

Anshuman Prasad - University of New 

Haven, U.S. 

Pushkala Prasad - Skidmore College, U.S. 

Marc Pruyn - New Mexico State University 

Kurt Richardson - Institute of the Study of 

Coherent Emergence, U.S 

Jim Scheurich - Texas Tech University, U.S. 

Steven S. Taylor - Worcester Polytechnic 

Institute, U.S. 

Torkild Thanem - Stockholm University, 

Sweden 

Tony Tinker - The City University of New 

York, U.S. 

Peter Trim - Birkbeck College, UK 

Jo Tyler - Pennsylvania State, U.S. 

Lisa A. Zanetti - University of Missouri- 

Columbia, U.S. 

TAMARA JOURNAL for Critical Organization Inquiry (formerly Tamara Journal of 

Critical Postmodern Science) is a publication of 

TAMARALAND PUBLICATIONS. 

TJ is sponsored by 

sc’MOI (Standing conference for Management and Organizational Inquriy). 

Please see on line Tamara Journal calls and issues at http://tamarajournal.com 

Please join many of the authors and editorial board of Tamara Journal at sc’MOI’s annual event 

http://scmoi.org 

4

Guest editorial 6.3 

Introduction to Special Guest Issue: 

Trandisciplinarity and Organizational change 

Ocler Rodolphe 

Groupe ESC Chambery, France 

ABSTRACT 

This special number of Tamara presents paper on transdisciplinarity and organizational change, 

deriving sense from a mix of approaches. The articles go from experimental pieces to case 

study. It is worth noticing that for the first time this edition is bilingual. 

"As the prefix 'trans' indicates, 

transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at 

once between the disciplines, across the 

different disciplines, and beyond each 

individual discipline. Its goal is the 

understanding of the present world, of which 

one of the imperatives is the overarching 

unity of knowledge." Basarab Nicolescu 

Corporations and organizations are 

intricate social structures that, over time, go 

through various evolutionary cycles. 

Because these organizational systems 

are adapting continually to internal and 

external pressures as part of a traditional 

plasticity process, they frequently 

metamorphose to such an extent that their 

very structures, organization, outlook and 

core principles are affected. 

The sole approach to understanding 

and analyzing this metamorphosis is through 

the mobilization of multiple types of 

knowledge to interpret and combine various 

levels of realities. Such a deductive process 

can only be analysed in depth from a 

transdisciplinary perspective. 

Pluridisciplinarity, defined as the 

simultaneous analysis of a given subject in a 

particular sphere by experts from multiple 

fields, may of course highlight the various and 

fragmented components of a complex social 

phenomenon. The transdisciplinary approach 

goes beyond this mosaic, however, since it 

Vol 6 issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

aims at delineating a coherent perception of 

the world. In other words, transdisciplinarity 

is concerned with the dynamics of various 

levels of reality, taking into account the flow 

of information from one branch of knowledge 

to another and supporting disclosure of unity 

in diversity and, in turn, diversity generated 

by unity. Applied to organizational 

metamorphosis in the intent of generating 

genuine dialogue between experts from 

various fields, this approach targets unveiling 

the underlying - and frequently hidden - 

meaning of a social transformation process. 

The articles: 

Jack Appleton asserts that eclectism 

facilitates the analysis of organizational 

evolution building upon positive psychology 

and discourse analysis 

Helène Fine explores the concept of 

transdisciplinarity, seeing it more as a useful 

framework than as a distinctly different 

research approach. 

Laurent Cappelleti, Miguel Delattre and 

Florence Noguera mix qualitative and 

quantitative approach within Socio-Economic 

Approach to management to identify the 

impact of management control 

Christophe Assens and Alessandro 

Baroncelli analyse the organizational layers 

within Vivendi and use the concept of 

network to develop their analysis 

5

Florian Sala provides us with thoughts 

on human resource management and the 

need to develop transdisciplinarity within the 

academic world 

Richard Delaye, Marie Peretti and 

Patrice Terramorsi analyse corporate 

responsibility via religious beliefs based on 

social responsibility 

Rodolphe Ocler calls upon metaphors 

to provide a deeper understanding of strategy 

mixing martial arts with corporate life. 

It is no wonder that the first bilingual 

publication of Tamara targets these topics. 

While management sciences developed itself 

and aimed at refining specific tools with subsection 

of management (marketing, finance 

and so on), global vision as developed during 

“le siècle des Lumières” tends to disappear. 

As this issue of TAMARA goes deeper 

into the link between different sciences fields, 

a major picture tends to arise, as 

sensemaking should not be derived from a 

single lens. 

La transdisciplinarité concerne, 

comme le préfixe « trans » l'indique, ce qui est 

à la fois entre les disciplines, à travers les 

différentes disciplines et au-delà de toute 

discipline. Sa finalité est la compréhension du 

monde présent, dont un des impératifs est 

l'unité de la connaissance » Basarab 

Nicolescu 

Les entreprises et les organisations 

sont des objets sociaux complexes qui, au 

cours du temps, connaissent de nombreuses 

évolutions. En s'adaptant à des pressions tant 

internes qu'externes, et conformément au 

déroulement classique d'un processus de 

plasticité, ces systèmes organisationnels 

subissent un ensemble de métamorphoses 

pouvant affecter la structure, l'organisation, le 

discours, la symbolique même… de 

l'organisation. 

Ces métamorphoses ne peuvent être 

comprises et analysées que grâce à la 

Ocler 

mobilisation de différents types de savoirs, 

interprétant et combinant divers niveaux de 

réalités. Seule une observation réalisée à 

travers le prisme d'une analyse 

transdisciplinaire permet d'approfondir ce 

type de lecture. 

La pluridisciplinarité, analyse d'un objet 

d'une seule et même discipline par plusieurs 

disciplines à la fois, peut certes mettre en 

lumière des facettes différentes et 

fragmentées de la complexité d'un 

phénomène social. Mais, au- delà de cette 

représentation en mosaïque, l'approche 

transdisciplinaire a pour ambition de saisir une 

vision cohérente du monde. Autrement dit, la 

transdisciplinarité s'intéresse à la dynamique 

engendrée par plusieurs niveaux de réalité et 

prend en compte les conséquences d'un flux 

d'information circulant d'une branche de la 

connaissance à une autre, favorisant la 

révélation de l'unité dans la diversité et de la 

diversité par l'unité. Appliquée aux 

métamorphoses organisationnelles, et en 

suscitant l'émergence d'un véritable dialogue 

entre les spécialistes des différentes 

branches de la connaissance, cette 

démarche vise à découvrir le sens profond et 

souvent caché d'un processus social de 

transformation. 

Les articles 

Jack Appleton nous propose d'analyser 

l'impact d'une approche éclectique se basant 

principalement sur la psychologie positive et 

l'analyse de discours 

Helène Fine explore le concept de 

transdisciplinarité, proposant de le voir plus 

comme un cadre d'analyse que comme une 

méthodologie spécifique 

Laurent Cappelleti, Miguel Delattre et 

Florence Noguera mixent des approches 

qualitatives et quantitatives, développant à 

l'intérieur de l'analyse socio-économique une 

méthodologie pour identifier les effets du 

contrôle managérial. 

6 

Christophe Assens et Alessandro

Baroncelli analysent les différents niveaux 

organisationnels de Vivendi se basant sur la 

théories des réseaux 

Forian Sala propose de réfléchir à 

l'impact de la transdisciplinarité dans le monde 

académique, plus particulièrement lors de la 

mise en place de cursus en ressources 

humaines 

Richard Delaye, Marie Peretti et Patrice 

Terramorsi analyse le concept de 

responsabilité socialeàa travers le prisme des 

diversités confessionnelles 

Rodolphe Ocler se base sur les 

transferts métaphoriques afin de développer 

une analyse de la notion de stratégie se 

basant sur les arts martiaux 

About the Guest Editor: 

Rodolphe Ocler is head of the strategy and 

entrepreneurship department at the Ecole 

Supérieure de Commerce de Chambery, 

France. Dr Ocler's major area of research 

interest is discourse analysis and its 

implications for organizational implication. 

Dr Ocler's PhD was on proactive strategy. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.1 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Il ne semble pas étonnant que le premier 

numéro bilingue de TAMARA se centre sur 

cette problématique. Alors que le 

développement de la connaissance en 

management se base principalement sur le 

raffinement d'outils provenant de sub-division 

du monde managérial (marketing, finance..), 

les visions plus globales, héritières du Siècle 

des Lumières ont tendance à disparaître. 

Alors que les articles de ce numéro 

spécial s'enchaînent et examinent les liens 

entre les différents champs de la 

connaissance, une vision globale tend à se 

dessiner, la recherche de sens ne pouvant 

provenir d'une approche entièrement normée 

n'ayant qu'une optique. 

He has published in a range of international 

journals on topics including social 

responsibility, qualitative approach and 

discourse analysis. He is currently guest 

editor for a book on semantic and 

organisation to be published in the second 

semester of 2008. 

7

Eclectism Facilitates the Analysis of Organizational 

Evolution 

Jack Appleton 

University of Malaysia Sabah (Borneo) 

Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Taiwan 

ABSTRACT 

Organizational evolution is presented in lieu of the concept of change, revolution, revitalization, 

etc. in that one can assert that organizations can only evolve, they cannot develop a new 

structure and paradigm from nonexistent precursors, elements, structures, etc. One year is 

action science based with the executives diving off of logs into the arms of their vice presidents, 

the next is playing games and doing puzzles to determine the company's cognitive centre, more 

recently its not been about expressing feelings and defenses, or understanding perception, but 

about being appreciated. In short, all of these evangelically based approaches which view an 

organization through a single lens fail 

The term organizational evolution is 

presented in lieu of the concept of change, 

revolution, revitalization, etc. in that one can 

assert that organizations can only evolve, 

they cannot develop a new structure and 

paradigm from nonexistent precursors, 

elements, structures, etc. Such 

metamorphosis can appear to be 

revolutionary, extreme, etc. nonetheless it 

can be asserted that such conclusions are a 

matter of vantage point, or wishful thinking, 

and not the result of something new from 

nothing in the old. In essence, organizational 

transformation can be viewed as the 

emergence of motifs and milieus that were 

latent and not expressed. Such 

transformation can be facilitated 

evangelically. In fact such facilitations are 

common as the facilitation fad changes from 

one technique to another. One year is action 

science based with the executives diving off 

of logs into the arms of their vice presidents, 

the next is playing games and doing puzzles 

to determine the company's cognitive centre, 

more recently its not been about expressing 

feelings and defenses, or understanding 

perception, but about being appreciated. In 

short, all of these evangelically based 

approaches which view an organization 

through a single lens fail. 

They fail not so much for reasons 

Appleton 

known, or their own short-comings or flawed 

application, although all of the above does 

happen, but because organizations are 

essentially narrowly defined and well 

bounded communities nested within a larger 

communal environment. In short, they are the 

privy of multiple disciplines within the social 

sciences., They are not suitable for analysis 

through a single lens. As such only an 

eclectic analysis can provide enough 

information for the development of a 

successful change. An analysis that not only 

involves various approaches to knowledge, 

but also one that connects the various layers 

of analysis from the top layer of espoused 

action to the macro environment which forms 

the foundation the organization rests upon. 

Eclectically harvested via a multidiscipline 

approach yields layered information that can 

be woven into a coherent image of the 

organization. 

Utilizing an eclectic approach lessens 

the importance of where one starts an 

analysis of an organization. It is important to 

follow a systematic rubric that lends itself to 

incorporating an iterative process of multiple 

analysises which will eventually be 

connected and layered to form not only a rich 

and accurate understanding of the 

organization, but a clear evolutionary path 

down which the organization can travel to 

8

increase its positive fit within its niche. One 

also has to keep in mind that with such 

research conditions a history develops as the 

iterative process take place over time and 

thus takes on a history and an interaction 

with the subject entity all of which has to 

accounted for, and incorporated into the final 

analytical framework. The tapestry that is 

developed is not a snap shot of the 

organization from which a path for positive 

change is determined, but a multidimensional 

thick image with strands and threads tight and 

loose, coherent and divergent, strong and 

weak all running in many directions. 

Successful organizational study and 

change requires an entry point from which 

positive results can be obtained. The 

organization's sense of threat, the 

researcher's sense of risk, and all issues 

associated with field work need to be 

considered prior to engaging the organization 

and the work itself. Positive Psychology 

coupled with Appreciative Inquiry are 

excellent places to start and proposed here 

as a means of entry with the organization. 

These results are subsequently woven 

together with more rigorous forms of 

linguistic, structural, and economic analysis 

which follow the initial effort and analysis. 

Starting with Positive Psychology as the 

first layer of analysis is a good launch point 

and means of entry. Few organizations will 

strongly resist exposure to positive 

psychology. The aim of Positive psychology 

is to begin to catalyze a change by building on 

preexisting positive qualities. Traits that 

contribute to positive psychology tend to tend 

to fall into four categories: subjective wellbeing, 

optimism, happiness, and selfdetermination; 

subjective well being refers to 

what we think and how we feel about our 

lives; optimism mediates between external 

events and a person's interpretation of them; 

self-determination focuses on competence, 

sense of belonging, and autonomy. Positive 

psychology concedes that no man is an 

island and that such positive experiences are 

embedded in a social structure, thus 

community and institutions, etc. must be taken 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

into account as shall be shown later. 

(Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) 

Positive psychology's methodology, in 

an organizational context, consists of 

interviews and non-therapeutic focus groups. 

The need to develop an interview regimen 

delivers the discussion to Appreciative Inquiry 

(AI). AI's methodology lends itself well to 

narrowly defined interviews which reflect the 

sentiments of positive psychology as well as 

both paired interview settings and group 

settings. It is simultaneously a method of 

action research and an agent of change. 

Appreciative Inquiry begins with the 

idea that conversations are socially 

constructed, or in other words the question 

defines the situation and by asking different 

and positive questions one can change the 

reality of the organization. AI is a question 

and answer a process. The answers are 

then thematically data mined by the 

participants to build a new social reality for 

an organization. The process builds upon the 

strengths expressed thematically in the data 

that emerged from the answers. The 

implementation of the themes then becomes 

the basis of the change process. In some 

sense it is applied positive psychology with 

faith in the ability to intentionally socially 

construct a new organizational reality. 

AI's strength is its ability to create a 

buy-in for the participants, its an iterative 

process so that the data becomes both 

strengthened, bought into, nuanced as it 

emerges through the AI process. It also has 

the added advantage of facilitating quick 

implementation as the buy-in does not have to 

transmitted being, ideally, everyone in the 

organization is a participant. In some sense 

the implementation initiates before the AI 

process comes to a closure. AI leads to a 

reorganization as the organization's reality is 

reconstructed, its past, present, and future 

are reframed, the organization not only 

emerges with new initiatives, processes, 

policies, procedures, and structure, but with 

a new definition of itself and its environment. 

It is a transformational process, perhaps 

9

evolutionary, but it can be clearly argued that 

its evolutionary in that all of the elements of 

the new organization and its new reality 

emerged from the answers to the questions 

and where in essence latent characteristics 

within the organization. The organization in a 

sense changes to adapt to what it perceives 

as its new niche in its new environment. All 

of the abilities and pieces where there but not 

expressed. 

AI takes the social construction of the 

company and through the interview and 

thematic selection and discussion process 

isolates aspects of the company's reality and 

then focuses on expanding those aspects of 

the company through a discussion process. 

Through this public vetting the selected 

positive elements of the entity are 

emphasized and expanded, and become the 

foundation of new social reality of the 

company. 

In short a new story is constructed and 

because it is a new story and because it is 

public there is an auto-buy-in process which, 

according to AI and Positive Psychology this 

new construction with its positive base, 

renders the company's previous internal 

issues, defensive routines, miscalculations, 

and structurally dysfunctional routines moot. 

As a new socially constructed reality 

emerges from the AI process, and now 

positive psychology based understanding of 

the company's new reality all previous issues 

have simply become latent qualities and part 

of the company's past history. Nice 

transformation: all of the company's 

dysfunctional routines changed, all of its 

defensive mechanisms short circuited, and 

the wind only at their backs as they move out 

to claim their new destiny. Their new socially 

constructed reality is so positive and the buyin 

so complete and their new tasks and 

attitudes and the now positive values which 

are emphasized so embedded that only a 

positive future and organization lay ahead. All 

of this accomplished without any change in 

the personnel at the top of the organization, 

as for changes in the rest of the organization 

well they are result of the positive AI 

Appleton 

process, have been bought into, and so the 

chips fell where they had too. So with such 

beauty one can stop their iterative 

investigation of the organization, and simply 

presume that all is well and what one sees is 

what one gets, after all everything was 

positive, public, the participants have been 

appreciated and those now emphasized 

appreciated elements are the new core of the 

entity. 

Everything is solved-- except for one 

little detail which requires further 

investigation. Earlier it was noted that 

organizational transformation can be viewed 

as the emergence of motifs and milieus that 

were latent and not expressed. It was also 

noted that organizations were presented as 

narrowly defined and well bounded 

communities nested within a larger communal 

environment. Furthermore it was suggested 

that they are the privy of multiple disciplines 

primarily Anthropology and Economics, but 

what they are not is an entity suitable for 

analysis through a single lens. It was 

asserted earlier that only an eclectic analysis 

can provide enough information for the 

development of a successful change. So the 

inherent problems which were not 

addressed, because they could not be 

addressed via the single lens of positive 

psychology and its application via 

appreciative inquiry, did not go away. They 

will latently fester until the newly socially 

constructed entity becomes dysfunctional 

once again-- which it will. This is especially 

true if it views itself once again as a single 

entity with a single story and a single 

narrative as its self-defining mechanism. 

This is a fundamental truth because the 

organization exists in a multifactited and 

multimotifed environment. It does not exist as 

a single unified environment. The entity is part 

of a dynamic where competing motifs, cultural 

milieus (especially in heterogeneous societies 

such as the United States, Europe, China, 

Latin America) and multiple social structures 

constantly interact with the organization and 

from time to time render its single lens story 

dysfunctional. Over time its ability to function 

10

is debilitated as its new singled lens positive 

framework, even a dynamic one, is founded 

on a new single narrative and therefore has a 

limited range of adaptive responses and a 

relatively narrow range of dynamic solutions 

to the problems that arise as its new 

construction interacts with the world. So to 

be succinct, if the transformative process 

and analysis stop where AI concludes what 

has been accomplished is one set of 

problems has been traded for a new and yet 

unknown set of future problems because one 

story alone cannot encompass the entire 

environment. 

Thus one is left with no option other 

than to continue with another layer of 

analysis of the organization, which now 

includes a touch of history as well, but 

stories can accommodate history as stories 

can have a beginning a middle and an end. 

The immediate issue for the analyst that is left 

is how to balance the single-lens focused 

view of the new social reality that has 

emerged within the target organization with 

the view that its environment is multifaceted, 

and by extension the organization is as well 

regardless of its current self-image. 

Two immediate solutions come to mind, 

and being studying organizations is inherently 

interesting and a multilayered activity one 

should proceed with both solutions. The first 

is to continue the study of the target entity 

from the perspective of antenarrative. The 

second, which shall be discussed in more 

detail later, is to proceed with a multistructural 

analysis. The answer is to do both. 

Antenarrative is way to look at an entity 

where the emerged narrative is explaining the 

past by adding Goffmanian frame, plot and 

coherence to what was a reality that may or 

may not have had either. It renders a story 

that is told to be a constructed representation 

of a reality, a coherent history with its 

coherence imposed. It shows the story of 

the company to be an imposed reality (which 

then requires one to study the process of that 

imposition). The concept captures well the 

same concept that is the reality of a classical 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

music composer just prior to notating his 

music. The music is in his head, its emerging 

as its being formed at the same time its exists, 

its correcting itself, it lacks coherence and 

structure, but its there formed and being 

formed-- existing yet not yet written down for 

others to interpret. It mirrors society as motifs 

rise and fall, change and reemerge with 

strength and consistency, and are 

interwoven to create a fabric which forms a 

multifaceted milieu which is instinctively 

referred to as society, culture, etc. 

Organizations within such a universe 

are microcosms mirroring while contributing, 

complementing while interacting and changing 

the environment which both sustains them 

and to which they contribute and form 

structure. Antenarrative reveals the stark 

reality that a single narrative with coherent 

themes and support in does not exist, but in 

fact an organization is a constructed 

tapestry with multiple motifs, themes, which 

both reflect and create multiple realities within 

the single organization. 

Antenarrative is apperceptive as it pays 

attention to the speculative, the ambiguity of 

sense making and is willing to approximate a 

description of what is happening within the 

flow of experience. One should note that 

while sense making is often connected to 

Weick, Dervin, and Klein in order to approach 

the concept with appropriate depth it should 

be dealt with from the more complex and 

motivational perspective of Murry, Morgan, 

and Shneidman. (Shneidman, E. 1987). Weick, 

et. al. look at sense making in the more 

narrow understanding of discourse and 

social construction. Murry, et. al see 

apperception as the formation of 

understanding as an interplay between an 

individual's inner psychology and the 

ambiguous external environment which, by 

definition, cannot communicate a complete 

and coherent picture of the environment to 

any given individual hence one has to "make 

sense" of his world and does so through his 

own psychological mechanisms. Thus when 

individuals are presented with a sufficiently 

ambiguous situation their explanation, what 

11

Boje would refer to as their narrative story, 

reveals more about the actor than the reality 

of the environment. 

Antenarrative theory mitigates this 

distortion by acknowledging that stories, 

narrative, explanations, etc. all emerge from 

something that is undefined, but exists prior to 

their being formed. Boje tells us that 

antenarrative "directs our attention to the flow 

of the storytelling . . . antenarrative is an 

experience of storytelling life with 

abbreviated and interrupted story 

performances that yield plurivocality." (Boje, 

2001). Antenarrative captures the flow of 

experience, as does apperception which 

acknowledges and strives to gain 

understanding and insight into the process of 

narrative formation within the individual. 

Antenarrative operates at the level of the 

collective prior to explanation being reified. It 

celebrates the diversity, complexity, and 

ambiguity of the dynamic process of the 

creation of a story which then forms the 

socially constructed reality of an entity by in 

essence drowning out the other voices. Much 

in the same way that a great symphony ends 

with a single unified melody, structure, 

harmony, etc. When well done the now 

unified orchestra produces music which 

appears to have been the inevitable result of 

the early motifs woven into the fabric of the 

music and expressed and interpreted by the 

orchestra . In short there appears to have 

been no emergent process of social 

construction, only a single preordained 

emergent inevitable truth. Antenarrative 

theory unravels the process destroying the 

myth of unity and inevitability. 

Antenarrative theory, while Boje is not a 

linguist, rests on modern linguistic theory, 

specifically discourse analysis. Social 

Construction theory while developed within 

the field of Sociology by Burger and Luckman 

also rests on linguistics. So, this leads one to 

another layer of analysis that is necessary 

within the study of an organization, discourse 

analysis. At this point it also allows one to 

increase the reliability and validity of any 

explanations, data, etc. that one has as AI, 

Appleton 

Positive Psychology, and antenarrative are all 

laid over a foundation of discourse theory. 

Discourse analysis begins with a 

systematic collection of conversations among 

the participants within a given community-- in 

this case an organization. These are then 

analyzed, and followed up with interviews 

which focus on the general question of "what 

were you thinking when you said." The goal 

is to do develop a discourse model of the 

shared understanding of meaning within the 

community of speakers-- the organization. 

This shared meaning forms the basis of the 

socially constructed reality as meaning and 

definition are emergent phenomena which 

result from discourse among the community 

of speakers. In other words meaning, what 

one said, is a result of a social process. 

Meaning is created by the framing of the 

conversations as Goffman suggests and 

does not depend on place and time, but 

depends on definition and community 

boundary. It is also created by what Mead 

and Cooley refer to as the I-Self, or Buber 

termed the I thou. For the purpose of 

organization or community studies the 

self/thou does not have to be an single 

individual. It fact it can and is often presented 

as a separate and non-human entity as in "the 

company's response is, or the company's 

policy is." In such cases the company has 

been reified and elevated to the level of an 

agent. The real reason for this, of course, is 

so that the individuals involved can hide 

behind the social construction known as the 

organization to avoid individual responsibility 

for individual acts. For a better understand of 

the phenomena of rules and their lives one 

can turn to Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. 

The primary advantage for the 

researcher to, at this point, turn to discourse 

analysis is that all of the necessary data has 

been, or should have been, collected. In the 

course of conducting the AI, and subsequent 

follow-up the researcher should have 

sufficient transcripts of conversations to 

conduct a discourse analysis on the material 

already gathered. While eliminating work: the 

work of gathering more data, utilizing pre- 

12

existing data from earlier transcripts. One 

negative aspect of this is that it also 

eliminates a methodological check on the 

validity and reliability of the early collected 

conversations. So in some sense, at this point 

without going back to the organization and 

collecting another set of original data 

whatever methodological problems exist 

within the available data set with be 

magnified. 

Discourse analysis concerns itself with 

how language is involved in social practice, 

meaning, the interaction between and within 

text (in this case transcripts of verbal 

conversations), and the representations (and 

thus the creation of meaning) of social 

events. I am making a distinction between 

Titscher's conversational analysis and 

general discourse analysis which is more in 

line and more accessible to Social Theory and 

its analytical tools. General conversational 

analysis will not significantly advance our 

portrait of an organization while discourse 

analysis will deepen and act as confirming 

tool of the layered work already 

accomplished above. Social discourse does 

not necessarily change the reality or even 

reconstruct it with every conversation and 

text produced, sometimes it is merely a 

reflection and/or an acknowledgement of an 

earlier reified social construction, in short an 

affirmation of what exists. 

As such discourse analysis will assist 

the researcher in the identification of those 

aspects of interaction which cause an 

organization to evolve, to be dysfunctional, to 

resist evolution, etc. Such analysis highlights 

the effect of ideology. As textual information 

(verbal and written) propagate it can 

inculcate, sustain, or change dominate 

ideology (Norm, 2003). In short what words 

we use matter as to how what we are 

discussing is envisioned within the 

community. Thus, as an organization engages 

in a discussion of itself latent themes can 

emerge which are then defined as being 

better able to have a positive influence on the 

organization's future than the current, now 

fading discourse which has defined and 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

sustained the organization in the past. By 

adding a discourse analysis to the above one 

can clarify and temper aspects of the 

analysis formed up to this point. It still does 

not place the organization within its larger 

Macro environmental context, in order to add 

that to the analysis of an organization one 

has to turn to a structural approach within 

Anthropology. 

Structural analysis has a long tradition 

in the Social Sciences. At one time it was 

considered the way to conduct proper 

Sociology, and Anthropology. Hence some 

clarification is in order. A Parsonian analysis 

is absolutely not what is being referred to 

within this discussion. While the concept of 

latent structures is one of the key features of 

Talcott Parson's work and the term is being 

used here, its use is more in line with 

Biological Adaptive Theory in the sense that 

an entity has unexpressed qualities that might 

not only become expressed or become 

essential within a different environmental 

context. Structural analysis is being used 

here more in line with Claude Lévi-Strauss, 

Clifford Geertz, and Gregory Batson. 

Structural in the sense that there are created 

social structures that form the underlying 

lattice work of the organization. That 

understanding these is an interpretive act, 

and that multiple and in fact contradicting 

structures can exist simultaneously and can 

be seen from multiple points of view. These 

structures can be explicit as in formal, as well 

as informal, and the degree of the awareness 

of them by the participants themselves varies 

within a given community. Strauss 

demonstrates that within a given community 

multiple structures, explanations, and 

meanings, exist commingled within the same 

community. The elite of the community may 

share one view while the common members 

of the exact same community share a 

completely different understanding and set of 

explanations, both are equally valid and can 

be utilized for both their explanatory strength 

and their predictive power. Batson explains 

how the same behavior can have multiple 

meanings, be seen from multiple points of 

view and all them are neither mutually 

13

exclusive, contradictory, exclusionary of 

each other, nor are they invalid from each of 

the other points of view (Lévi-Strauss,1963, 

Clifford Geertz, 2000, 

Gregory Batson, 1958) 

When analyzing an organization, 

especially from a linguistic or related or 

language based point of view it is important to 

create a cradle for the analysis so that it can 

be contextualized. Structural theory within 

Anthropology provides such a lattice cradle 

onto which all of the above can be attached 

and connected to more macro based 

phenomena. While it can be debated that the 

result of the analysis at this stage will be a 

connection to grand theory, once a structural 

sense of the organization has been 

developed-- and it can emerge out of the 

discourse analysis or from a fresh foray into 

the organization, the entire study can be set 

within one of the grand approaches. For the 

above approaches the greatest internal 

consistency will be achieved by tempering 

the above layers of understanding with a 

Neo-Marxist approach. 

By doing so one will arrive at a holistic 

representation of the dynamics of the 

changing motifs and the interplay of their 

competing and changing intensity as a means 

of describing the dynamics of an 

organization's evolution into a new form. A 

Neo-Marxist approach lends itself to 

integration with language and social 

construction based analysis more easily than 

other grand theories. Furthermore, Neo- 

Marxist theory provides the actors a 

motivational explanation for their sense of 

agency and for the details of their discourse 

and view of the organization. It gives the 

analysis a predictive ability which can be 

tested, is there evidence of exploitation 

among various subcommunities, are there 

consistent differences in points of view, ingroup/out-group 

language barriers, where to 

look for Batsonian predictions of multiple 

structures, lines of connection, etc. Are 

gender issues, economic self-interest issues 

played out within the organization and 

expressed in various stories and discourse 

Appleton 

patterns or AI themes. None of the other 

approaches above address either the 

question of motivation or provide one with 

predictive ability. One could argue that 

positive psychology/appreciative inquiry give 

a researcher some predictive ability, but to 

say that participants do something because 

its rewarded and makes them feel good is 

shallow at best and more useless than 

useful. The more rigorous linguistic analysis 

may indeed have greater scientific strength 

from a methodological point of view and allow 

for less pontification based on a philosophical 

starting point (such as Neo-Marxism), but 

such analysis does not rise above the micro 

level of theory even when stretched to be 

applied to groups of speakers and 

communities. Discourse approaches, even 

when done well, and accurately cannot 

explain motivation or agency among the 

participants, they only deal with their 

expression and the emergence of 

expression. It can only provide proof and 

evidence for further analysis with a different 

framework. Structural theory clarifies the 

macro dynamics, context, and flow thus 

approaching Neo-Marxism in its provisioning 

of motivation and agency, but does not 

provide an explanation of why people are 

involved in a specific dynamic and why there 

are attached to the structural lattice where 

they are, only that they are in fact part of the 

community. Non-Marxist structural 

approaches may document the political life of 

an organization, but they cannot explain it. 

Neo-Marxist based structural approaches fill 

the final gap in the study of the organization, 

and provide not only the participants of the 

community motivation and place, but the 

organization motivation and place with its 

community as well. 

When one wants to delve into 

organizational studies no single lens is wide 

enough, rich enough, or detailed enough to 

provide a complete picture of the organization 

only a collage of images taken from different 

points view can sustain an accurate 

understanding of an organization. 

References 

14

Batson Gregory. 1958. Naven: A Survey of 

the Problems suggested by a Composite 

Picture of the Culture of a New Guinea Tribe 

drawn from Three Points of View. Stanford 

University Press. Palo Alto 

Boje, David. 2001. Narrative Methods for 

Organizational & Communication Research. 

Sage. Thousand Oaks. 

Geertz Clifford. 2000. Interpretation of 

Cultures. Basic Books. New York 

Lévi-Strauss Claude. 1963. Structural 

Anthropology. Basic Books. New York 

Norm Fairclough. 2003. Analysing Discourse: 

Jack Appleton is at University of Malaysia 

Sabah (Borneo) 

Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation 

Research Fellow 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Textual Analysis for Social Research. 

Routledge. London 

Seligman, Martin E. P. and Mihaly 

Csikszentmihalyi. January 2000. Positive 

Psychology An Introduction. American 

Psychologist. American Psychological 

Association. lnc. Voh 55. No. 1. 5 14. 

http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/ppintroarticle. 

pdf(available from author) 

Shneidman, E. personal communication, 

UCLA, 1987. 

His background is in Anthropology and 

Economics, has been teaching at 

Universities in Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia 

Since 1982; is currently 

working on a book about Research Methods 

in Sustainable Development 

Research. 

15

Transdisciplinarity: Trying to Cross Boundaries 

Helène S. Fine 

Bridgewater State College 

Bridgewate, MA, U.S. 

ABSTRACT 

This paper explores the concept of transdisciplinarity, seeing it more as a useful 

framework than as a distinctly different research approach. As such it can help professionals 

from a full range of fields and people from all walks of life work together across the boundaries 

that normally separate them. The boundaries between the sciences and other fields are of the 

most concern. Because off this, transdisciplinarity is often equated to Mode 2 Science; i.e., 

science that engages with humans to solve problems together out in the world. A major concern 

here is with the strength of prevailing beliefs about the value of expertise and the importance of 

the specialized division of labor. These are viewed as important tools in the struggle to control 

one's own work. Of equal concern is the opposite danger that the topic will reify and become 

just one more academic discipline. Personal examples as well as an analysis of the literature on 

industrial sociology, the sociology of occupations and professions as well as that on 

transdisciplinarity itself are presented in this exploration 

INTRODUCTION 

The concept of transdisciplinarity has 

surfaced in a number of different knowledge 

generating channels and in a range of 

geographic regions (Chan et al. 2006; 

Nowotny, 2003; MacMynowski, 2007.) While 

there are different thoughts about the 

concept's meaning and effectiveness, there 

is substantial agreement on its appeal. It 

would be hard to resist an approach to 

solving human problems that brings us 

together across the boundaries of academic 

disciplines, occupations and professions, or 

even across different social strata. At the 

same time it is not entirely clear that any 

concept, even one as appealing as 

transdisciplinarity, can really enable us to 

transcend our individual differences and 

enable us to identify, let alone correct, the 

problems that we face together as human 

beings (Zierhofer and Burger, 2007). Within 

the literature there is even some question of 

whether transdisciplinarity is a specific mode 

of knowledge production (Zierhofer and 

Burger, 2007). What is clear is that it 

expresses a longing for a lost world - one 

where people of all walks of life can live, 

work, and play together (Nowotny, 2003; 

Steinmetz, 2007; Chan et al. 2006). 

Fine 

As someone who has worked across 

economic, social, environmental, and political 

boundaries to bring about change at a 

regional level while incorporating these 

experiences as the content for academic 

work in a school of business, 

transdisciplinarity, however we define it, is 

most welcome. At the same time, my 

immersion in organizational change efforts as 

well as in the study of that change makes me 

all too cognizant of the inherent difficulty of 

challenging the mainstream tendency to 

compartmentalize information, knowledge and 

experience. Quite to the contrary, people 

seem to be quite ready to abide by t h e 

cultural norm of placing a high value on 

specialization and expertise. They are all too 

willing to engage in the process of 

establishing themselves as experts while also 

conferring expertise on others. At the other 

extreme I share the worry of some that 

transdisciplinarity will itself become yet 

another stand-alone discipline (Nowotny, 

2003). This would contradict the spirit of the 

construct, which implies a repeated tearing 

down of the boundaries that separate 

existing disciplines, coupled with a 

continuous generation of new modes of 

thinking. Moving between my two concerns 

of the practicality of achieving 

16

transdisciplinarity in this culture, on the one 

hand, and the tendency toward reifying and 

ossifying it, on the other, I can nevertheless 

embrace transdisciplinarity as an excellent 

framework with which to explore and resolve 

complex issues. Without worrying overly 

much about its exact nature or about whether 

it represents a fleeting mode of analysis, a 

process, or just a different way of thinking I 

will explore its meaning further and, mainly, 

try to determine just how workable a concept 

transdisciplinarity is. 

Overview 

This paper will begin with some 

examples from the transdisciplinarity 

literature. It will then turn to some early 

literature on industrial sociology, drawing 

from this some social constructs that favor 

the acquisition of specialized knowledge and 

expertise, particularly technical expertise, and 

that confer status on and give power to those 

that have it. Included in this review will be 

material from the sociology of occupations 

and professions as well as from some neo 

Marxist analyses of this field. In addition to 

reviewing some earlier sociological writing, 

the paper will recount both personal and 

professional experiences that illustrate the 

challenges faced by those trying to work with 

transdisciplinary approaches to change. The 

paper will conclude by accepting 

transdisciplinarity as a fluid continuous 

process of transgressing existing boundaries 

- one that is not yet encased in either a 

particular methodology or in a field of its own. 

TRANSDISCIPLINARITY 

Depth and Breadth of its Appeal 

A Google search followed by one of 

some library electronic databases yielded 

articles that revealed deep interest in the topic 

at hand. The overarching theme that emerged 

is that of the expressly felt need for the 

concept of transdisciplinarity. This need 

stems from the changing nature of knowledge 

production and the resulting importance of 

trying to understand knowledge production in 

the new terms. Transdisciplinarity, as a 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

result, generally exists at a particular new 

place; namely, at the interface between a 

social and another science (Chan et al, 2007; 

Nowotny, 2003; MacMynowski, 2007). In 

fact, the recognition of the change often 

leads to the definition of transdisciplinarity as 

a research methodology that is the equivalent 

of a different mode of science known as 

Mode 2. There is, however, other work that 

takes exception to this view. For those who 

adhere to the Mode 2 view, transdisciplinarity 

reconnects science to humanity and as its 

adherents attempt to solve urgent human 

problems, they create a new field that is 

greater than the sum of the different fields 

that come together in the search for solutions 

(Nowotny, 2007). Those who take exception 

to this view question the idea that 

transdisciplinarity is even a distinct approach, 

let alone a feasible one (Zierhofer and 

Burger, 2007). 

There are also other exceptions to the 

science methodology definition. The definition 

put forth in Tamara's call for papers is one of 

these 

(http://www.peaceaware.com/tamara/calls/in 

dex.htm); another is one that just uses the 

idea of transdisciplinarity to expand sociology 

so that it includes all human endeavors. 

(Steinmetz, 2007). 

Finally, there is evidence of an interest 

in transdisciplinarity (although not necessarily 

by name) outside the academic research 

methodology sphere. Two that I would like to 

mention are the Berkman Center for Internet & 

Society at Harvard Law School and the soon 

to open Microsoft Research New England lab. 

The former brings together “…faculty, 

students, fellows, and entrepreneurs working 

at the intersection of technology, law, 

business, and social sciences” 

(http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/); the 

latter plans to “…create new fields at the 

boundary of computer science and the social 

sciences” 

(http://research.microsoft.com/news/features 

tories/publish/Chayes-Borg.aspx). 

17

Working Definition 

Although there does not seem to be a 

good reason to pin the term transdisciplinarity 

down too tightly and, conversely, there are 

many to keep it loose, I will adopt an 

operational definition for purposes of this 

paper. Transdisciplinarity here will refer to a 

process of integrating different approaches 

to resolving complex, real world problems in a 

humanly satisfactory way. Although these 

approaches generally are used by academic 

researchers that is not a condition for 

inclusion in this category. Beyond functioning 

as a contemporary research tool, 

transdisciplinarity should strive to draw 

people from dramatically different 

backgrounds into a team effort that they can 

all accept as legitimate. 

PREVAILING SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS 

Genesis of the Prevailing 

Constructs Unfavorable to 

Transdisciplinarity 

The resistance to transdisciplinarity 

stems from a number of sources including 

many that can be understood with reference 

to some early work in sociology, particularly 

Marxian industrial sociology and the sociology 

of occupations and professions. The 

Marxians put forth a number of ideas, 

including the following: 

� With the transfer of power from the 

aristocracy to the bourgeoisie, those 

members of society who have successfully 

served the former ruling class now had to 

regroup and find a way to sell their services 

to the newly emerging ruling class. 

� They did this by offering their skills as 

the rationale for becoming providers of 

services to the latter. 

� Their training and education as 

professionals provided the skills and enable 

them to meet the new standard of merit. 

� The result was the rise of a 

professional class that staked its claim to 

legitimacy on its command of esoteric 

knowledge; i.e. its expertise. 

Fine 

The claim to expertise, for example, 

enabled those in the medical profession to 

take power from the herbalists and midwives 

that had always served the ordinary people. 

This despite the fact that the professional 

physician was more likely to kill than cure his 

patients while the holistic practitioners 

genuinely helped them (Adrienne Rich, 1995; 

Margali Larsen, 1977). 

While a transfer of power at the 

macro level was playing itself out in the 

struggle for legitimacy for professionals to 

serve the newly emerging middle classes, a 

similar struggle was going on at the micro 

level of the workplace. 

Other Marxian writers, in their role as 

ethnographers situated themselves right 

inside the workplace. As 

participant/observers they wee able to 

document the workers' struggle for control of 

their own work. Not only did the workers 

ultimately lose but also this struggle ultimately 

became a continuous process wherein the 

managers and owners of capital try to 

remove power from those who do the work 

and lodge it in the hands of those who 

oversee and/or benefit from it. 

In response to the loss of control, the 

workers to find ways to take it back. They do 

this by developing mechanisms for imparting 

meaning to work in the form of “games” and 

“making out”. To an outsider the meaning 

might not be clear but it is who work inside 

these intricate systems (Burawoy, 1979). 

The struggle continues with those on the top 

(at least relatively) successively and 

excessively dividing the tasks of labor. This 

in turn results in the proletarization of whitecollar 

work (Braverman, 1974). Ultimately 

control is removed from professionals who 

become the new laborers. 

Historian of technology, David Noble, 

sees the development of technology as a 

weapon in the struggle for dominance over 

work. He makes a convincing case for the 

fact that even the decision to move away 

18

from analogue to digital technologies was a 

clear attempt to remove control (and, of 

course, power) from the skilled machinists 

and lodge it with the more reliable engineers. 

(Noble, 1984) Noble agrees with Marxian 

Industrial Engineer, Seymour Melman, that 

educational and industrial institutions are more 

concerned with “command and control” than 

they are with performance! (Melman, 1971; 

Noble, 1984) 

Finally, there arose within the United 

States a comprehensive culture of 

professionalism. With the denial of class and 

privilege as a factor in occupational selection 

and mobility merit derived from education, 

experience, and training formed the basis of 

control and legitimacy. This hastened the 

development of a whole culture of 

professionalism (Bledstein, 1978). The early 

ethnographers who ultimately entered the 

training and educational institutions with the 

prospective professionals attested to the 

power of education to provide the 

socialization needed for the new industrial 

order (Becker, Geer, Hughes, and Strauss, 

1961). 

The Ethos of Professionalism 

The relevant sociological literature, 

then, revealed a set of beliefs that 

professionals hold about the work that they 

do. These include the belief that their claim to 

control of this work rests on: 

1. Their training. 

2. Their command of esoteric 

knowledge. 

3. The importance of bringing this 

knowledge to bear on the problems that their 

clients, customers, or patients bring to them. 

4. Their superior ability that has been 

proven by the selection process that they 

have undergone. 

All these factors make them 

specialists and even experts. They help hem 

rationalize their claim to power over their own 

sphere. These, in turn, lead to their feeling of 

satisfaction with what they do. Because of 

their belief in the social importance of their 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

skills and their work, they have no qualms 

about charging fees for their services or 

accepting the admiration of others. The 

socialization process that education and 

training accomplishes, enables them to define 

themselves and their colleagues as insiders 

and relegate all others to the role of outsiders. 

Once they do this, they do not take seriously 

any judgment about their work that is given by 

these outsiders. Often their expertise 

transfers to fields well beyond their own. 

The claiming of expertise and with it 

power spills over into occupations that the 

society does not always identify as 

professional. The work of the police, the 

military, and even that of housewife may also 

appear to be the basis of expertise by those 

who perform it. I have been in many a kitchen 

where the woman of the house claims total 

control and is wedded to a specific (correct) 

way of organizing a meal. Administrative 

assistants in hospitals and universities are 

generally the only ones who understand how 

the organization really works, what person in 

a given office will be able to perform a 

particular task, and how to locate an 

important record. It goes without saying that 

only the custodial staff is allowed to touch a 

thermostat! 

There is a problem for the 

professional here, however, in that the field 

of professionals is a fluid one. New work 

enters as the old loses ground. Medical 

doctors, for example, once reigned supreme. 

Now Healthcare and other CEO's often best 

them. A loss of both status and wealth has 

driven people away from choosing this 

profession. Loss of control over the work 

has hastened the exodus of those already in 

it. 

Loss of control over one's work is 

another issue that was a topic of great 

concern to early industrial sociologists. It is 

worth revisiting this matter here. 

19

The Elevation of Expertise and the 

Struggle for Control 

As I noted above, Marxian sociologists 

and historians of technology documented the 

struggle for control of work quite well. 

Despite evidence that skilled craftsmen 

traditionally had a significant role in production 

itself as well as in the design and 

development of machine tools needed for 

production, management repeatedly chose to 

ignore this and bypass them in the 

development of newer sets of tools. This 

resulted in the deskilling of existing work and 

in the elevation of new skills for production. 

These new ones were then lodged with 

engineers and other technical professionals 

(Noble, 1984). This process continued until 

even technical professionals began to lose 

ground. 

With control over their own work 

continuously undermined it is not surprising 

that professionals now feel the need to keep 

trying to reassert themselves as experts 

whose advice others should heed. When 

contemporary information technology 

consultants, for example, complain about the 

older computer scientists for being irrationally 

attached to their own software designs they 

are unwittingly documenting a small part of 

this struggle for control. An integrated 

information system or decision support 

system might well be more efficient but with 

the implementation of one, control slips away 

from the technical professional. Resistance 

to this change is - and, perhaps, ought to be - 

- the norm, not the exception. 

STORIES TO ILLUSTRATE THE 

POWER OF EXPERTISE 

From Academia 

Some years ago my then husband and 

I were invited to dinner at the home of a 

London professor. This professor and my 

ex-husband were both reasonably well 

known in their respective fields of philosophy. 

The former had a specialty in aesthetics; the 

Fine 

latter, in the philosophy of science. At the 

time I was a fairly serious, practicing artist. 

The London professor and I became totally 

engaged in a conversation about 

contemporary art, thereby violating the rules 

of British polite society which mandates equal 

conversation time with the person seated on 

each side of you. A few days later, a 

package addressed to my ex husband 

arrived. In it was a manuscript for a book 

about Freud and art as well as a note from 

our London host inviting my ex husband to 

write a review of this work for the Times of 

London! Not only was this way beyond my 

ex's field of study, but also because he had 

never been part of our conversation, the 

professor had no way of knowing whether 

he had either the interest or the knowledge to 

offer a reasonable review. I, on the other 

hand, had revealed that I had both. I did not, 

however, have the academic credentials and 

hence, lacked the expertise that he needed. 

From the Political and Economic 

Realm 

Lest I be accused of sour grapes, let 

me offer a story about an instance when 

others attempted to confer the power of 

expertise on me. There have been many 

such cases but I will present a brief a 

summary of just one. This took place in 

Ithaca, New York more than thirty five-years 

ago. 

In Ithaca I ran for city office on a third 

party ticket. I did this as part of a larger 

protest against the two major parties because 

of their poor choices of candidates. For 

reasons that I won't go into I was awarded 

free radio time each week for fourteen 

weeks. I used this to speak out quite strongly 

(and even militantly) against the top down, big 

business approach to urban renewal - which 

we referred to as urban removal - that was 

about to be pushed through local government. 

My ending tag line was, “This is (my name) 

saying it is time to return power to the 

people!” This resonated better than any of us 

in our third party expected and I become a 

celebrity almost over night. As a result, I was 

20

invited to appear on local television and radio 

talk shows and in panel discussions around 

the city. After a short time of this, 

spokespeople from the newspapers, radio, 

television, and many different organizations 

often approached me to speak on subjects 

that had nothing to do with the areas of my 

expertise that included the arts, education, 

and economic development. It was clear that 

my expertise on these topics was enough for 

some to confer expertise on me for others 

that were far removed from anything in my 

repertoire. 

Examples from Teaching 

When I used to teach math based 

courses like quantitative methods, I generally 

began by citing literature that shows that 

students who work in small groups have a 

better track record for learning math than 

those who study alone. I would then place 

them in teams and repeatedly encourage them 

to use team members as study partners. 

One time a student irately exclaimed on the 

evaluation sheet, “She didn't teach me a thing. 

It was my classmates not the teacher who 

taught me everything I know!” I had clearly 

shirked my role as expert! 

More recently I generally lead my 

graduate students in a product development 

process class through the development of an 

actual product. During one semester last 

year I had them complete all the background 

research for creating a hybrid, alternative 

energy, flexible minibus system. They 

investigated the appropriate technologies, 

located potential bus companies, planned a 

marketing campaign, did a preliminary 

feasibility study and presented their plan at a 

graduate student symposium. This brought 

them rave reviews. Yet two of them 

complained that I hadn't taught them anything. 

Once again, in their minds, I hadn't transferred 

any of my expertise to them. 

CONCLUSION 

As I indicated at the beginning of this 

paper, I view transdisciplinarity primarily as a 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

useful mechanism or process for bringing 

together people from different disciplines and 

walks of life to identify and begin to resolve 

mutually troublesome problems. It could also 

help establish a mode of operating that 

encourages mutual respect for different 

perspectives as well as a genuine regard for 

these differences. With time we might also 

be able to reinforce the belief that the results 

of engaging in this process are better than 

those achieved in other ways. 

As Nowotny has already noted, 

working together in this way will require great 

patience (Nowotny, 2003). I would also add 

that it will require time, an appreciation of the 

benefit of incremental change, and a 

willingness for all of us to join one another in 

relinquishing whatever advantages our own 

claim to expertise has offered. We will not 

find it easy to ignore the social ethos of 

professionalism that pervades our culture. 

By biggest concern, however, is with 

the opposite issue that I noted in the 

introduction; namely, the tendency to reify a 

new concept until it ossifies. There is 

already a hint of that in the literature that often 

relies on the prevailing modes of analysis 

within a given discipline to decide whether 

transdisciplinarity is really a new mode or 

whether the knowledge yielded is really an 

improvement over what results from he 

application of a single type of analysis 

(Zierhofer and Burger, 2007). 

As long as we remain aware of the 

two sets of problems, however, and agree to 

use transdisciplinarity as a continuously 

changing process for pooling our respective 

modes of analysis and synthesis so that we 

can transcend them, we should be able to 

make good use of it. 

21

REFERENCES 

Becker, H. S., Geer, B., Hughes, E. C. & 

Strauss, A. (1961). Boys in white. Chicago: 

University of Chicago Press. 

Bledstein, B. J. (1978). The culture of 

professionalism: the middle class and the 

development of higher education in America. 

London: W. W. Norton. 

Braverman, Harry (1974) Labor and 

monopoly capital: the degradation of work in 

the twentieth century. New York: Monthly 

Review Press. 

Burawoy, M. (1979). Manufacturing 

consent: Changes in the labor process under 

monopoly capitalism. Chicago: University of 

Chicago Press. 

Chan, K M.A., Pringle,R.M., 

Ranganathan, J, Boggs, C.L., Chan, Y. L., 

Ehrlich, P.R. et al . (2007). When agents 

collide: human welfare and biological 

conservation. Conservation Biology 21 (1): 

59-68. 

Larson, M. S. (1979). The rise of 

professionalism: a sociological analysis. 

Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Fine 

MacMynowski, Dena P. (2007). Power 

and knowledge at the meeting of social and 

biophysical Science. Ecology and Society 12 

(1): 20. 

Melman, S. (1971). The war economy of 

the United States: Readings on military 

industry and economy. New York: St. 

Martin's Press. 

Noble, D. (1984). Forces of production: 

A social history of industrial automation. 

New York: Oxford University Press. 

Nowotny, Helga. (2003). The potential 

of transdisciplinarity: Rethinking 

interdisciplinarity: an electronic conference. 

http://www.interdisciplines.org/interdisciplinar 

ity/papers/5. Retrieved on 2/05/08. 

Rich, Adrienne (1995). Of woman born. 

New York: W. W. Norton andCompany. 

Steinmetz, G. (2007). Transdisciplinarity 

as a nonimperial encounter: For an open 

sociology. Thesis Eleven, 91, 48-65. 

Zierhofer, W. & Burger, P. (2007). 

Disentangling transdisciplinarity: An 

analysis of knowledge integration in 

problem-oriented research. Science Studies 

20 (1), 51-74. 

22

Introducing the First Management Control System in 

Independent Professions: A Qualimetric Enquiry 

Laurent Cappelletti, ISEOR* 

Miguel Delattre** 

Florence Noguera*** 

*University of Lyon 3, France 

**CERRAL, University Lumiére Lyon 2, France 

***ERFI - University of Montpellier 1, France 

ABSTRACT 

This paper examines the question of introducing the first management control system in 

independent professions through the case of French notary public offices. In order to provide 

elements of response to the research question, a qualimetric approach which combines 

qualitative and quantitative models has been chosen to improve the validity of observations. The 

qualitative approach selected was based on an action research program carried out in 350 

notary public offices between 1998 and 2004. In parallel, 5 explicative variables for measuring 

the successful set-up of the management control system were tested and analyzed, primarily by 

factor analysis. 

Keywords: management control, qualimetric approach, independent professions, very 

small businesses. 

Introducing the First Management 

Control System in Independent 

Professions: A Qualimetric Enquiry 

Introduction 

The paper examines the problematic of 

introducing the first management control 

system in independent professions through 

case study of 350 French notary public 

offices. The research question of the paper 

could be summarized in these terms: what 

are the contributions of a management control 

system in independent professions and what 

are the key factors of success in introducing 

such a system? Much is at stake with 

management control issues. Practical stakes, 

first of all, since law-related offices, like most 

very small businesses, are often equipped 

with rudimentary or very informal 

management control systems (Parson, 2004). 

Yet, with rising globalization and 

hypercompetition, to cite Richard D'Aveni's 

expression (D'Aveni, 1994), which 

characterize contemporary economy, even 

very small businesses such as independent 

professions are confronted with the 

problematic of controlling their costs. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Secondly, from a theoretical point of view, if 

the field of management control is well 

documented in its application to large firms, 

thanks to groundbreaking work by Anthony 

(1956, 1965, 1988) and Simons (1987, 1995, 

2000), independent professions are less 

studied, such as lawyer, bailiff and notary 

public offices in particular. Through cases of 

socio-economic management control, this 

paper focuses on control systems that 

combine tools of regulation and measurement 

of material phenomena with tools that impact 

actor behavior and measure immaterial 

phenomena. 

In order to provide elements of 

response to the research question of this 

paper, an innovative methodology was 

chosen: the qualimetric approach (Savall, 

1974, 1975, 2007; Buono and Savall, 2007; 

Savall et al., 2008). The qualimetric approach 

combines qualitative and quantitative models 

to improve the validity of observation. The 

qualitative approach selected was based on 

an action research methodology (Baker, 

2007). It consisted in setting up a socioeconomic 

management control system in 350 

23

notary public offices between 1998 and 

2004. In parallel, 5 explicative variables for 

measuring the successful set-up of the 

management control system were tested and 

analyzed, primarily by factor analysis. The 

results presented, in response to the 

research question, were obtained through 

observation in the course of interventionresearch 

carried out in 350 notary public 

offices. These findings were then 

supplemented by a quantitative study. They 

show that in 75% of the tested cases, setting 

up a socio-economic management control 

system improved both social and economic 

performances of very small businesses such 

as notary public offices. Furthermore, they 

showed that one of the key variables of 

successful set-up is involvement on the part 

of the company CEO during the set-up phase. 

Theoretical framework: 

Management control system in 

independent professions 

This section positions socio-economic 

management control inside the field of 

management control. It also discusses the 

strategic constraints of independent 

professions, beyond those common to all 

very small businesses, explaining the specific 

needs of these enterprises for innovative 

methodologies of management control. 

Socio-economic management 

control: Concepts and tools 

Socio-economic management control 

respects the basic concepts of management 

control as exposed in the founding theories. 

Its particularity lies in the conception of the 

tools it proposes, which are aimed at 

improving both social and economic 

performances of the organization. 

Traditional conceptual framework 

of management control 

Numerous actors have contributed to 

developing management control. Our goal 

here is not to draw up an exhaustive 

inventory of authors having contributed to the 

domain of management control, but rather, to 

introduce those authors whose work 

entertains a relationship to the socio- 

Cappelletti, Delattre & Noguera 

economic theory and to the socio-economic 

management control it inspires. Management 

control, seen as a set of frameworks that 

help managers, has two essential dimensions 

(Simons, 1987, 1995, 2000) 

- An economic and strategic dimension that 

consists in choosing the operational rules and 

regulations that permit attaining fixed 

objectives; 

- An organizational and psycho-social 

dimension that enables inciting individuals to 

behave in accordance with operational rules 

and regulations. 

Anthony is considered an author of 

reference in the field of management control. 

He first defined control as "the process that 

consists in assuring that the organization 

does what management wants it to do" 

(Anthony, 1956). Anthony includes 

management control in the problematics of 

convergence between goals and guarantees 

that strategies are implemented. He 

subsequently defines it as "the process 

through which managers obtain confirmation 

that resources are obtained and utilized in 

effective and efficient manner to accomplish 

the objectives of the organization" (Anthony, 

1965). Anthony defined, in a third period, 

management control as "the process through 

which managers influenced other members of 

the organization to implement company 

strategy" (Anthony, 1988). For Anthony, 

management control is the control of 

managers by other managers, these being 

heads of teams with objectives to attain. 

Simon also situated his research work within 

the field of strategy and considered control 

systems as potential vectors for change 

(Simon, 1987). 

The specificities of the socioeconomic 

management control system 

Socio-economic management control 

(Savall, 2003a; Buono and Savall, 2007), can 

be seen as a continuation of work by 

Anthony and Simons, with the particularity 

that it aims to improve the enterprise's socioeconomic 

performance. Indeed, the 

fundamental hypothesis upon which it is 

based recognizes compatibility between 

24

social and economic performances. 

According to this fundamental hypothesis, 

sustainable development of performance is 

only possible by reconciling social 

performances, namely the satisfaction of 

involved actors in the large sense, and the 

economic performances of the organization. 

This fundamental hypothesis heralds the 

work of Pfeffer (1995, 2005) who shows 

that social performance and management 

quality strongly contribute to an organization's 

economic performance. The tools and 

methods of socio-economic management 

control are organized around three axes: the 

tool axis, the change and cost management 

axis and the policy axis. This tri-axial 

methodology is called the HORIVERT method. 

It has been tested and successfully 

implemented in hundreds of businesses and 

organization is more than 30 countries around 

the world since 1974 (Savall, 2003b; Buono 

and Savall, 2007; Zardet and Harbi, 2007). 

The objectives of the HORIVERT method 

are comparable to those attributed to 

management control by Simons (2000), 

Kaplan and Norton (1996, 2001, 2004). It 

concerns equipping the enterprise with an 

appropriate control system for measuring 

performance and determining strategy 

effectively and efficiently. However, the 

method differs from the Simons model by 

proposing its own measurement and piloting 

tools. It also differs from the Kaplan & Norton 

in that it equips the controller with 

management tools situated along the three 

axes, to enable describing and explicating 

performance. Thus, this method is 

descriptive, explicative and prescriptive, 

which places it in the hybrid framework called 

“generic contingency” (Savall, 2007). This 

median positioning between constructivism 

and positivism is open to debate. Indeed, it is 

unique in management control where one 

typically finds either positive and normative 

methodologies, or constructivist and 

interpretative methodologies (Baker, 2007). 

Thus, Péron and Péron (2003) wrote an 

article in JOCM in which they bring out the 

numerous connections that can be 

established between the socio-economic 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

approach to management considered as an 

architecture and the postmodern movement. 

We invite the reader to refer to this article for 

more details on the connections between 

socio-economic management control and 

postmodern movement. 

The axes of the socio-economic 

management control system 

The tool axis of socio-economic 

management control is composed of six tools: 

The periodically negotiable activity 

contract formalizes the objectives of 

qualitative, quantitative and financial results 

available to the organization. 

The internal-external strategic action 

plan is a strategic tool that takes into account 

both external targets (the Products-Markets 

pair, clients, suppliers) as well as internal 

clients (technology, material and immaterial 

investments, adequate training/employment 

for Humans, from the CEO to workers). 

Priority action plans is an inventory of 

priority actions, up-dated bi-annually, to be 

carried out by a group of teams (services, 

workshops, board of directors and 

management, etc.) in order to attain the 

organization's strategic objectives, following 

decisions defining those priorities and 

feasibility testing. 

The piloting logbook combines all 

pertinent indicators, qualitative, quantitative 

and financial, utilized by all members of the 

management team to concretely pilot staff and 

activities in their zones of responsibility. 

The self-analysis of time management 

grid is a coherent set of time management 

instruments that facilitate more efficient 

organization of individual and collective time 

management. 

The competency grid maps out 

competencies currently available in a team. It 

facilitates developing a collaborative training 

program adapted to the evolution of everyone 

25

in the enterprise, according to needs and in 

keeping with the objectives of company 

strategy. 

These tools assist company actors in 

orienting company strategy toward the 

development of human potential, while at the 

same time, fostering the attainment of short-, 

medium- and long-term economic objectives. 

The change and cost-management 

axis constitutes an iterative process of 

socio-economic intervention in four phases: 

diagnostic, project, implementation and 

evaluation. The socio-economic diagnostic is 

a diagnostic that reveals the organization's 

dysfunctions and the hidden costs they 

generate. The diagnostic is carried out 

through semi-structured interviews 

conducted by interveners with the various 

categories of actors: managers, supervisors 

and staff. The following stage entails 

formalizing a socio-economic project, based 

on information provided by the diagnostic, to 

reduce dysfunctions and convert hidden 

costs into value-added. These projects are 

developed in participative fashion and include 

the calculation of an economic balance where 

material and immaterial investment costs are 

balanced by the economic performances of 

the projects under consideration. Following 

implementation, a socio-economic evaluation 

permits analyzing the qualitative, quantitative 

and financial results obtained. 

Such a procedure could not take place 

without the strategic determination of 

managers. The policy axis serves to 

stimulate strategic decision-making on the part 

of senior managers gathered in the steering 

committee. Senior management's strategic 

decisions influence actions that contribute to 

the implementation of the strategy and the 

reduction of dysfunctions. 

Independent professions: The 

case of notary public offices 

Independent professions such as 

notary public offices, like other small 

businesses, are subject to new strategic 

constraints that oblige them to implement 


management systems in order to better 

control their costs, activate their human 

resources and develop their strategy. In sum, 

independent professions need effective and 

efficient management control systems just as 

much as large business do, but they need 

control systems tailored to their size (Altman 

and Weil, 1996; Boutall and Blackburn, 1998 ; 

Cappelletti, 2007). 

Notaries: Liberal professionals, 

small business heads and government 

representatives 

France has approximately 4,600 notary 

public offices, managed by over 8,000 notary 

publics and employing 40,000 salaried staff. 

On the average, notary public offices employ 

8 staff members and are managed by a 

notary or several lawyers working as 

associates. Together, such offices turn over 

a total of some €3 billion annually. 

Approximately 80% of this revenue is 

generated from legal activities connected with 

family law (e.g., inheritance, marriage, 

divorce) and real estate law (e.g., real estate 

purchase and sale). Within these areas of 

activity, notary publics enjoy a state-regulated 

monopoly in which charged rates and fees 

are fixed by law. However, they are in 

competition with each other, since clients 

have a free choice of which notary they use. 

The remaining 20 % or so of revenues is 

derived from non-monopoly activities, where 

fees are unregulated (e.g., company law, 

asset management, real estate negotiation). In 

this market, notary publics are in competition 

not only with each other, but also with other 

independent professionals, such as lawyers 

and certified public accountants (Daudé, 

2006). 

To ensure compliance with these 

regulations, notary publics are members of 

the regulatory organizations that control them, 

promote the profession and help it develop. 

Notary publics are also appointed by decree 

of the Department of Justice and belong to a 

Chamber, a body containing all the notary 

publics in the same geographical département 

(there are 95 such Chambers in France). The 

Chamber is the basic unit of the profession, 

26

elects a notary as President every two years, 

and plays a disciplinary, promotional and 

management role within the profession. 

These bodies act within policy guidelines that 

are set and monitored by a national authority, 

the Conseil Supérieur du Notariat (CSN) 

which plays an institutional role by setting 

policy and a single set of regulations for the 

profession. In summary, the notary is a public 

official, but works within the legal framework 

of independent professions and receives his 

or her income from the business (Daudé, 

2006). 

The management control needs of 

notary publics 

Since the French property crisis of the 

early 1990s, notary public businesses have 

had to cope with new strategic constraints 

that have required them to improve the quality 

of their management control system. This 

requirement, which is also being felt in other 

professions such as health care and law, is a 

recent development in a world where, for 

many years, the lawyer's expertise had been 

sufficient to ensure the survival and 

development of notary public offices (ISEOR, 

1998-2004). 

In terms of their monopoly activities, 

notary publics have tended to be rather 

somnolent when it comes to strategy: their 

working methods have evolved very little and 

have rarely focused on improving 

effectiveness and efficiency. Very few 

notaries have introduced any form of 

management control to monitor the profitability 

of their monopoly activities, preferring to 

manage by focusing primarily on a single 

source of revenue. The growing reality is that 

notary offices need to exercise management 

control over both their monopoly and nonmonopoly 

work if they are to improve the 

profitability of their offices. They also need to 

apply innovative management methods to 

reduce their costs, increase their valueadded 

initiatives, and invest in new product 

development like other independent 

professions and small businesses (Parson, 

2004; Maister, 1993, 1997). 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

As in other professions, notary publics 

have to cope with increasing competition and 

rising client expectations. Despite the 

discipline imposed by the profession, there is 

fierce competition between notaries for 

monopoly sector business. There is also 

intense inter-professional competition from 

lawyers, certified public accountants and 

realtors in the free market sector for services 

such as company law and real estate 

negotiation. Notary publics must also cope 

with the rising expectations of staff who are 

demanding to have a direct interest in 

financial results and to become more involved 

in the business. However, they must now 

become true managers with the ability to lead 

a team of staff members who are much more 

demanding in terms of training, promotion, 

career prospects and profit sharing. Notary 

publics are often confronted with poor staff 

motivation and commitment and are even 

finding it difficult to attract new skills. As 

businessmen, notary publics are literal 

beginners when it comes to management. As 

with other professions, they did not receive 

any formal management training during their 

time at the university and are typically illequipped 

to respond effectively to these 

expectations (Parsons, 2004). 

Research Methodology 

Encouraged by the Superior Council of 

Notary Publics (Conseil Supérieur du 

Notariat), Regional Councils and Chambers, 

notary publics requested the assistance of 

the ISEOR in helping to improve management 

quality and control and accelerate office 

development, which between 1998 and 2004 

worked with 350 notary public offices in 9 

regions of France. Socio-economic 

management control was introduced using a 

scaled-down implementation method adapted 

to suit the needs of very small businesses 

and professional practices. 

This method is referred to as Multi-SB 

(small business) HORIVERT (Savall, 2003a; 

Buono and Savall, 2007; Cappelletti, 2007). In 

order to supplement observation carried out 

during intervention-research, in particular by 

identifying the variables that exert an impact 

27

on successful set-up of socio-economic 

management control, the variable Y (entitled 

"successful set-up of socio-economic 

management control in a law-related 

enterprise") was studied by examining five 

explicative variables. The final results of the 

study are thus a product of the qualimetric 

methodology, which combines the qualitative 

model and the quantitative model with 350 

cases of direct observation. 

The set-up method of socioeconomic 

management control 

The socio-economic management 

method was introduced into 350 offices in 9 

regions of France, involving a total of 3,000 

notary publics and salaried staff. This sample 

is representative of the total population of 

4,600 French notary public offices in terms of 

size, geography and areas of business. The 

offices making up the sample have between 1 

and 55 staff members, with an average of 8 

employees (which reflects the national 

figure). The offices in the sample are both 

city-based (urban) and country-based (rural) 

offices. The sample contains equal numbers 

of traditional practices, focused primarily on 

monopoly business (mainly family law), and 


more innovative practices involved in 

significant levels of competitive business 

(mainly real estate negotiation). 

The offices in each region were 

brought together into groups of four. Each 

office within a group was involved in an intracompany 

action plan (work done within the 

office) and an inter-company action plan. This 

was coordinated in each region by a steering 

group made up of notary publics elected to 

represent their region. The Multi-SB 

HORIVERT approach comprises three 

dimensions: (1) bringing about change 

through intra-company action plans, (2) 

collaborative training in the use of socioeconomic 

management tools through intercompany 

action plans, and (3) the 

development of an overall synchronization 

policy. The Multi-SB HORIVERT method 

follows the same principles as the HORIVERT 

method, but uses action plans that are scaled 

down to suit SBs and professional offices. All 

the action plans were coordinated by twenty 

or so ISEOR interveners distributed across 

the 350 offices. 

28

Intra-company framework 

Intra-company frameworks were similar 

in all 350 offices. They consisted of carrying 

out a mini-diagnostic focusing on the 

problems responsible for disrupting office 

effectiveness and efficiency. These problems 

were grouped into six themes that model the 

quality of management within a company. In 

each office, notary publics and staff were 

interviewed separately about the problems 

relating to these six topics. A collective 

evaluation meeting, bringing together the 

notary public and his or her staff, was then 

held to evaluate the hidden costs of these 

problems (i.e., the amount of value-added lost 

due to dysfunctions). The qualitative, 

quantitative and financial results of these 

mini-diagnostic sessions were used as the 

basis for the work done by a two-tier focus 

group: a small group containing only the 

notary publics, and a larger group involving 

the notary publics and all office staff. The 

personal assistance sessions designed 

around the management tools introduced in 

the collaborative training sessions were 

combined with the intra-company focus group 

sessions. 

Inter-company framework 

Each of the 350 offices was also 

involved in an inter-company framework built 

around groups of 4 offices of different sizes. 

The purpose was to organize collaborative 

training sessions focusing on the six basic 

tools of socio-economic management: time 

management, competency grid, the internalexternal 

strategic action plan, the priority 

action plan, the strategic piloting indicators 

and the periodically negotiable activity 

contract. Each office is represented by the 

notary public and one, two or three members 

of staff, depending on the size of the office. 

A steering group of between 4 and 6 

Chamber-appointed notary publics and one 

Superior Council (Conseil Supérieur du 

Notariat) representative was set up in each 

of the 9 regions. The interveners were 

responsible for leading these steering groups 

and presenting anonymous assessments of 

the work accomplished in the offices. The 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

steering groups for 2 of the 9 regions (Region 

3 and Region 7) asked their interveners to 

help provide maintenance action plans to 

support the continuation of the initiative after 

completion of the project. The result of this 

request was that the interveners led a daylong 

workshop in each office 6 to 10 months 

after the original initiative ended in order to 

stimulate the use of these management tools, 

consolidate dysfunction resolution 

processes, and increase the financial valueadded 

created by the office. 

Intervention schedule of the scaleddown 

Multi-SB HORIVERT method 

The specifically scaled-down Multi-SB 

HORIVERT method was designed to optimize 

the effectiveness and efficiency of these 

initiatives in each office. It was felt that for 

each office in a group of 4, the involvement 

should be spread over a period of 8 months 

to allow for the integration of management 

and design tools and the implementation and 

evaluation of the selected improvement 

initiatives. For each group of offices, 4 intercompany 

collaborative training sessions on 

socio-economic management tools were held 

every two months, alternating with 5 intracompany 

diagnostic sessions, followed by 

focus group and tool implementation 

sessions. Each office in every group of 4 

was involved in the same number of intercompany 

sessions as intra-company 

sessions (2_ days). Three steering group 

sessions provided the opportunity to monitor 

how work was progressing in the various 

groups of offices within the region. 

Observation carried out and 

variables tested 

The variable explained in our Y model is 

entitled "successful set-up of socio-economic 

management control in a law-related 

enterprise". This variable is determined by 

five explicative variables: 

(a) The competency of the intervener 

who sets up the socio-economic management 

control system; 

(b) The size of the enterprise; 

(c) The involvement of the CEO; 

(d) The CEO's competency in 

29

management control; 

(e) The management team's 

competency in management control. 

The analysis model is as follows: Y = 

±.a + ″.b + ≥.c + ×.d + ∝.e 

The work concerns setting up of control 

tools, such as those of Kaplan & Norton 

(1996), and management modes in small 

businesses, such as those of Parsons (2004) 

or Davila and Foster (2007), stressing CEO 

involvement for successful set-up and the 

company-size effect (variables b and c). 

However, this work makes little reference to 

the role played by the management 

competency of company actors and 

intervener competency in successful set-up 

(variables a, d and e). The study presented 

here defines competency in the way Hamel 

and Prahalad (1994) defined it: as know-how 

and aptitudes implemented in satisfactory 

fashion. In this sense, actor competency in 

management control supposes both 

theoretical and practical mastery of that 

discipline. Indeed, good theoretical mastery 

does not necessarily guarantee satisfactory 

practice. And conversely, satisfactory 

practice should be based on theoretical 

foundations if it is to evolve. 

Measurement of the Y variable 

The success of socio-economic 

management control set-up was assessed 

one year following set-up launch, or four 

months after the set-up phase, which lasted 

eight months. This one-year period seemed 

sufficient for evaluating the success of the 

management control system implantation in a 

small-sized company. On the other hand, 

assessing the endurance of such a system 

over several years would call for further 

investigation, notably including reporting by 

researchers in every office after two or three 

years of tool set-up. 

The measurement of the Y variable 

concerns sustainable hidden cost reduction 

and effective management control tool 

utilization, according to the prescribed mode 

of utilization. Indeed, the SEAMES knowledgebase 

shows that cost reduction and tool 

utilization are linked. Yet, SEAMES also 


shows that an ephemeral reduction of costs 

can be provoked, in the absence of tools, by 

the frameworks of the change process axis 

(diagnostic, project, implementation and 

evaluation). The tools contribute to the 

process of sustainable cost reduction; for 

example, with the implementation of new 

priority action plans every six months, broken 

down into individual objectives and piloted 

thanks to the piloting logbook. Conversely, 

without the frameworks of the change 

process axis, the tools progressively lose 

their relevance in the absence of on-going 

identification of dysfunctions and the costs 

they generate. SEAMES reveals, ultimately, 

that costs do not “behave” in Malthusian 

fashion in businesses and organizations, 

since they are the results, as are 

performances, of human activity. 

Data collection was carried out in every 

office where a researcher had not yet 

intervened, in order to avoid the risk of bias 

(for example, the manipulation of measures to 

show success). Data collection was done 

through interviews of notary publics and their 

collaborators, as well as direct observation of 

the tools. A 1-to-4 scale was attributed to 

every enterprise in the sample to evaluate the 

degree of set-up success or failure: 

- Value 1 : high cost reduction (more 

than 20,000€ per person per year) and 

generalized utilization of the tools (all six 

socio-economic management control tools 

utilized frequently according to the prescribed 

utilization) ; 

- Value 2 : significant cost reduction 

(between 5,000€ and 19,000€ per person per 

year) and rather general utilization of the tools 

(at least three socio-economic management 

control tools utilized frequently according to 

the prescribed utilization); 

- Value 3 : low cost reduction (between 

500€ and 4000€ per person per year) and 

low utilization of the tools (one or two socioeconomic 

management control tools utilized 

according to the prescribed frequency) ; 

- Value 4 : little or no cost reduction 

(less than 400€ per person per year) and no 

utilization of the tools. 

30

The Y variable is thus a discrete 

variable, since the assessment attributed to Y 

can assume no more than four values, 

corresponding to the four referenced states. 

Measurement of the explicative 

variables 

Explicative variable a: the intervener's 

competency was measured on a scale of 1 to 

4. 1: very high level of competency, 2: high 

competency, 3: medium competency, 4: low 

competency (beginner). Competency levels 

are dependent on the formal training the 

intervener has received and on his or her 

professional experience in the studied fields. 

In terms of intervention organization, 

beginning interveners were placed in small 

notary public offices, but rarely in medium or 

large offices. 

Explicative variable b: size of the 

organization, led to classifying the studied 

businesses into four categories, each 

category attributed a value from 1 to 4: 1: 

very large (more than 50 employees), 2: large 

(from 21 to 50 employees), 3: medium-size 

(from 6 to 20 employees), 4: small (5 

employees). Most notary public offices are 

either small or medium-size businesses; 

however, some large offices do exist. The 

350-office sample was representative of that 

distribution. 

Explicative variable c: the CEO's 

involvement was measured on a scale of 

values ranging from 1 to 3: value 1: high 

involvement, value 2: medium involvement, 

value 3: low involvement. Evaluation of the 

CEO's involvement was based on the amount 

of time the CEO spent with interveners and 

then collaborators using the socio-economic 

method and tools that had been set-up. 

Indeed, SEAMES shows that actors' 

involvement cannot be evaluated solely on the 

basis of their observed behavior, but 

demands more conclusive, formal data 

collection. In this sense, the reserving of time 

spans by liberal professionals in their 

appointment books is a very conclusive sign 

of involvement. Evaluation of notary publics' 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

behavior was done on the basis of 

observation of their behavior toward the 

socio-economic management control tools. 

Evaluation of monthly time devoted by notary 

public to tool utilization was done through 

interviews of notary publics and consultation 

of their appointment books. At the end of the 

8-month set-up, each researcher had 

assembled data collected in view of 

evaluating CEO involvement. Thus, that 

evaluation was not carried out ex post, which 

could have been a source of bias, but 

through consolidation of data collected 

throughout the set-up process. A 1-to-3 scale 

of values was attributed to every enterprise 

in the sample: 

- Value 1: high involvement (positive 

behavior on the part of the notary public 

during work sessions and monthly time 

devoted to tool utilization superior to 8 hours) 

; 

- Value 2: medium involvement (rather 

positive behavior on the part of the notary 

public during work sessions and monthly time 

devoted to tool utilization between 4 and 7 

hours); 

- Value 3: low involvement (passive 

behavior, even resistance, on the part of the 

notary public during work sessions and 

monthly time devoted to tool utilization inferior 

to 3 hours). 

Explicative variables d: « 

management control competency of the CEO 

» and e: « management control competency 

of managers» were measured in every office 

where the researcher was in charge of the 

office. The researcher evaluated, at the 

beginning of the intervention, the management 

control competency of the CEO and the 

managers through interviews and direct 

observation of management control practices 

inside the office. An ex post competency 

evaluation, at the end of the 8 months of setup, 

could have been a source of bias, CEO 

and manager competency in management 

control having been modified through the 

intervention. A 1-to-4 value scale was 

attributed to every enterprise in the sample 

reflecting the measurement of CEO and 

manager competency: 

31

- Value 1: very high competency 

(excellent theoretical mastery of management 

control and very regular and relevant 

utilization of management control tools); 

- Value 2: high competency (good 

theoretical mastery of management control 

and regular and relevant utilization of some 

management control tools); 

- Value 3: low competency (little or no 

theoretical knowledge of management control 

and utilization of some basic management 

control indicators); 

- Value 4: very low competency (little or 

no theoretical knowledge of management 

control and absence of management control 

tools and indicators). 

Results of qualimetric research: 

discussion 

The results of the qualitative study are 

first presented and explained. Then, the 

results of the quantitative study are 

discussed and connected with that of the 

qualitative part of the research. 

Results of qualitative research 

The results of the study permit 

evaluating the effects of introducing socioeconomic 

management on office management 

quality and the consequent recovery of 

value-added. The study makes a distinction 

between immediate results (those which 

have had an effect on performance during 

the current year) and the creation of potential 

(the investments - most of them intangible - 

that will have an effect on future 

performances). 

Quality of management results 

In nearly 75% of the offices in the 

sample of 350 offices, the introduction of 

socio-economic management produced 

positive effects that significantly improved the 

quality of management, operation, products 

and services. These positive effects had an 

immediate result in terms of performance, as 

well as a deferred result in terms of the 

creation of potential. Significant levels of 

success were achieved with the introduction 

of socio-economic management tools into the 

350 offices studied. The time management 


and competency grid tools were implemented 

in over 80% of offices. The management 

indicators, internal-external strategic action 

plan and priority action plans were 

implemented in 60% of offices. In nearly 70% 

of the offices, the focus groups implemented 

management quality improvement initiatives, 

which emerged during the first month and 

were developed throughout the 8-month 

project period. These activities considerably 

strengthened the offices' ability to survive 

and develop. 

The positive effects observed in the 

study were viewed in reference to four 

dysfunction categories: 

ο Personnel management: Changes 

included the development of training plans 

and career plans for staff, the introduction of 

monthly office meetings and bi-annual 

meetings between individual staff members 

and the notary, and notary public offices 

setting individual targets for staff members. 

ο Business management: Initiatives 

encompassed introducing mini-management 

controls, drafting and monitoring of quality 

procedures, and creating action plans to 

address the need for synchronization 

between the notary and those staff 

responsible for legal drafting in complex 

cases. 

ο Client relationship management: 

Actions involved reorganization of client 

reception areas and telephone answering 

procedures, introduction of personalized 

client relationships, clients receiving regular 

updates on the progress of their cases, and 

greater accuracy in the fee quotation 

process. 

ο Strategic actions: Efforts focused 

on the definition and implementation of 

strategies for new activity development (in 

areas such as company law) and the 

definition and implementation of strategies to 

upgrade office computer systems. 

However, in approximately 25% of the 

offices, management quality improvements, 

although real, were not so well-established. 

This 25% rate can be analyzed in the 

following fashion. In approximately 15% of 

32

the offices, utilization of tools and cost 

reduction was low (values 3 and 4 measured 

for variable Y). In 10% of the offices, despite 

cost reduction and significant utilization of 

tools, the results remained low. In these 

cases, the introduction of management tools, 

the reduction of dysfunctions and loss of 

value-added, and the solutions developed by 

the focus groups did not result in a lasting 

improvement of management quality. Analysis 

demonstrates that the offices concerned 

were those that did not volunteer for the 

initiative and simply took the passive route of 

following the policy instructions issued by 

their professional Chamber, which had 

decided to make the initiative compulsory for 

all offices within their region. In these cases, 

the lack of involvement on the part of the 

notary managing the office impeded 

introduction of the management tools, 

restricted the creativity of the focus group, 

and caused considerable disappointment 

among the staff. Intervention-research has 

shown how important it is that the managing 

notary public sets an example by welcoming 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

the initiative and that this type of role modeling 

behavior has a direct effect on the qualitative 

and financial results obtained. 

Financial results 

These positive effects resulted in 

improved financial performance in the offices 

(immediate results). These improvements 

were evaluated financially at the end of the 

process in each office, by measuring the 

reduction in hidden costs, i.e. the growth in 

value-added. The study demonstrated that, on 

the average, the positive effects of 

introducing socio-economic management 

produced a 37% reduction of value-added 

loss, resulting in value-added gains of some 

€40,000 per office, or approximately 10% of 

the variable cost margin. Our interventionresearch 

revealed that the majority of notary 

public offices contain the ability to conduct 

proactive endogenous strategies to cope with 

an environment that has become highly 

competitive. 

33

The Hourly Contribution to Margin on 

Variable Costs (HCMVC), the margin on 

variable costs divided by the number of 

workhours, was the object of evaluation in 

every office at the beginning, then at the end 

of the set-up. The HCMVC, as an indicator of 

an organization's economic efficiency, 

appeared to be a relevant control variable for 

verifying that cost reduction was actually 

transformed into increased performances. 

The measurements carried out showed that 

the HCMVC were established on the average 

in the sample offices between 30 and 50 

Euros per hour. They enabled identifying two 

types of offices following one year of set-up: 


offices with a stable HCMVC that chose to 

utilize cost reduction for undertaking creation 

of potential actions; offices with increasing 

HCMVC that chose to utilize cost reduction for 

their immediate results. 

Results of quantitative research 

The significant results presented below 

were obtained through multi-variable analysis 

of data collected in 350 notary public offices. 

In order to identify the explicative variables of 

successful or failed socio-economic 

management control set-up, data collected 

were subjected to principal component 

analysis, dynamic cluster analysis, 

regression analysis and discriminate analysis. 

34

The combination of these different methods of 

statistical analysis was aimed at better 

describing (principal component analysis) 

structuring and classifying (dynamic cluster 

method) and explicating (regression analysis 

and discriminate analysis). 

Principal component analysis 

The analysis of the principal 

The first analyses enables reading a 

manifested correlation between CEO 

involvement and set-up success, which 

Table 3: Factor Analysis (before rotation) 

Two-thirds of the initial variance 

(66.6%) was mapped out on the first two 

axes: 

The map displays positions of the 6 

criteria and positions the 350 observations 

analyzed using Sphinx software. 66.4% of 

the variance is mapped out on the two axes 

represented. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

components is a descriptive method that 

enables positioning the notary public 

enterprises in relation to one another in 

function of their proximity, and the variables in 

function of their correlations. The variables 

selected were Y, a, b, c, d and e. Principal 

component analysis was carried out based 

on the following correlation matrix: 

confirms qualitative observation carried out. 

The results of principal component analysis 

are given in the table below. 

The dots are proportionate in size to the 

number of observations for every section of 

the grid. The mapping can be interpreted de 

visu: 

- Strong correlation exists (attributed to 

CEO cosine) between success and CEO 

involvement, 

- Strong correlation also exists between 

35

CEO competency and Management 

Competency, 

- However, the two axes are almost 

perpendicular, which presupposes the 

existence of an independent linear system. 

- The "geometric" axes (horizontal and 

vertical) offer little significance for 

One notes, for the first three axes, that 

rotation leads to different distribution of the 

variance: 

- Axis 1 (34,8%) : Competency axis 

(CEO and Managers) 

- Axis 2 (29,6%) : Success axis linked 

to CEO involvement 

- Axis 3 (21,0%) : Size axis 

The correlations between successful 

intervention and CEO involvement on one 

hand, and between CEO and manager team 

management control competency on the other 


interpretation, thus it is preferable to 

reprocess the analysis employing the 

"Rotation" option which facilitates 

interpretation by maintaining maximum 

variance (« Varimax » Rotation). 

hand, are confirmed. 

Dynamic cluster analysis 

The dynamic cluster method makes it 

possible to identify 4 classes: 

- Class 1: 52 businesses 




The results obtained by this method are 

summarized in the following table. 

36

The values of the table are averages 

calculated without taking into account nonresponse. 

The names of the discriminate criteria 

are in column headings. The highlighted 

numbers correspond to the averages par 

category that are significantly different (test t) 

from the overall sample (95% risk). Remember 

that for the set-up success variable Y, the 

more its value is close to 1, the greater 

success is. For variable a « intervener 

competency », the closer its value is to 1, the 

greater competency is. For variable b « size 

of the office », the closer its value is 1, the 

greater size is. For variable c « CEO 

involvement », the closer its value is to 1, the 

greater involvement is. And finally, for 

variables d and e « management control 

competency of CEO and mangers 

respectively », the closer their values are to 

1, the greater competencies are. 

Interpretation of the table above shows, 

first of all, that enterprises in class 1, or 52 

The following observations can be 

made: 

- The error risk is very low for each of 

the three variable (inferior to 1/1000); 

- The most influential variable is CEO 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

offices out of 350, that is 14.8%, are major 

failures (mean value of Y at 3.50), 

corresponding to the 15% evaluated in the 

qualitative research. The other three classes 

being total success or relative success. The 

“failure” of class 1 enterprises is explained 

through all variables except size. The 

“success” of class 2 enterprises (mean value 

of Y between 1 and 2) is explained with 

regards to all variables. The “success” of 

class 3 enterprises is explained by CEO 

involvement and intervener competency. 

Finally, the “success” of those in class 4 is 

thanks to CEO involvement. 

Regression analyses 

In attempting to determine the factors of 

success, a multiple regression of the variable 

"Success" (quantitative) was carried out in 

reference to other quantitative variables in the 

model. As before, the analysis was 

conducted "ascending stepwise", which 

made it possible to identify the three most 

significant variables. 

involvement (the Beta coefficient represents 

the marginal contribution of the variable, 

ceteris paribus) 

- The CEO's perceived competency has 

a significantly negative influence. This 

statistical outcome was unexpected. It 

appears that notary publics who were 

37

already well-experienced in management 

control less willingly accepted the introduction 

of new tools inside their enterprises. Two 

interpretations can be invoked. First, notary 

publics were reticent to the intervention 

because they believed they already had 

sufficient management control knowledge and 

tools. Secondly, notary public could have 

thought they had already undertaken 

sufficient action to reduce costs and did not 

need additional action. 

One can thus predict the degree of 

success following the regression equation 

obtained: Y_SUCCESS = +0.607 * 

C_INVOLV -0.272 * D_CEO +0.287 * 

E_MANGT +1.006 

By order of significance, the following 

variables can be identified: 

- C : CEO involvement 

- E : Management competency 

- D: CEO competency (in Management 

Control). 

Discriminant analysis 

Analysis of results and discussion 

Certain results of the qualimetric 

research call for more in-depth analysis in 

order to bring to light its originality or its limits. 

Generally speaking, intervention-research 

shows that it is possible to set up a 

management control system inside very small 


In this approach, reliability can be 

improved with the aid of discriminant analysis 

that attempts to explain success (a two-class 

qualitative variable: Success-Failure) through 

reference to other variables previously taken 

into account. Discriminate analysis is carried 

out with SPSS using the « Ascending 

Stepwise » method, whose criterion maximize 

the le Wilks Lambda defined with reference 

to the determinants of the variance/ 

covariance matrix. 

The matricial structure of the 

discriminant function shows in descending 

order the crucial importance of CEO 

involvement. Another significant indicator is 

the rate of success, which is the percentage 

of observations properly reclassified by the 

discriminant functions. The following table 

(called the "confusion matrix") indicates by 

columns the success or failure predicted as 

compared to reality. Only 4 offices were 

poorly reclassified, resulting in a rate of 

success close to 100% (98.8%). 

companies, on the condition of an appropriate 

methodology, a well-structured intervention 

team and a favorable policy and strategic 

context. With regard to this point, it would 

seem that mobilizing political representative of 

the profession to sustain management control 

tool set-up could be a factor of success, 

notably in regulated liberal professions. One 

38

could perhaps distinguish a “political” 

Hawthorne effect that could characterize the 

introduction of management inside regulated 

liberal enterprises. For notary publics, the fact 

of being observed by representatives of their 

political authorities doubtlessly plays a role in 

the intensity of their involvement. 

Results also show that a well-adapted 

management control system is a vector of 

social, economic and strategic improvement in 

small enterprises. This outcome is in contrast 

with certain other research work that 

recommends informal management control 

modes for small companies, such as Jorissen 

et al. (1997). Instead, it would be closer to 

work that recommends combining informal 

control, guaranteeing flexibility with formal 

control, factor of development. For example, 

Davilla and Foster (2007) established a 

correlation between the development of a 

small enterprise, measured with financial 

variables and size, and the utilization of 

formal management control such as budgets 

and piloting logbooks. In the same way, 

Parsons (2004) showed that a formal, welladapted 

management control system enabled 

small structures to achieve the margin of 

internal maneuver necessary to survive and 

develop. In other words, and yet this 

hypothesis requires further research, the 

absence of formal, well-adapted control 

inside a small enterprise would probably 

constitute a brake on its development. 

The statistical results do not show, of 

course, that variables not tested by the 

research - the conception of a control 

system, the set-up methodology, the political 

and strategic context - do not affect the 

success or failure of a management control 

system set-up. Indeed, statistical analysis 

was not focused on those variables, since 

research was centered on discriminating 

variables that could reveal different measures 

from one office to another. However, every 

office in the sample was immerged in the 

same policy context and included the same 

management control tools set-up according to 

a similar methodology. The statistical results 

show quite clearly that the size of an office 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

does not play a significant role in the success 

or failure of a management control system 

set-up. Thus, they relativize size as a factor 

of contingency in the case of a management 

control system set-up; even though size 

difference among the offices in the sample 

was not very significant (no office had more 

than 55 employees). Furthermore, the results 

confirm across a large sample that CEO 

involvement was a central factor in the 

success or failure of the management control 

system set-up inside a small structure, 

bearing out the conclusions of Maister (1993, 

1997), for example. However, those findings 

relativized the importance of intervener 

competency, which is surprising. That 

observation could perhaps be explained by 

the intervention team constituted for the 

research, composed of researchers wellexperienced 

with intervention. Indeed, it is 

vital to avoid, notably in setting up a research 

program, thanks to a recognized “veteran” 

team, the rejection of interventions on the part 

of notary publics. 

Conclusion 

The results presented in response to 

the research question were obtained through 

direct observation carried out in the course of 

intervention-research conducted in 350 

notary public offices and supplemented with 

a quantitative study. They show that, in 75% 

of the tested cases, setting up a socioeconomic 

management control system permits 

durably improving social and economic 

performance in very small enterprises such 

as notary public offices. Interventionresearch 

revealed that failure in setting up the 

methodology resided, first and foremost, in a 

lack of CEO involvement, namely insufficient 

time spent with interveners, and with 

collaborators to incite utilization of the tools. 

Research showed that mobilizing political 

authorities undoubtedly contributes to 

stimulating CEO implication. 

These observations were refined by a 

quantitative study combining principal 

component analysis, dynamic cluster 

analysis, regression analysis and discriminate 

analysis. The findings were confirmed by a 

39

quantitative study that permitted testing five 

explicative variables of successful socioeconomic 

management control set-up: CEO 

involvement, business size, intervener 

competency in management control, CEO and 

Management competency in management 

control. These variables were selected for 

testing because, following researchintervention, 

they appeared to contribute to 

explaining successful set-up of a socioeconomic 

management control system. The 

quantitative study showed that CEO 

involvement, and to a lesser degree his or her 

competency in management control, were the 

most significant variables at the crux of setup 

success. Finally, the results of a 

qualimetric study permitted concluding that 

management control system set-up in 

independent professional business such as 

notary public offices depended, nonobstant 

its design, on the attentiveness and 

participation of the CEO. The sizes of 

businesses and intervener competency in 

management control play lesser roles in 

successful set-up. This result could signify 

that management control methodology should 

include a political dimension in its design, to 

incite the adhesion and involvement of CEOs. 

In the end, this research makes a 

double contribution. On one hand, it shows 

that management control is a source of 

performance for small structures, on the 

condition of relevant miniaturization. On the 

other hand, it positions, within the 

management control debate alongside the 

usual problematics of tool design, the 

technical problematics of their set-up and the 

political problematics of CEO involvement. 

Moreover, this study raises certain 

hypotheses that constitute an incentive to 

pursue further research; for example, 

research addressing the causes of enduring 

management control systems over several 

years, or addressing the generalization of the 

results to other liberal professions, and 

beyond small enterprises. This 

complementary research could contribute to 

the debate on small French enterprises, often 

more focused on reduction of their visible 

charges and less attentive to exploitation of 


their endogenous resources through welladapted 

management control. It could also 

contribute to analyzing the rejection of certain 

management control methods for small 

structure, such as the Balanced Scorecard 

method, whose application seems reserved, 

perhaps erroneously, to large enterprises 

(Rampersad, 2005). 

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Laurent Cappelletti is Assistant Professor 

of management at the University of Lyon 3 

(France) where he received his PhD in 1998. 

He leads the Master Program in Management 

Consulting of the University of Lyon 3. His 

research interests are change management in 

independent professions, corporate 

performance and management control. He 

wrote more than twenty articles in different 

French academic reviews. He received the 

2005 Best Paper Award of the Management 

Consulting Division (Academy of 

Management) for his paper: Designing and 

processing a socio-economic management 

control. 

Miguel Delattre is an Associate professor 

at the Lumière University of Lyon. His PhD in 

management sciences was devoted to 

organizational performance development. As 

a researcher at ISEOR research centre, he 

has conducted intervention-research in 


Massachusetts: Harvard Business School 

Press. 

Simons, R.L. (2000). Performance 

Measurement & Control Systems for 

Implementing Strategy, Upper Saddle River, 

New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 

Zardet V. and Harbi N. (2007). SEAMES 

(SEGESE): A Professional Knowledge 

Management Software Program”, Socio- 

Economic Intervention in Organizations. The 

Intervener-Researcher and the Seam 

Approach to Organizational Analysis, Buono 

A. & Savall H. ed., Information Age Publishing, 

pp. 355-372. 

organizations. He leaded the professional 

bachelor in human resources management at 

the University Lumiére Lyon 2 and has 

experiences in designing academic programs. 

His current research work focuses on the 

management of collaborative organizational 

systems and performance development in 

loosely-structured organizations or process. 

Florence Noguera is Assistant Professor of 

management at the University of Montpellier 1 

(France) where she received his PhD in 

2001. She leads the Master Program in Human 

Resources Management of the University of 

Montpellier 1. Her research interests are 

human resources management and change 

management in independent professions. She 

wrote more than twenty articles in different 

French academic reviews and published a 

book in 2006: Management of human working 

time, Dunod, Paris: France. 

42

L'Enchevetrement Organisationnnel Du Groupe 

Vivendi 

Christophe Assens * and Alessandro Baroncelli ** 

* Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines 

LAREQUOI, laboratoire de recherche en Management 

Guyancourt, France 

** S.E.GEST.A. Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Economia e della Gestione Aziendale 

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore 

Milano, Italy 

ABSTRACT 

The debate on the organization modes has begun by discussing the nature of markets 

and hierarchies. Adding further perspectives to somewhat outdated economic views of 

organization, it was then made clear that network forms of organizations should be considered 

as a third type of coordination mode. As a result of this work, it is now commonly accepted that 

the dichotomous view of economic organization should be overcome. Thus, the debate moved 

away from critiquing the tyranny of markets and hierarchies. Many scholars concentrated on 

discussing the supremacy among organization modes. They focused on the prevalence and 

functionality as well as constraint and disfunctionality. 

Résumé 

Les mécanismes de coordination relevant de la logique de marché, de réseau et de la 

hiérarchie se combinent pour former un enchevêtrement organisationnel, dont cet article vise à 

explorer les dimensions théoriques et managériales. L'argument repose sur l'idée qu'aucune 

entreprise ne peut correspondre en tout point à un idéal type organisationnel (marché, réseau, 

hiérarchie), d'une part car chaque modèle d'organisation est imparfait et nécessite l'apport des 

autres modèles, d'autre part, car la dynamique du changement impose de mixer des approches 

structurelles ou des démarches qui ne demeurent idéales que sur une période donnée. Pour 

illustrer et débattre de cette perspective, une monographie d'entreprise est présentée sous un 

angle longitudinal. Sur une période d'observation en dehors des périodes de grand changement, 

l'enchevêtrement s'articule autour d'une forme d'organisation dominante, en réponse au poids de 

l'une des parties prenantes. Lors d'un changement majeur, l'enchevêtrement organisationnel 

hérite par inertie de cette forme dominante, dans une nouvelle configuration où apparaissent de 

nouvelles complémentarités entre les mécanismes de marché, de réseau et de hiérarchie. 

Mots-clés : Réseau, Marché, Hiérarchie, Organisation, Dynamique Organisationnelle 

Network, Market Hierarchy, Organisation, Organisation Dynamics 

Summary in English is followed 

by Complete French Version 

The debate on the organization modes 

has begun by discussing the nature of 

markets and hierarchies. Adding further 

perspectives to somewhat outdated 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

economic views of organization, it was then 

made clear that network forms of 

organizations should be considered as a third 

type of coordination mode. As a result of this 

work, it is now commonly accepted that the 

dichotomous view of economic organization 

should be overcome. Thus, the debate moved 

43

away from critiquing the tyranny of markets 

and hierarchies. Many scholars concentrated 

on discussing the supremacy among 

organization modes. They focused on the 

prevalence and functionality as well as 

constraint and disfunctionality. 

This paper reviews work that 

contributed to these debates and move 

forward trying to support the theory of 

polymorph organization. The argument is 

made that no real organization can be seen 

as an ideal-typical category. The paper claims 

that the entanglement of organization modes 

is ineluctable given the non-monolithic nature 

of organization. An in-depth longitudinal case 

study of Vivendi group is used to highlight 

and discuss organization entanglement and to 

show how it is ineluctable in changing 

environments. We argue that when external 

and internal change occurs the entanglement 

of organizational mode tend to prevail 

whatever the organizational design of the 

management is. In this respect, we share 

Weick (2001)'s view when he argues that 

although most theorists persist in referring to 

organization as they were monolithic, one can 

hardly find an organization which is not 

segmented. Although it is often assumed that 

the technology of an organization is 

essentially the same across tasks and 

occupational groups and the social structure 

is the same across work units, multiple 

structure and designs are found within a 

single organization. Finally, an agenda for 

future research efforts on these issues is 

advanced as we consider the managerial 

implications of this inquiry is still in its infancy. 

We know little, for example, of how the 

organizational entanglement could be 

mastered in order to improve the overall 

effectiveness of the organization. Why it is 

that certain firms, with comparable level of 

complexity as well as expertise, seem to be 

more able to manage strategic and 

organizational change? Further research 

maybe oriented to investigate around the 

hypothesis that the capability to design an 

appropriate organizational entanglement to 

face changes within and outside the 

organization can be regarded as a 

Assens et Baroncelli 

competitive advantage. 

The organizational entanglement 

The tendency to present an 

organization as a unity rather than as a 

cluster of segments has introduced 

inaccuracy in most analysis of organizations. 

It is a matter of fact that the majority of the 

organizations are more likely to be 

represented as segmented organization 

rather than unities. In these segments will 

eventually prevail the hierarchy, the market or 

the network as organizational modes. This 

implies that the single organization will be 

simultaneously tangled up in different forms. 

For Brousseau (1993) and Imai and Itami 

(1984), the networking research trend 

introduce the idea that organization has to 

become more modular, to produce variety 

with the same elements without altering 

structures limits, in order to adapt the offer to 

different environments with the same 

resources and competencies. Thus, their 

contributions support the idea of 

“interpenetration” and “hybridation” of 

organizational forms. 

The evolution process is then 

considered not like an objective to reach for 

the firm, but like a “natural imbalance” of its 

operating cycle. So, there is only one 

certainty: everything is changing. In this 

context, the capacity to change and to evolve 

rapidly with an economy of investment come 

from the capacity to combine structural 

advantages from the market, the hierarchy 

and the network. One attends to weigh up 

that most of the organizations, facing brutal 

environment mutation or strong structural 

metamorphosis, are engaged in an 

interpenetrating process of the typical 

organizational forms. In some cases, 

clandestine solidarity from inter-firms or 

interpersonal networks are superimposed to 

traditional charts (Håkansson, Johanson 

1988, 1989). The network is then superposed 

to the hierarchy as a way to add some 

structural flexibility in a rigid set of relations. 

This emergent solution is best fitted to 

facilitate transversal relations between actors 

from different business units, and to 

44

harmonize the coordination with external 

partners. Lastly, one assists with the 

emergence of a “hierarchical market” pattern, 

with few dominant firms which try to 

transform the free play of competition in a 

captive market or a quasi-monopoly situation. 

Elsewhere (Baroncelli and 

Froehlicher, 1997) have already introduced 

the notion of “organizational entanglement”; 

we would like to further define that concept. 

We consider that organizations are 

polymorphic as they tend to divide themselves 

in discrete subunits or segments where the 

most efficient operating structures are 

different from each others. The evolution of 

the organization is often presented as the 

shift from of one discrete (and somehow 

“pure”) coordination mode. On the contrary, 

through the notion of organizational 

entanglement we would like to argue that not 

only the different coordination modes are 

simultaneously present within the same 

organization, but also that there is no pure 

mode of coordination in real organizations. 

Rather, we observed contamination of modes 

across the segmented subunits in which an 

organization can be divided. In dynamic 

environments this entanglement of 

organization forms tend to be accentuated 

due to the lack of knowledge and visibility on 

different and somehow new business 

conditions. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Research Methodology 

This paper uses grounded theory 

methodology (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) in 

order to handle a large amounts of nonstandard 

data which otherwise makes 

analysis problematic. Research proceeded in 

two stages over one period of 18 months: 

- a first stage of data collecting 

necessary, to build a chronological account 

about the evolution of Vivendi Universal in the 

new economy; 

- a second stage to validate this 

account near the principal actors, difficult to 

join because of the infernal timing imposed by 

the net-economy. In the first stage, we 

analyzed a press review over the period until 

1996. Then, we supplemented this approach 

by in depth interviews with actors engaged in 

the communication sector within Vivendi 

Universal, or in relation to the group. 

The first investigation elements have 

been validated with telephone and electronic 

mail from the same actors or other employees 

at the head office of Vivendi Universal. To 

eliminate bias of objectivity, these data were 

crossed with interviews outside the group 

near consultants or analysts in the 

businesses in which the group have 

refocused its activity overtime. 

45

In complement of secondary data, we 

carried out in depth interviews with the key 

actors, on the level of the subsidiary 

concerned with ICT (Canal +, Viventures, 

Vivendi Net), but also on the level of the head 

L'Enchevetrement Organisationnnel Du 

Groupe Vivendi 

ο Introduction 

L'une des clés de la compétition 

économique livrée par les entreprises réside 

dans les choix d'organisation. Pour certaines 

d'entre elles, il n'existe point de salut sans la 

capacité de croissance en taille par fusion 

acquisition. L'organisation sert alors à tirer le 

meilleur parti de ces mariages en valorisant 

les complémentarités industrielles ou 

commerciales des entreprises fusionnées. 

Pour d'autres entreprises, au contraire, il est 

vain de chercher à absorber les concurrents 

ou les partenaires, car les économies 

d'échelle réalisées s'accompagnent d'une 

augmentation sensible des coûts de structure 

et des problèmes d'organisation. Il convient 

alors davantage de rechercher un niveau de 

performance, en nouant des contrats ou des 

alliances avec des partenaires ou/et des 

concurrents indépendants, en avance dans 

leur domaine de spécialisation (Quelin, 2003). 

Pour autant, ce schéma n'est pas forcément 

supérieur au précédent, puisqu'il expose 

l'entreprise aux risques d'opportunisme des 

sous-traitants ou des partenaires éventuels. 

Une théorie aborde ce dilemme dans le choix 

d'organisation. Il s'agit de la théorie sur les 


office with the department responsible from 

the questions of strategy design and 

implementation. 

coûts de transaction développée par 

Williamson (1975, 1991), qui compare les 

modalités d'organisation suivant le contexte 

économique. Trois situations sont examinées : 

hiérarchique, marchande et celle de la 

coopération, qui s'explique si l'opportunisme 

sur le marché devient trop fort. Pour 

Richardson (1972), la coopération prend des 

formes diverses, de la mise en valeur des 

complémentarités additives entre 

concurrents, à la recherche d'une symbiose 

entre partenaires non substituables. La 

coopération forme alors un trait d'union entre 

le marché et la hiérarchie pour assouplir le 

modèle bureaucratique et pour stabiliser le 

modèle marchand, mais ce n'est en aucun 

cas une configuration organisationnelle au 

sens de Mintzberg (1998). Il s'agit d'un mode 

relationnel spécifique entre des firmes dont 

les intérêts particuliers se rejoignent de façon 

épisodique, au cours d'un projet par exemple, 

sans forcément partager une vocation 

commune, ou une identité collective. 

Néanmoins, lorsque la coopération devient 

durable et récurrente, apparaît une forme 

d'organisation qualifiée d'hybride ou de quasifirme 

par Williamson (1991), ou de firme 

transactionnelle par Frery (2001). À ce sujet, 

Powell (1990) explique que ces formes 

hybrides, présentées souvent de manière 

intermédiaire au marché et à la hiérarchie, 

forment un troisième type d'organisation 

46

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

spécifique : l'organisation en réseau. Dans filiation ou de cousinage comme dans une 

ses travaux, Powell (1990) s'attache à famille. L'établissement de type-idéal 

montrer en quoi le réseau est viable, tout en d'organisation correspond à un instrument de 

étant différent de l'entreprise contractuelle classification, mais également à une méthode 

ayant recours à l'externalisation sur un pour simplifier la compréhension du réel selon 

marché, ou de l'entreprise patrimoniale ayant Weber (1971). Toutefois, au contact de la 

recours à l'intégration dans un cadre réalité empirique, les types-idéaux perdent de 

hiérarchique. Il souligne notamment les leur " pureté " et deviennent plus complexes 

principes de fonctionnement spécifiques au et aussi plus riches. Pour Josserand (2001), il 

réseau comme la confiance, par comparaison importe alors de percevoir l'organisation d'une 

avec des mécanismes de contrôle entreprise comme une combinaison entre des 

bureaucratique, ou de négociation par modes de coordination coopératif, ou non 

contrat. Certains auteurs, comme Ouchi coopératif, et des principes de contrôle 

(1980), vont plus loin dans le raisonnement, hiérarchiques ou non hiérarchiques. Selon 

en considérant qu'il existe un quatrième type l'auteur précédemment cité, la combinaison 

d'organisation au-delà du marché, de la des modes de coordination et de contrôle 

hiérarchie et du réseau : le clan. Cette forme découle alors d'un savant mélange d'idéaux- 

n'est pas éloignée du fonctionnement en types, adapté au contexte, à la situation et à 

réseau. Faire partie d'un réseau, d'une l'environnement. Dans cette mesure, il n'existe 

certaine manière, c'est faire partie d'un club. pas une forme pure d'organisation mieux 

Mais derrière le « club » des entreprises adaptée qu'une autre, et il n'existe pas de 

membres du réseau qui affichent une domination économique d'une forme 

solidarité dans des alliances commerciales ou d'organisation par rapport aux autres. L'objet 

dans des maillages industriels, figurent des de notre article vise justement à explorer ce 

acteurs qui incarnent « la main visible » de la pan de la littérature concernant les situations 

coopération inter-entreprises, c'est-à-dire les hybrides d'organisation, qui témoignent d'un 

« liens forts » qui sous-tendent les « liens croisement durable des idéaux types. Pour 

faibles » pour paraphraser Granovetter cela, nous envisageons dans une première 

(1985). À l'image d'un clan, les membres d'un partie de revenir sur la notion 

réseau subissent un processus de d'enchevêtrement organisationnel dans le 

socialisation qui les distingue de ceux qui n'en prolongement des travaux de Baroncelli et 

font pas partie. Ils partagent des principes de Froehlicher (1997), en discutant des enjeux 

parrainage pour entrer dans le maillage ; ils théoriques et méthodologiques. Dans une 

apprennent des règles implicites et des deuxième partie, nous présentons les 

conventions comme la réciprocité pour résultats d'une étude empirique, pour 

interagir avec les autres ; ils sont fédérés par souligner dans quelles conditions s'effectuent 

des valeurs communes comme la solidarité, l'enchevêtrement, à quels niveaux, comment 

qu'ils doivent respecter sous peine est-il possible de le piloter et comment 

d'exclusion. À la différence du clan, les affecte-il l'évolution d'une entreprise. L'étude 

membres d'un réseau ne sont pas empirique porte sur le groupe Vivendi 

nécessairement liés par le lien du « sang ». Universal (VU), dont la dynamique du 

Le clan dresse alors l'image d'un réseau changement depuis une dizaine d'année prête 

orchestré par une organisation centrale qui à interrogation sur la nature de l'organisation. 

joue un rôle quasi-hiérarchique (Lorenzoni, Cette étude empirique nous permettra dans 

Baden Fuller, 1993). Selon nous, il existe une troisième partie de discuter de la portée 

donc trois grands idéaux-types du concept d'enchevêtrement, de sa 

organisationnels, dont les variables d'analyse dimension opérationnelle, de son pouvoir de 

figurent dans le tableau 1 : la hiérarchie, le 

marché, le réseau - i.e. le clan étant une 

forme particulière de réseau dans laquelle les 

membres partagent un lien spécifique de 

validité externe, de ses limites. 

47

La Théorie de l'enchevêtrement 

Organisationnel 

Pourquoi évoquer 

l'enchevêtrement ? 

L'enchevêtrement organisationnel est 

un phénomène inévitable, et admis dans la 

littérature notamment en sociologie des 

organisations (Friedberg, 1997), car une 

organisation est par définition imparfaite en 

raison de l'incertitude des jeux d'acteurs. Pour 

compenser cette imperfection, les acteurs 

sont obligés de recourir à des combinaisons 

de modes de coordination, envisagés sous 

l'angle de leur complémentarité et non sous 

l'angle de leur opposition. Ainsi, le marché 

aurait besoin de la hiérarchie et des 

communautés solidaires pour fonctionner 

harmonieusement, et réciproquement. Si l'on 

considère par exemple le modèle hiérarchique 

fondé sur des principes bureaucratiques 

(Crozier, 1963). Il tend à être ajusté par des 

mécanismes de réseaux ou de marché. 

Lorsque l'autorité ne suffit plus à guider 

l'action de façon cohérente et efficace en 

raison de conflits d'intérêts ou de rivalités de 

pouvoir, il convient de combiner la 

bureaucratie avec d'autres logiques de 

coordination : le marché pour arbitrer les 

conflits dans l'intérêt général (White, 1981) ; 

le réseau pour renforcer la cohésion à 

travers un ordre social fondé sur des 

conventions librement partagées, et non sur 

la base de contraintes. De même, le modèle 

du réseau s'enrichit au contact des deux 

autres modèles. L'organisation en réseau est 

fondée sur le principe de modularité. Il s'agit 

de produire de la variété dans l'offre avec 

une économie de moyens, en recombinant les 

mêmes « briques » de compétences ou de 

ressources sans bouleverser à chaque fois 

les fondements structurels (Thorelli, 1986). 

Toutefois, pour que ce processus 

combinatoire fonctionne, il est nécessaire que 

les « briques » du réseau soient ajustables. 

Le partage des conventions aide à cette 

compatibilité. Pour autant, il est parfois utile de 

négocier les modalités de combinaison en 

dehors des conventions pour être plus 


efficace, notamment en faisant appel à des « 

briques » plus compétitives, extérieures au 

réseau. Des conflits peuvent alors survenir 

sur l'utilité ou non de respecter les 

conventions, sur l'utilité de marquer une 

préférence communautaire au sein du réseau 

vis-à-vis de l'extérieur. Dans certaines 

situations, un ordre hiérarchique doit alors se 

substituer aux règles de coopération ou de 

marchandage, pour préserver l'unité dans le 

réseau, pour discipliner les membres, et pour 

faire respecter les conventions en dépit des 

tentations opportunistes (Lorenzoni, Baden 

Fuller, 1993). Le modèle du marché est 

également tributaire des deux autres modèles. 

D'une manière générale, le modèle du marché 

est soumis aux effets systèmes. Certaines 

décisions parfaitement cohérentes sur le plan 

individuel produisent des effets contreproductifs 

à l'échelle collective, et nuisent en 

retour aux enjeux individuels de départ. Le 

principe des bulles spéculatives est édifiant à 

ce sujet. L'effet système d'aveuglement 

collectif subsiste pourtant, renforcé par des 

phénomènes de dissonance cognitive ou de 

désinformation. À ce sujet, Crozier (1963) 

parle d'un « cercle vicieux », qui enferme les 

choix individuels dans des routines, et la 

structure de marché dans des schémas auto 

- référents. Une fois que ce cercle vicieux est 

dévoilé, que la hausse est perçue de façon 

excessive, le marché financier connaît une 

sorte d'état de choc, au cours duquel le 

processus d'expansion s'inverse de façon 

brutale provoquant la ruine de nombreux 

acteurs. Pour réduire les asymétries 

d'information, et donc afin d'éviter ces risques 

de spéculation, il n'est pas rare d'assister à 

des ajustements par l'émergence de réseaux 

d'acteurs (Baker, 1992). Par exemple sur les 

marchés financiers, les analystes et les 

entreprises s'échangent des informations 

privilégiées sur le registre de l'échange de 

don : par exemple en contrepartie d'un 

rapport favorable, l'analyste a accès à des 

informations qui ne sont pas révélées au 

grand public (Stiglitz, 2003). Ainsi, lorsque la 

transaction ne peut pas s'effectuer sur le 

registre du marchandage, pour des raisons 

d'éthique, ou par défaut d'évaluation du prix, il 

existe de multiples arrangements entre les 

48

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

acteurs du marché pour ajuster leurs et compétences. Ces auteurs soutiennent 

positions. Le marché ne pourrait pas se l'idée de « l'interpénétration » et de « 

réguler de lui même sans ces mécanismes l'hybridation » des formes d'organisation, pour 

informels et tacites. Pour autant, les réseaux parvenir à cet objectif de modularité. Par 

introduisent d'autres risques, des risques de exemple, des solidarités parallèles entre 

connivence à la place des risques firmes ou entre acteurs, complètent le 

d'opportunisme par exemple. Certains acteurs dispositif d'action sur un marché en 

peuvent par exemple agir en position de juge favorisant les formes d'alliances ou de 

et partie, et orienter l'évolution du marché coopération sur le principe gagnant-gagnant 

vers des intérêts corporatistes. Pour (Håkansson et Johanson 1988, 1989). 

contrôler ces risques de comportement D'autres réseaux se superposent aux 

déviant, une forme d'autorité hiérarchique doit organigrammes traditionnels, pour faciliter la 

s'exercer sur les marchés, par exemple au transversalité des décisions ou 

niveau des pouvoirs publics : soit pour l'externalisation des activités dans le modèle 

compenser l'insuffisance d'investissement ou hiérarchique. À l'inverse, on assiste à 

le manque de croissance par des politiques l'interpénétration de la hiérarchie au sein du 

de déréglementation, soit pour réguler au marché pour régir des transactions qui 

contraire le manque de transparence et le échappent au libre jeu de la concurrence. Le 

défaut d'information par des politiques de processus d'hybridation ou d'interpénétration 

réglementation. Notamment dans les crises est considéré non pas comme un objectif à 

spéculatives, l'Etat intervient comme dernier atteindre dans la gestion de l'entreprise, mais 

recours. Mais les pouvoirs publics sont comme " un déséquilibre normal " de son 

également soumis aux pressions partisanes mode de fonctionnement. La forme de 

des réseaux d'acteurs par le lobbying et aux l'organisation d'une entreprise devient alors 

variations de marché influant sur la plus complexe (Daft, Lewin 1983), de façon à 

progression du PIB et sur la capacité de rechercher les avantages compétitifs 

redistribution des richesses. Autrement dit, la procurés par une combinaison des propriétés 

tutelle hiérarchique qui s'exerce sur les du marché, de la hiérarchie et du réseau. Les 

marchés (conseil de concurrence, trois mécanismes typiques de régulation 

législateurs) est étroitement liée aux autres (marchés, hiérarchie, réseaux) ne constituent 

formes de régulation : l'économie de marché pas des modalités exclusives, mais au 

entre l'offre et la demande et l'économie des contraire sont appelés à se combiner de 

conventions entre les acteurs. Si l'un de ces manière originale. Ce faisant, ils génèrent 

mécanismes est défaillant (trop ou pas assez dans l'entreprise des conflits d'intérêts car 

d'Etat, trop ou pas assez de connivence, trop ces mécanismes ne s'associent pas toujours 

ou pas assez de marché), les autres servent sans heurt et en parfaite harmonie. 

à compenser les dysfonctionnements pour L'entreprise a donc une organisation 

ramener la stabilité et l'équilibre dans les enchevêtrée, car elle tend à fonctionner en 

transactions entre les firmes et les échanges combinant différents mécanismes de 

d'informations entre les acteurs. Il existe donc coordination comme la négociation par les 

de multiples sources de complémentarité prix, ou l'ajustement mutuel par la confiance, 

entre les modèles hiérarchiques, marchands qui correspondent aux idéaux types que sont 

et réticulaires évoquées dans la littérature. le marché, la hiérarchie et le réseau. Dans 

Ainsi, Brousseau (1993-a) et Imai et Itami ces conditions, détenir un avantage compétitif 

(1984) considèrent que l'organisation est durable nécessite pour un dirigeant d'être 

nécessairement modulable, afin de produire capable de concilier des logiques d'action 

de la variété avec une économie de moyens, jugées parfois incompatibles, en combinant de 

en utilisant les mêmes éléments sans changer façon harmonieuse et équilibrée, différents 

de structure. Cette modularité lui permet modes de coordination fondés sur la 

d'adapter la variété de l'offre à différents négociation, l'autorité, les contrats, la 

environnements avec les mêmes ressources confiance, les conventions, les procédures, 

49

en accord avec les travaux de Bradach et 

Eccles (1989). 

Comment observer 

l'enchevêtrement ? 

Pour étudier les combinaisons 

d'idéaux types, il convient de repérer dans un 

premier temps la présence des variables de 

Il est possible d'utiliser cette grille de 

lecture pour repérer dans la dynamique d'une 

firme l'influence des idéaux types. En effet, 

chaque idéal type d'organisation conditionne 

la façon de concevoir et d'analyser la 

stratégie d'entreprise, la manière d'atteindre 

des avantages compétitifs, la façon 

d'appréhender l'environnement et d'en tirer un 

bénéfice pour la stratégie. Pour autant, 


coordination et de contrôle correspondant 

aux idéaux types, et dans un deuxième temps 

la façon dont ces mécanismes se complètent 

et s'ajustent dans l'organisation pour produire 

une forme d'enchevêtrement particulière : voir 

tableau ci-dessous. 

lorsque nous réfléchissons à la mise en 

œuvre de ces modèles dans un souci de 

performance, nous constatons leurs limites, 

et la nécessité de dépasser leurs 

imperfections, par une réflexion qui les 

englobe simultanément, au lieu de les 

dissocier : 

La démarche cartésienne du 

modèle hiérarchique : sur le plan 

50

stratégique, l'entreprise adopte cette 

démarche pour obtenir un avantage 

décisif sur les concurrents par 

l'intégration des facteurs clés de succès 

comme des compétences uniques ou des 

ressources rares (Barney, 1990). Sur le 

plan organisationnel, ce modèle 

hiérarchique repose sur l'idée qu'une 

entreprise fonctionne de façon mécanique 

avec un certain nombre de rouages. Par 

souci d'efficacité, il suffit de fragmenter 

les décisions et les responsabilités sous 

une autorité unique pour en garantir la 

bonne cohésion. Les acteurs se 

comportent ensuite de façon rationnelle, 

sans faire preuve d'arbitraire ou de 

subjectivité. En cherchant à maximiser 

leur utilité individuelle, ils maximiseraient 

l'optimum d'ensemble. Dans ce modèle, les 

facteurs du capital et du travail sont 

indépendants, ils ne s'influencent pas et 

peuvent se substituer l'un par rapport à 

l'autre pour augmenter la productivité par 

exemple. Ce modèle ignore les 

phénomènes de frottement dans les 

rouages, car la coordination et le contrôle 

hiérarchiques ne se déroulent pas sans 

heurt. L'organisation subit de multiples 

influences internes avec les conflits de 

pouvoir ou les risques de démotivation, ou 

externes avec la nécessité de changer ou 

d'innover, qui rendent inopérante une 

performance fondée uniquement sur des 

automatismes cartésiens, ou sur les 

vertus auto référentes de la pyramide 

hiérarchique (Crozier, Friedberg, 1977). 

La démarche concurrentielle du 

modèle marchand : sur le plan stratégique, 

l'entreprise adopte cette démarche pour 

obtenir une rente de situation dans les 

échanges avec d'autres sociétés, en se 

protégeant de la compétition, par la recherche 

d'une domination par les coûts ou la 

différenciation (Porter, 1986). Sur le plan 

organisationnel, la coordination des tâches 

sur un marché est décentralisée; elle est 

articulée autour des variables de négociation 

par les prix pour aboutir à un contrat et à un 

transfert de propriétés. Le contrôle repose 

sur le respect des règles de concurrence 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

face aux risques d'opportunisme qui demeure 

toutefois présent. Or, ces règles de la 

concurrence pure et parfaite demeurent un 

mythe économique. La plupart du temps, les 

acteurs sur un marché obéissent à des 

incitations juridiques réglementaires et 

fiscales qui provoquent des asymétries et 

des déséquilibres dans les échanges. Par 

opportunisme, les acteurs cherchent à 

exploiter les failles de ces réglementations et 

à détourner les principes de concurrence à 

leur avantage. Dans ces conditions, le 

marché ne contribue pas toujours à faire 

émerger une conscience collective de l'intérêt 

général en économie, et il ne permet pas 

nécessairement d'atteindre un optimum de 

croissance, sans risques et sans externalités 

négatives. En effet, certaines décisions 

opportunistes deviennent souvent contreproductives 

pour l'équilibre collectif du 

marché, et se retournent alors contre l'intérêt 

individuel des acteurs engagés dans ces 

décisions. Le marché n'est donc pas à lui 

seul, le vecteur de performance que l'on 

idéalise trop souvent. 

La démarche solidaire du modèle 

réseau : sur le plan stratégique, l'entreprise 

adopte l'organisation en réseau pour 

neutraliser les concurrents et pour contrôler 

l'accès à des ressources complémentaires, 

au sein d'un tissu d'alliances récurrentes et 

durables (Osborn, Hagedoorn, 1997). Sur le 

plan organisationnel, la coordination au sein 

d'un réseau s'effectue par ajustement mutuel 

avec des relais grâce au lien de confiance 

entre les membres (Ring, Van de Ven, 1992). 

Le contrôle est souvent diffus et décentralisé. 

Il prend alors la forme d'un enracinement 

social, par l'adhésion à des règles non écrite 

ou conventionnelles (Granovetter, 1985). Ce 

modèle de fonctionnement souffre néanmoins 

d'un certain nombre d'écueil. Il est souvent 

considéré comme instable et difficile à piloter, 

car il cherche à marier flexibilité et stabilité, 

différenciation et unification. Le premier 

risque relatif au fonctionnement en réseau 

résulte du comportement grégaire des 

membres. La volonté de rester entre soi dans 

une communauté solidaire, pousse les 

membres à pratiquer la cooptation et à faire 

51

du « clonage reproductif » sur les nouveaux 

arrivants, ce qui risque de créer à terme un 

phénomène de repli sur soi du réseau avec 

une perte d'efficacité par rapport au 

nécessaire besoin d'ouverture. L'autre risque 

est relatif au phénomène de rivalité latente 

entre les membres d'un réseau, en l'absence 

d'une autorité commune en position d'arbitre. 

La recherche de consensus peut alors céder 

le pas à des comportements plus 

individualistes, préjudiciables à la coopération 

et à la solidarité dont l'organisation dépend 

pour développer le maillage. Ainsi, il n'existe 

pas toujours dans un réseau, des 

mécanismes d'auto régulations suffisamment 

efficaces pour rétablir un ordre social 

profitable à tous. En conséquence, le réseau, 

en soi, n'est pas toujours synonyme de 

performance. 

Dans ces conditions, l'observation de 

l'enchevêtrement organisationnel se nourrit de 

l'observation des failles et des limites dans la 

cohérence des mécanismes de coordination 

spécifiques au marché, à la hiérarchie et au 

réseau. L'enchevêtrement organisationnel 

intervient dans les zones d'ombre des 

modèles, lorsque plusieurs logiques d'actions 

imprévues se chevauchent, ou lorsqu'il s'agit 

de compenser une instabilité organisationnelle 

par un dosage mieux équilibré, entre la 

centralisation et la décentralisation des 

décisions, l'autonomie et la dépendance des 

acteurs, la standardisation et l'innovation 

dans les produits, l'harmonisation et 

l'adaptation des règles, etc. De cette manière, 

l'objectif consiste à révéler par l'observation, 

la nature de l'enchevêtrement, les 

déséquilibres qu'il compense ou qu'il 

provoque dans l'organisation, le caractère 

instable ou stable de ses composantes, la 

dimension contingente ou spontanée de son 

état. 

Etude empirique de 

l'enchevêtrement organisationnel 

L'investigation empirique que nous 

présentons dans cet article repose sur 

l'utilisation de la grille de lecture de 

l'enchevêtrement dans un cas concret 

d'entreprise : l'observation et l'analyse des 


modalités d'organisation chez Vivendi 

Universal (VU), deuxième groupe mondial des 

services dans la communication. Cette 

recherche a démarré il y a une dizaine 

d'années, dans le cadre d'un travail visant à 

découvrir le fonctionnement de l'organisation 

de VU, sous l'angle de la théorie des réseaux. 

Face aux limites d'interprétation de cette 

théorie, la recherche s'est ensuite prolongée 

avec une grille de lecture fondée sur 

l'enchevêtrement, englobant le réseau, mais 

ouvrant l'observation et l'analyse à d'autres 

formes d'organisations. La plupart des 

données ont été collectées dans un cadre 

non participant, comme observateurs 

extérieurs de statut universitaire, dont la 

démarche de recherche visait à réduire les 

biais d'interprétations en croisant les sources 

primaires et secondaires d'observations. Les 

données ont été collectées avant 1996 et 

après 1996, date à laquelle VU connaît une 

alternance du pouvoir de direction, avec un 

changement de PDG et une évolution radicale 

des objectifs stratégiques. Avant 1996, nous 

avons surtout consulté les archives du 

groupe, la lettre d'information mensuelle pour 

les cadres, les bilans et rapports d'activités. 

Nous avons également constitué un dossier 

de presse. Pour compléter ces données 

historiques générales, nous avons construits 

des études de cas très spécifiques à partir 

d'une cinquantaine d'entretiens semi-directifs, 

études de cas révélant les diverses facettes 

de l'organisation de VU à une période où le 

groupe était dénué des points de repères 

traditionnels : absence d'organigramme, 

absence de reporting comptable, absence de 

comité de direction. À cette occasion, nous 

avons interrogé des acteurs au niveau des 

filiales engagées dans des projets communs 

pour comprendre la façon dont elles 

parvenaient à s'organiser en l'absence de 

directive commune, avec une hiérarchie 

absente et pourtant présente. Puis nous 

avons validé notre travail, par quelques 

entretiens au niveau de la direction générale. 

Après 1996, nous avons prolongé notre 

investigation à partir de données secondaires 

dans un contexte différent, avec une 

ouverture plus grande de l'entreprise aux 

sollicitations des médias, des chercheurs et 

52

des journalistes. À cette période, 

l'observation de VU présentait deux atouts. 

Premièrement, il s'agissait de l'une des plus 

grandes entreprises d'Europe avec 250 000 

salariés, 45 milliards d'euro de chiffre 

d'affaires et 120 milliards d'euro de 

capitalisation. Dans ces conditions, le titre VU 

côté en Europe et aux Etats-Unis suscitait 

l'intérêt partagé des journalistes et imposait à 

la direction de communiquer régulièrement à 

l'égard des actionnaires. Deuxièmement, le 

groupe était présidé par un dirigeant 

charismatique, M. Messier qui n'hésitait pas à 

évoquer publiquement sa politique générale et 

ses choix d'organisation, dans des entretiens 

télévisés, à la radio ou sur Internet. Nous 

avons bénéficié au cours de cette période 

d'un abonnement par Mail de l'ensemble des 

Pour limiter les risques de biais dans 

l'observation à cette période comme dans la 

période précédente durant la thèse, nous 

avons validé l'interprétation des données par 

un retour sur le terrain auprès des acteurs 

interrogés, en utilisant le principe du “Feed- 

Back Survey” cher à Crozier (1963). La 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

communiqués de presse du groupe. Nous 

avons également exploité les informations 

publiées sur le site institutionnel des filiales et 

le site institutionnel du groupe, qui étaient liés 

par des échanges de bannières ou des liens 

hypertextes, permettant ainsi de naviguer en 

s'imprégnant de l'univers du groupe. Enfin, 

nous avons effectué des entretiens 

exploratoires, semi-directifs, au niveau des 

filiales concernées prioritairement par les 

restructurations du groupe (Canal +, 

Viventures, Vivendi Net), mais également au 

niveau du siège social avec le département 

en charge de la réflexion sur le “business 

developpement” et les structures. 

validation de notre vision de l'enchevêtrement 

chez VU s'est déroulée par téléphone et par 

échange de courrier avec des acteurs 

appartenant au siège de VU et avec des 

experts travaillant ou ayant travaillé avec le 

groupe. 

53

Pour traiter l'ensemble de ces 

données, nous avons appliqué une démarche 

« d'audit de l'enchevêtrement » sur VU, en 

deux phases. La première phase consistait à 

décrire la nature de la configuration 

organisationnelle c'est-à-dire la façon dont 

s'imbriquent les idéaux-types M,H,R faisant 

l'objet des paragraphes 2.1 et 2.2. Dans un 

deuxième temps, nous avons porté notre 

attention sur la dynamique de 

l'enchevêtrement, en cherchant à interpréter 

le phénomène de transition entre les 

différentes formes d'enchevêtrement sur les 

deux périodes étudiées avant 1996 et après 

1996. Ce point est exposé dans le 

paragraphe 2.3. 

L'enchevêtrement 

organisationnel de VU entre 1970-1996 

Durant cette période, Vivendi 

Universal (VU) se présente encore sous son 

ancienne raison sociale de Compagnie 

Générale des Eaux (CGE). Celle-ci a une 

vocation généraliste visant à répondre aux 

besoins des collectivités locales dans tous 

les compartiments de la vie publique : 

transport collectif, restauration collective, 

chauffage, BTP, eau, télécommunications, 

immobilier etc. L'organisation de VU est 

conçue pour apporter une solution au besoin 

du client, en combinant « sur mesure » et de 

façon modulaire les ressources et les 

compétences de ses filiales spécialisées. 

C'est la raison pour laquelle, la structure de 

VU n'est pas enfermée dans un 


organigramme classique, mais elle repose 

principalement sur le maillage des filiales 

gérées en commandite par actions, de façon 

très autonomes, au sein d'une organisation en 

réseau. Au centre de ce réseau, un acteur 

détient plus de pouvoir que les autres, il s'agit 

du PDG : M. Dejouany. Durant son mandat à la 

tête du groupe jusqu'en 1996, il va multiplier 

par 5 la taille de VU pour lui permettre 

d'atteindre la position de leader mondial des 

services aux collectivités. Il applique en effet 

une stratégie de croissance externe poussée 

à l'extrême, afin de compléter la palette des 

métiers et des compétences détenues au sein 

des frontières de VU. Les choix d'acquisitions 

ou de prise de participations relèvent d'une 

volonté d'atteindre une taille critique dans tous 

les secteurs relatifs aux collectivités, d'abord 

sur le plan national, puis à une échelle 

mondiale. Cette croissance, de l'ordre de 15 

% par an, propulse le chiffre d'affaires de 2,6 

milliards d'EUR en 1981, à 17,8 milliards d'EUR 

dix ans plus tard. Durant cette période, des 

mécanismes d'autogestion évitent à M. 

Dejouany de s'impliquer directement dans 

l'administration des filiales, en déléguant les 

responsabilités au niveau le plus bas, comme 

l'explique l'un de ses proches collaborateurs : 

" La répartition des responsabilités 

entre le siège et les filiales est basée sur le 

principe de la subsidiarité, c'est-à-dire sur la 

règle de suppléance. Le principe de la 

subsidiarité est affirmé entre le siège et les 

filiales de premier rang ou de second rang, 

selon lequel les compétences sont a priori 

conférées au niveau le plus bas, à moins 

qu'il ne soit démontré que le transfert à un 

54

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

niveau supérieur ne permette de gagner en un droit de préemption aux filiales VU sur des 

efficacité. A la limite, le siège ne peut être contrats de sous-traitance interne, par 

utile en rien, de la même façon que le rapport à des firmes extérieures au réseau. 

cerveau n'est pas forcément utile pour De la même manière, les délais de paiement 

réguler les battements du cœur ou le sont « routinisés » entre les filiales. Mais 

gonflement des poumons. On ne réfléchit comme le précise lors d'un entretien l'un des 

pas pour respirer. On peut comparer les responsables d'une filiale, ces routines 

relations du siège avec les filiales au mode provoquent une forme d'inertie 

de fonctionnement du système nerveux dans organisationnelle, en enfermant une partie 

la respiration. Il y a des muscles lisses et des comportements dans des conventions 

les autres. Certains disposent du degré préétablies : 

d'autonomie suffisant pour ne pas dépendre " Le jeu des règles non écrites 

du système central. De même, l'intervention introduit des effets pervers. A l'échelle du 

du siège sur une filiale ne se justifie qu'en groupe, entre les sociétés, y compris à 

vertu du principe de valeur ajoutée. Si l'intérieur d'une même entreprise, on peut se 

l'intervention engendre de la valeur ajoutée demander comment se transmettent les 

dans l'entité, alors, elle se justifie. Compte savoirs en l'absence de procédure. Un 

tenu de l'état de la filiale, le siège réfléchit savoir-faire technique se transmet 

pour savoir comment la valoriser par son facilement, car il est standardisé. Mais, à 

expertise ou ses contacts. Il n'y a pas de partir du moment où un savoir est 

règles générales, ni de procédures personnalisé, comme la connaissance d'un 

systématiques. Il est très difficile d'imaginer territoire, d'une firme ou d'un marché, 

une règle de gestion qui englobe toutes les l'information est beaucoup plus difficile à 

situations du terrain, il est donc préférable transmettre. En l'absence de règles 

que les filiales valident leurs propres règles formelles, cela présente un énorme 

au contact du terrain. " 

inconvénient, car les membres du réseau 

Ce mode de gouvernement privilégie sont obligés de répéter plusieurs fois les 

les échanges interpersonnels en dehors des mêmes tâches et les mêmes fonctions, 

canaux hiérarchiques traditionnels, en mémorisées par un acteur ayant quitté 

respectant des règles tacites et des l'organisation. Par contre, cela permet de 

conventions informelles. Il en résulte une gagner beaucoup de temps, car personne 

autorégulation remarquable de l'organisation, n'est obligé d'écrire. Par exemple pour la 

fonctionnant sur une double orientation de comptabilité au sein de VU, il n'existe pas de 

l'action entre la dimension « corporate » du règles particulières qui permettent 

réseau de filiales au niveau global, et la d'harmoniser les règles d'imputation des 

dimension « business » des maillons qui comptes. L'expérience montre que les 

constituent ce réseau au niveau local. Dans acteurs se rattachent alors à la coutume et 

ce contexte, la coordination porte sur des aux habitudes du passé, en refusant 

conventions multilatérales et bilatérales qui d'innover. En l'absence de lois ou de 

façonnent et transforment les échanges entre décrets, la coutume semble l'emporter." 

les filiales, en l'absence d'organigramme et de Pour compenser les failles d'un 

comité de direction. Ces conventions sont fonctionnement trop complexe et improductif à 

comparables à des routines, c'est-à-dire à partir des règles tacites, le réseau des filiales 

des comportements répétés de manière est structuré par pôles d'activités : 

quasi-automatique, hérités et donc issus de la l'environnement (eau, énergie, propreté, 

mémoire de l'organisation. Les routines transports), la communication (télé- 

portent sur un encadrement minimal des communications, médias) et l'aménagement 

conditions de relation entre les filiales. Elles (construction, immobilier). Chaque pôle 

sont particulièrement perceptibles quand une d'activités est piloté par des filiales de premier 

filiale a recours à la sous-traitance interne. rang elles-mêmes reliés directement au siège 

Ainsi, il existe une règle non écrite qui donne social de la CGE dans la consolidation 

55

comptable. Ces filiales de premier rang sont 

assimilées à des têtes de réseau : des 

nœuds d'interconnexion qui ont une fonction 

d'intermédiation et de régulation importante 

vis-à-vis des autres nœuds à l'intérieur d'un 

territoire ou d'une zone d'influence du réseau. 

Chaque tête de réseau est gouvernée par un 

ou plusieurs directeurs généraux rattachés 

directement à M. Dejouany. Entouré d'une 

vingtaine de directeurs généraux qui lui 

rapportent directement, celui-ci gouverne 

sans comité de direction, sans organigramme 

à l'exception de l'annuaire des cadres, en 

supervisant directement les dossiers 

importants et en accordant une grande 

confiance aux directeurs généraux qui lui 

doivent leur nomination et l'étendue de leur 

pouvoir. À l'intersection des territoires 

contrôlés par différentes têtes de réseau, il 

subsiste des zones d'ombre à l'intérieur 

desquelles les filiales se comportent en toute 

indépendance, en refusant parfois de 

collaborer, en pratiquant la concurrence 

interne, en négociant les termes d'un contrat 

avec d'autres filiales de VU après une mise 

en concurrence avec des acteurs extérieurs 

au réseau. Ce schéma est éloigné d'une 

configuration divisionnelle, en l'absence d'une 

politique globale de rationalisation et de 

supervision systématique des transactions 

entre les filiales. Ce faible niveau de 

hiérarchisation est revendiquée par la 

direction générale de VU comme l'explique l'un 

de ses représentants: 

" La normalisation des procédures 

ou des règles de partage des tâches 

s'impose à partir du moment où elle 

procure une plus grande valeur ajoutée. 

Le problème, c'est que nous évoluons sur 

des métiers qui ne sont pas standards. 

Notre organisation s'est constituée à 

partir de cette spécificité. Prenons 

l'exemple de l'eau : aucune eau ne 

ressemble à une autre dans sa 

composition; et aucun confluent ne 

ressemble à un autre dans son relief. En 

général, la formalisation procure une plus 

grande cohérence au sein de l'entreprise, 

avec une plus grande lisibilité des actions 

et un langage commun entre les acteurs ; 

par contre elle colle moins bien à la 


réalité. C'est un peu comme dans 

l'habillement entre le sur-mesure et le 

prêt-à-porter. Par notre métier, nous 

sommes amenés à évoluer dans le surmesure." 

Pour autant l'organisation demeure 

rationnelle, par une logique d'enchevêtrement 

centrée sur M. Dejouany qui reste le seul 

point de repère stable dans une organisation 

particulièrement complexe. Par ses décisions 

d'acquisition et de cession de filiales et par 

les fusions ou les recompositions de pôles 

d'activités, il introduit des niveaux de 

responsabilité hiérarchique : têtes de réseau, 

filiales de premier rang, filiales de second 

rang... Ce faisant, il opère un premier « 

réglage » de l'organisation. Lors des 

acquisitions et des cessions, il fixe ensuite un 

deuxième « réglage » de l'organisation, en 

définissant le niveau de « redondance » des 

filiales, c'est-à-dire en déterminant le nombre 

d'entités en situation de concurrence 

potentielle. Il peut ainsi réguler le niveau 

d'intensité concurrentiel au sein du réseau : le 

niveau de redondance entre les nœuds du 

réseau. De même, il intervient aussi pour 

redéfinir les positions entre les maillons, en 

fusionnant ou en refondant plusieurs filiales. Il 

découpe alors le réseau en sous-ensemble 

homogène plus facile à gouverner. Enfin, en 

accentuant les spécialisations et la 

différenciation des filiales, il incite tacitement à 

la coopération. En conséquence, pour 

paraphraser Chandler (1962), M. Dejouany, 

par une activité de délégation d'autorité, 

devient la « main visible » qui détermine 

l'existence d'une « main invisible » au sein de 

l'organisation. En guise de synthèse (voire 

figure 1), l'organisation de VU à cette période 

comporte un enchevêtrement organisationnel 

à de multiples niveaux. La forme réseau 

domine le fonctionnement de l'organisation. 

Elle est articulée avec les modes de contrôle 

marchand pour départager l'offre des filiales 

au niveau des clients, et les modes de 

contrôle hiérarchique pour réguler les 

échanges dans le réseau de filiales par 

l'affectation de directeurs généraux à la tête 

des filiales de premiers rangs, en position de 

têtes de réseau. 

56

L'enchevêtrement 

organisationnel de VU entre 1996 -2002 

Au cours de cette période, une 

transition du pouvoir s'amorce entre M. 

Dejouany et M. Messier. Ce dernier devient le 

nouveau PDG du groupe. Cette transition du 

pouvoir s'explique par les déséquilibres de 

l'organisation précédente : une organisation 

centrée principalement sur la logique de 

réseau où la concurrence interne se banalise 

avec des risques d'incohérence ; une 

organisation dont les ramifications sont trop 

diversifiées dans des métiers en crise comme 

l'immobilier ou le BTP, ou dans des activités 

trop éloignés de la vocation de base, comme 

l'hôtellerie, ou la grande distribution avec les 

magasins Fnac par exemple ; une 

organisation dont le développement externe 

est mal maîtrisé avec un niveau d'endettement 

record de 10,6 milliards d'EUR (195 % des 

fonds propres), et des pertes historiques, 

pour la première fois depuis 50 ans, évaluées 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

pour l'exercice 1995 à 0,5 milliards d'EUR, et 

des pertes cumulées évaluées dans 

l'immobilier à 5,7 milliards d'EUR. Dans ce 

contexte, M. Messier semble posséder les 

compétences requises pour résoudre les 

problèmes financiers en réduisant le niveau 

de complexité de l'organisation. Ancien 

inspecteur des finances, ce dernier a 

développé un profil de dirigeant spécialisé 

dans les problèmes de « corporate 

governance », en phase avec la montée du 

pouvoir des représentants d'actionnaires 

anglo-saxons et de fonds de pension, au sein 

du conseil d'administration de VU (Mertens- 

Santamaria 1997). Dans son parcours de 

dirigeant, M. Messier s'inspire de son 

expérience de banquier d'affaire chez 

Lazard. À ce titre, sa vigilance s'exerce 

prioritairement sur la création de valeur pour 

les actionnaires. Cette façon de gouverner 

contraste nettement avec les habitudes de 

son prédécesseur davantage focalisé sur les 

métiers et sur les clients. Pour atteindre 

l'objectif de création de valeur, M. Messier 

57

utilise différents leviers : 

- Le levier stratégique : sur le plan 

stratégique, M. Messier effectue un 

désinvestissement dans les métiers 

traditionnels de VU (l'eau, l'énergie, la 

propreté, le transport…) qui affaiblissent la 

rentabilité des capitaux investis, car il n'est 

pas possible de délocaliser ou d'automatiser 

la production de ces services de proximité, 

pour en réduire le coût de main d'œuvre. 

Dans le même temps, il engage une 

croissance externe vers d'autres métiers de 

services à plus forte valeur ajoutée, dans la 

communication (téléphonie, cinéma, édition, 

jeux vidéos, e-commerce sur Internet, TV et 

canaux de distribution, etc.). 

- Le levier financier : pour financer la 

stratégie de croissance externe dans le 

secteur de la communication, il utilise le 

principe de l'offre publique d'échange (OPE). 

Chaque rachat d'entreprise par fusionacquisition 

augmente mécaniquement la 

valeur de l'action VU, valeur d'action qui sert 

ensuite de monnaie d'échange pour procéder 

à de nouvelles acquisitions. Cette croissance 

repose sur la bonne conjoncture boursière 

favorable aux métiers de la communication. 

Mais sur le plan industriel, la croissance en 

taille est discutable, dans la mesure où VU 

devient un groupe plus coûteux à gérer avec 

des frais de fonctionnement plus importants : 

par exemple le siège social parisien est 

transféré sur l'avenue de Friedland avec une 

multiplication par cinq des effectifs 

représentant plus de 1000 personnes en 

2000. Ce type de dépense induit une baisse 

de la rentabilité sur le long terme, phénomène 

qui n'est pas anticipé à cette époque dans la 

valeur de l'action VU, ou dans la capitalisation 

boursière. 

- Le levier du gouvernement de 

l'entreprise : pour faire adhérer les 

actionnaires et autres parties prenantes à sa 

politique, il s'entoure d'administrateurs qui lui 

doivent leur nomination. Par ailleurs, il 

communique les résultats de sa politique 

principalement autour des critères de 

croissance patrimoniale : l'EVA qui 

correspond au surplus du résultat 


d'exploitation après impôts par rapport à la 

rémunération des capitaux engagés, et le 

critère de l'EBITDA qui correspond au résultat 

d'exploitation avant amortissement et 

dépréciation, activités de restructuration et 

autres éléments exceptionnels. En interne, il 

indexe une partie des revenus des cadres 

dirigeants et des salariés, par l'attribution de 

stocks options, rendant les objectifs 

financiers prioritaires sur tout autre but. 

Compte tenu de ces nouvelles orientations, 

l'organisation de VU est entraînée vers une 

logique d'intégration hiérarchique avec un 

recentrage dans l'environnement et une 

diversification dans la communication. Il s'agit 

de la plus importante reconversion industrielle 

jamais opérée par un groupe de cette taille en 

France : 18 milliards d'EUR d'actifs sont cédés 

en trois ans, pour diminuer le niveau 

d'endettement (80 % des fonds propres en 

1998) et pour financer le développement dans 

les métiers stratégiques. Dans ses choix de 

restructurations, M. Messier cherche à 

renforcer la position concurrentielle de VU 

dans tous les métiers, soit pratiquant de la 

concentration horizontale, soit en cherchant à 

acquérir des compétences verticales pour 

dominer la compétition. Dans le cadre de cette 

démarche, M. Messier consacre une grande 

partie de ses investissements pour posséder 

des contenus exclusifs dans la 

communication, et pour renforcer la taille 

critique de VU dans l'environnement. Toutes 

ces actions sont menées suivant un registre 

hiérarchique centralisé, lisible et cohérent du 

point de vue des marchés financiers. Ce 

mode de fonctionnement devient dominant sur 

les autres possibilités de coordination et de 

contrôle. Il est présent à tous les niveaux de 

décision de VU, au sein du siège social avec 

la présence d'un comité de direction et d'un 

conseil de surveillance qui supervisent un 

organigramme divisionnel, au sein des 

divisions et des principales filiales avec la 

présence d'une direction générale. La 

hiérarchie est considérée comme un vecteur 

d'intégration des éléments de l'organisation. 

Les compétences ou les ressources à forte 

valeur ajoutée (rare, non substituable, non 

imitable), qui contribuent à une forte image de 

marque auprès des clients, ou à une forte 

58

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

valorisation du titre VU auprès des certains maillons de la chaîne de valeur des 

actionnaires, sont donc intégrées dans la services (cf. annexe 1). Ainsi, deux logiques 

structure, le plus souvent par croissance guident l'action de M. Messier dans la « 

externe dans le cadre de fusion acquisition. nouvelle économie » : le désir de s'adapter à 

De façon complémentaire, l'instabilité de l'environnement en luttant contre les 

l'environnement, l'ouverture mondiale des contraintes et en saisissant les opportunités ; 

marchés, les brusques changements le désir de modifier l'environnement pour 

technologiques et le raccourcissement du réduire les incertitudes, en créant par 

cycle de vie des services poussent M. exemple de nouvelles rêgles de valorisation 

Messier à recourir à d'autres modes de des services sur Internet. Ces deux logiques 

croissance et d'organisation plus flexibles et sont présentes simultanément dans la 

moins centralisés notamment dans la branche dynamique de l'organisation. Au terme de 

communication (cf. annexe 1). Pour s'adapter cette mutation rapide, le chiffre d'affaires de 

à la concentration de l'offre sans disposer VU est constitué pour moitié par les activités 

des capacités d'investissement, M. Messier de communication. Mais les bénéfices ne sont 

adopte une stratégie de coopération avec des pas à la hauteur de l'ambition de M. Messier, 

concurrents qui éprouvent la même difficulté, notamment pour la partie Média (musique, 

comme British Telecom dans la téléphonie cinéma, télévision, Internet, édition). Celle-ci 

fixe, Sky Network dans la télévision, Sony et représente, en 2001, 35 % du chiffre 

Yahoo dans la diffusion de musique en ligne, d'affaires total, bien qu'elle totalise à peine 13 

Bertelsmann dans l'édition en ligne, % des bénéfices. Si nous comparons le ratio 

Vodaphone dans la téléphonie mobile. du résultat d'exploitation sur le chiffre 

Certains deviennent co-actionnaires avec VU d'affaires (indice de profitabilité), on obtient à 

dans des filiales communes, comme cette époque, 6,7 % pour l'environnement, 17 

Vodafone, leader mondial dans la téléphonie % pour la téléphonie et 2,4 % pour les médias 

mobile qui possède des parts du capital de avec des résultats négatifs dans certaines 

SFR, numéro deux sur le marché français. branches comme la télévision et dans 

Cette coopération entre concurrents, cette « Internet. En conséquence, en 2002, le groupe 

co-opétition » (Bradenburger, Nalebuff 1997), VU est valorisé par les marchés financiers 

est d'ailleurs un moyen privilégié de contrôler comme un empilement d'actifs, avec une 

l'intensité concurrentielle ou d'ériger des décote de 50 % de la somme du prix estimé 

barrières à l'entrée du secteur, en partageant de ces actifs (1+1< 2), à l'image d'un holding 

des informations et en définissant des financier, et non pas comme un véritable 

normes collectives; les PDG de Bertelsmann groupe spécialisé dans la communication et 

et de VU, administrateurs croisés, capable de générer des synergies entre ses 

appartiennent d'ailleurs à plusieurs métiers. Ce phénomène contribue à 

associations de lobbying pour ériger des l'éclatement de la bulle spéculative sur les 

normes internationales concernant le marchés boursiers pour les valeurs TMT 

commerce électronique. Pour autant, le risque (technologie, médias, télécommunications), et 

de compétition n'est pas totalement écarté. réciproquement. Ces difficultés apparaissent 

L'alliance fondée sur des circonstances dans l'organisation de VU. La logique 

conjoncturelles ou des opportunités hiérarchique devient prédominante au 

passagères peut évoluer dans des rapports détriment des dimensions coopératives ou 

conflictuels et les anciens partenaires marchandes qui complètent de façon 

redeviennent alors des concurrents au sens périphérique les choix de coordination et de 

strict du terme. Le recours au marché contrôle (voir figure 2). C'est un 

complète cette logique d'action stratégique. renversement complet de l'enchevêtrement 

Lorsque l'activité est jugée secondaire ou par rapport à la période précédente, dans un 

lorsqu'il n'est pas possible d'acquérir la environnement concurrentiel qui incite les 

société qui la détient, VU externalise, par dirigeants à aligner leur stratégie sur des 

contrat, des inputs ou des outputs sur normes de visibilité définies par les marchés 

59

financiers. Chez VU, les choix d'organisations 

visent ainsi à compenser les déséquilibres 

étudiés dans la période avant 1996, mais 

Dans ce contexte, VU présente 

toujours la physionomie d'un groupe 

enchevêtré, mais avec un dosage de moins 

en moins équilibré dans l'utilisation des 

mécanismes de régulation du marché, des 

réseaux et de la hiérarchie. En effet, à 

chaque étape de croissance externe 

consécutive à de nombreux rachats 

d'entreprises, le pouvoir de M. Messier et le 

rôle du siège social s'affirment davantage au 

détriment de la marge de manœuvre 

historique des filiales et des niveaux 

traditionnels de management médians et 

opérationnels. Ce renforcement de la 

dimension hiérarchique, satisfaisante pour les 

marchés financiers sur la visibilité des 

comptes et de la stratégie, introduit un 

mauvais dosage de l'enchevêtrement 

organisationnel, avec un recours moins 


provoquent de nouveaux troubles non 

désirés et difficiles à endiguer. 

fréquent à la flexibilité du marché ou à la 

souplesse des alliances dans des réseaux. 

En conséquence, ce que VU gagne en 

cohérence dans l'intégration, elle le perd en 

flexibilité et en capacité d'adaptation dans un 

environnement marqué par des mutations 

rapides sur Internet qui privilégie pourtant ce 

type de configuration. Dès lors, la structure 

de VU souffre de rigidités, dont les 

manifestations les plus flagrantes se 

traduisent par un manque d'anticipation sur 

les retournements de marché, par 

l'amortissement de survaleurs sur des 

investissements irréversibles et par une perte 

de compétitivité face à des entreprises plus 

petites, utilisant de façon plus équilibrée, 

toutes les capacités organisationnelles. Dans 

une interview, M. Messier reconnaît cette 

difficulté à faire évoluer l'organisation : 

« J'ai échoué dans une étape 

essentielle pour la réalisation de ma 

60

stratégie, créer un champion de la 

communication à partir d'un champion de 

l'environnement. À un moment, il fallait que 

les deux étages de la fusée (Vivendi 

Communication et Vivendi Environnement) 

se séparent pour continuer le lancement, et 

cette opération ne s'est pas réalisée au 

moment où il le fallait en janvier 2002, en 

pleine période de campagne électorale pour 

les présidentielles. Les administrateurs ont 

subi la pression du pouvoir politique pour ne 

pas permettre à des investisseurs étrangers 

d'entrer dans le capital de Vivendi 

Environnement. Les administrateurs se sont 

opposés à la cession des métiers de 

l'environnement. Mon erreur à cette époque a 

été d'être trop préoccupé par ce qui se 

passait aux USA et pas assez en 

France…Avec le recul, le pire qui puisse 

arriver pour une entreprise, c'est une division 

à l'intérieur du conseil d'administration avec 

des fuites à l'extérieur qui alimentent et 

propagent des rumeurs sur les marchés 

financiers. C'est finalement ce qui a 

provoqué ma démission. » 

Nature du processus 

d'enchevêtrement 

L'étude longitudinale du cas Vivendi- 

Universal sur deux périodes 1970-1996 et 

1996-2002 nous permet de discuter des 

apports et des limites de la recherche (voir 

figure 3). La première période étudiée entre 

1970-1996, se caractérise par la domination 

de la forme du réseau intra-organisationnel 

afin de maîtriser une offre de services 

complexe, interconnectée et co-produite par 

des filiales autonomes, parfois concurrentes. 

L'identité d'entreprise est l'élément fédérateur 

de cet édifice complexe qui ne repose ni sur 

un métier spécifique, ni sur une famille 

fondatrice, ni sur un actionnariat bien 

circonscrit. Au-delà des liens de propriété 

financière entre le siège et les filiales, l'identité 

permet ainsi de délimiter les véritables 

frontières de l'organisation. De façon 

complémentaire, le marché et la hiérarchie 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

agissent comme élément régulateur pour 

compenser les faiblesses du réseau en 

matière de coordination et de contrôle, ou 

lorsqu'il s'agit de palier les besoins de 

ressources par l'intégration de nouvelles 

filiales ou par la sous-traitance d'activités. Ce 

mode d'organisation particulièrement 

complexe entraîne VU dans une 

diversification vers des métiers mal maîtrisés 

avec de nombreux doublons entre les filiales. 

Cette forme d'enchevêtrement est 

déséquilibrée par un excès, non souhaité, de 

flexibilité (un excès de slack-organisationnel 

au sens de March et Simon 1958), qui 

provoque une crise de management et un 

changement de dirigeant. En effet, au delà 

d'une certaine taille, la forme réseau devient 

ingérable de l'extérieur par le marché ou de 

l'intérieur par la hiérarchie (Lorenzoni, Baden 

Fuller, 1993). La deuxième période étudiée 

entre 1996-2002 est ensuite dominée par la 

forme hiérarchique, pour compenser le déficit 

de cohérence révélé dans la période 

précédente. La priorité est alors donnée à la 

croissance patrimoniale et à l'intégration 

d'actifs dans un périmètre de consolidation 

qui constitue les véritables frontières de 

l'organisation. En complément, le réseau et le 

marché jouent le rôle plus marginal de 

variables d'ajustement pour accéder à des 

ressources et à des compétences qu'il n'est 

pas possible d'intégrer dans un premier 

temps. Cette forme d'enchevêtrement 

comporte également des déséquilibres 

structurels, avec un excès de rigidités lié à 

l'irréversibilité des investissements financiers. 

Ces déséquilibres sont révélés par des 

variations soudaines dans l'environnement de 

VU, au niveau des marchés financiers 

notamment. Cela provoque une nouvelle crise 

du management avec la démission du 

dirigeant imposée par le conseil 

d'administration en 2002, remettant à nouveau 

en cause les choix d'organisation. 

61

Cette étude de cas illustre plusieurs 

phénomènes intéressants. Tout d'abord, 

l'enchevêtrement organisationnel tend à se 

cristalliser autour d'une forme dominante. 

Cette forme dominante est une réponse 

apportée de façon circonstancielle aux 

menaces et aux incertitudes les plus fortes 

qui pèsent sur l'action du dirigeant. En accord 

avec Thompson (1967), la forme de 

coordination dominante permet à l'organisation 

de conserver une marge d'autodétermination 

dans son action, en transformant les 

incertitudes extérieures en certitudes 

contrôlables en interne. Ainsi, entre 1970 et 

1996 la logique de réseau au sein de VU sert 

à neutraliser l'influence politique et 

économique des clients ; entre 1996 et 2002, 

la logique d'intégration hiérarchique au sein de 

VU permet de contrôler l'influence 

grandissante des actionnaires. L'organisation 

déplace ainsi ses frontières pour intégrer ou 

contrôler les contraintes majeures, en 

adaptant ses structures au client, en 

fusionnant avec des concurrents, en 

intégrant des fournisseurs ou des 

distributeurs par exemple. Mais, incorporer 

les contraintes dans le processus 

d'enchevêtrement n'est pas un exercice 

simple, car il nécessite souvent pour le 

dirigeant de concilier des principes de gestion 

contradictoires. La forme de l'organisation 

navigue ainsi, selon Hamel et Prahalad (1989), 

entre la nécessité d'adapter les moyens et les 


ressources à un environnement précis (« 

strategic fit »), en accord avec les intentions 

stratégiques des dirigeants (« strategic intent 

»). C'est la raison pour laquelle, la forme 

dominante dans l'enchevêtrement 

organisationnelle est complétée simultanément 

par d'autres mécanismes de coordination et 

de contrôle : le marché et la hiérarchie 

complètent le réseau dans la première période 

étudiée sur VU, le réseau et le marché 

complètent la logique hiérarchique dominante 

dans la seconde période d'observations. 

Notre recherche permet également de 

renforcer l'hypothèse d'inertie structurelle 

(note 1) présentée par Aldrich (1991), selon 

laquelle les structures de l'organisation 

évoluent moins vite que les variations de 

l'environnement. En effet, dans notre étude, 

nous constatons que l'enchevêtrement 

organisationnel bascule d'une forme 

dominante à l'autre lorsque le décalage entre 

l'entreprise et son environnement devient 

insupportable pour le dirigeant et les parties 

prenantes. Ce changement en rupture avec le 

passé est le seul moyen de rompre avec une 

forme d'inertie figée dans les intentions du 

dirigeant. Pour autant, la nouvelle forme 

d'enchevêtrement hérite de la précédente et 

conserve une partie des mécanismes de 

coordination et de contrôle, héritée de 

l'ancienne forme dominante : la hiérarchie de 

M. Messier hérite des réseaux de M. 

Dejouany. Cela tend à prouver que 

l'enchevêtrement organisationnel est très 

difficile à piloter entre le poids de l'héritage 

62

structurel et l'inertie des choix 

organisationnels. 

ο Conclusion 

Cet article offre une grille de lecture 

sur la mixité de différents modes de 

coordination dans les entreprises en 

mouvement. Notre recherche se démarque 

des approches normatives fondées sur la 

recherche d'un modèle dominant 

d'organisation qui découlerait soit de la 

diminution des coûts de transaction 

(Williamson 1975-1985-1991), soit d'éléments 

macro déterministes (Hannan, Freeman 

1977), ou de contingences micro 

déterministes (Pfeffer, Salancik 1978). 

Présenter une organisation comme un tout 

homogène et indivisible plutôt que comme un 

ensemble de parties disparates et 

hétérogènes est inexact. Bien que la plupart 

des théoriciens se référent à une conception 

monolithique de l'organisation, dans la majorité 

des cas, l'organisation est segmentée dans 

des domaines d'activités tributaires de la 

hiérarchie, du marché ou du réseau en tant 

que modes d'organisation. Ceci implique que 

l'organisation est simultanément enchevêtrée 

dans différentes formes pures de 

coordination et de contrôle des activités. Une 

conception universelle du design 

organisationnel est donc fallacieuse parce 

qu'elle repose sur une homogénéité qui 

n'existe pas (Dornbush, Scott, 1975). 

L'observation des pratiques de gouvernement 

du groupe VU confirme cette idée. 

L'articulation de l'enchevêtrement 

organisationnel auprès de VU nous montre 

que la direction générale ne conçoit pas des 

structures opérantes, mais des structures de 

décision. Les cadres supérieurs divisent ainsi 

l'organisation en sous-unités segmentées, qui 

conçoivent à leur tour des structures de 

fonctionnement opérationnel. Ceci nous 

permet d'adhérer à la notion du 

"métamanagement " de Kuhn et Beam (1982). 

En d'autres termes, les cadres supérieurs ne 

contrôlent pas réellement l'organisation, ils 

contrôlent le processus qui contrôle 

l'organisation. Un manque de connaissance et 

de visibilité - qui tend à empirer dans les 

environnements turbulents - empêche ainsi 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

les cadres supérieurs d'harmoniser tous les 

compartiments de l'organisation sous la forme 

d'une entité monolithique. Des structures et 

des configurations multiples sont donc 

trouvées au sein de chaque organisation. Il 

convient alors de décrire l'organisation non 

comme une entité uniforme et indivisible, mais 

comme un groupe de groupes d'acteurs, 

comme un ensemble de coalitions, ou comme 

une fédération de cultures secondaires. Une 

fois de plus nous partageons l'opinion de 

Weick (2001) qui est plutôt catégorique : “Any 

attempt to construct the design is doomed 

because there is no such thing”. L'entreprise 

est donc le fruit d'une combinaison d'unités 

opérationnelles chacune d'entre elles se 

rapprochant des idéaux-types 

organisationnels. Au sein de VU il est donc 

possible d'observer un enchevêtrement 

spécifique de différents mécanismes de 

coordination (ajustement mutuel par la 

confiance, standardisation des règles, 

négociation des prix) et de contrôle 

(application des contrats, obéissance à 

l'autorité, respect des convention). Cette 

étude montre qu'aucune forme idéal typique 

d'organisation (marché, réseau, hiérarchie) 

ne peut à elle seule représenter toute la 

complexité de fonctionnement du groupe. À 

travers ses multiples métiers et domaines 

d'activités, VU ne fonctionne correctement 

qu'en tirant parti de la diversité des 

mécanismes de coordination et de contrôle, 

même si selon la période d'observation, 

certains mécanismes prennent plus 

d'importance que les autres. À cet égard, 

gouverner l'enchevêtrement organisationnel 

apparaît comme un levier d'action pour 

répondre simultanément à des exigences 

différentes et souvent contradictoires (des 

dépenses commerciales pour le client, des 

réductions de dépense pour l'actionnaire), de 

façon à réduire les incertitudes (Thompson 

1967). Dans l'enchevêtrement 

organisationnel, il s'agit de préserver une 

harmonie entre les parties prenantes internes 

et externes, identifiées et représentées dans 

l'esprit du dirigeant. Cette harmonie 

correspond à un juste équilibre entre la 

contribution et la rétribution des parties 

prenantes. Si cette harmonie n'est pas 

63

espectée, l'équilibre sera menacé entre le 

niveau de contribution et le niveau de 

rétribution de chacun. Or, cet équilibre peut 

être rompu à tout moment, si l'une des parties 

prenantes exerce une pression plus forte que 

les autres et qu'elle est prise en compte de 

façon disproportionnée dans l'action du 

dirigeant, comme nous l'avons constatés à 

plusieurs reprises dans le cas de VU, d'abord 

avec l'influence excessive des clients puis 

avec celle exagérée des actionnaires. Le 

management de l'enchevêtrement est alors 

détourné de la recherche d'équilibre pour 

satisfaire les intérêts de la partie prenante 

dominante : celle qui menace le plus fortement 

la légitimité du pouvoir managérial, souvent au 

détriment des autres parties prenantes. Ce 

phénomène entraîne inévitablement un 

déséquilibre dans l'enchevêtrement 

organisationnel : une coopération parfois 

anarchique entre les filiales de VU avant 1996 

pour satisfaire la clientèle des collectivités 

locales, une intégration d'actifs trop 

systématique et parfois sans fondement 

industriel chez VU entre 1996 et 2002 pour 

satisfaire les actionnaires regroupés dans 

des fonds d'investissement. Or, dans le 

processus étudié chez VU, on s'aperçoit qu'il 

est difficile ensuite de rééquilibrer 

l'organisation en faveur de l'intérêt général de 

toutes les parties prenantes, car 

l'organisation est soumise au problème de 

l'inertie structurelle (Aldrich 1991). Elle 

continue d'hériter dans ses évolutions, des 

mécanismes de coordination et de contrôle 

instaurés lors des périodes précédentes. Il 

existe donc une sédimentation naturelle des 

règles et des conventions, entre les nouvelles 

règles et les anciennes règles, qui enferment 

les acteurs et le dirigeant dans des 

comportements passéistes. À ce sujet, l'étude 

du cas VU montre à plusieurs reprises 

l'incapacité du dirigeant pour modifier son 

style de gouvernance afin de mieux équilibrer 

l'enchevêtrement ou afin de répondre à de 

nouvelles exigences des parties prenantes, 

lorsque ces exigences sortent radicalement 

de son champ d'expérience ou de sa 

représentation cognitive. Il devient alors plus 

simple de changer de dirigeant, que d'engager 

la transformation de l'enchevêtrement, en 


cours de mandat pour un même dirigeant. Le 

processus d'enchevêtrement résulte de cette 

tension permanente entre la volonté du 

dirigeant de neutraliser l'influence des parties 

prenantes par des choix d'organisations 

complexes, et les contraintes 

d'environnement qui obligent à réviser ces 

choix avec un risque de déséquilibre des 

intérêts en présence et une remise en cause 

dans l'exercice du pouvoir. 

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66

Notes 

1. “ Ecological models implicitly 

assume a systemic model of organizations, 

reinforced by the assumption that 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

organizations are structurally inert - changing 

at rates slower than their environments. Many 

institutional analyses also contain an implicit 

assumption that organizations only change 

67


when it is forced upon them : change is 

imposed, authorized, induced, imprinted and 

incorporated.” 

opus.cit 11. 

Source Aldrich (1991), 

Docteur en sciences de gestion (Paris 

Dauphine), Christophe Assens est maître 

de conférences à l'Université de Versailles 

Saint-Quentin et directeur de recherche au 

LAREQUOI, laboratoire de recherche en 

management ; il est responsable de 

plusieurs diplômes du cycle Master ; il est 

par ailleurs membre du comité d'expert de 

Cyberlibris, première bibliothèque digitale 

en Europe sur la gestion d'entreprise. 

Alessandro Baroncelli is full Professor at 

the Catholic University of Milan where he 

teaches Business Strategy and International 

Management. Visiting professor at several 

Universities worldwide teaching on strategy 

and organization topics, he is currently 

Director of the MIEX Master in International 

Management (Bologna, Mexico City, 

Moscow, Nancy, Shanghai, Uppsala). He has 

also been consultant to various Italian and 

European companies. He is regularly 

involved in the organisation of international 

conferences and is a reviewer for several 

journals in the strategy and organization 

area. Author of several publications in 

strategy, organization and international 

management. 

68

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

« Faire vivre la pluridisciplinarité : 

un défi surmontable ? » 

Florian Sala 

CERAM Business School 

France 

Résumé : 

Au carrefour des histoires singulières, il y a parfois des événements particuliers. La création, le 

développement et l'évaluation d'un corpus d'enseignement et d'un programme de recherche en 

gestion des ressources humaines, sur une période significative (1990-2008), fait partie de ces 

événements. Les cours de l'option GRH ont fortement évolué au cours des années avec 

notamment la mise en place de stages obligatoires chaque été et de missions en entreprise. Ces 

missions sont en grande partie proposées par les partenaires de l'option et permettent aux 

étudiants d'avoir, avant leur entrée sur le marché de l'emploi, des expériences professionnelles 

significatives. Cependant Pluridisciplinarité et Transversalité et GRH n'entretiennent pas avec la 

transparence, la Vérité, des rapports absolument constants 

« Is a multidisciplinary approach an acceptable challenge? » Florian Sala 

ABSTRACT: In the seventies and eighties, Jean Piaget and his colleagues from the Ecole de 

Genève elaborated the general underlying laws at the origin of knowledge, from psychological 

and epistemological studies on the fundamental categories of thinking. Did they, at that time 

already, forecast the birth of a new science, the management of human resources based on a 

future knowledge economy? Almost thirty years later, what are the inherent questions in the 

knowledge economy in terms of human resources and what ideas does it support when it 

postulates that the answers that will be provided will most probably not be given by economists 

or managers only? In this domain of knowledge, even more necessarily than in many others, a 

multidisciplinary approach must be made, a realistic analysis of one single subject via several 

disciplines must be attempted. The pursue of what is universal in each individual or category, the 

principle of civilisation, is the basic reason for our plea of a multidisciplinary system. This 

represents an acceptable challenge on condition that we agree to talk and listen to each other, to 

ask ourselves some important epistemological questions which are needed if we want to set up 

and implement such a challenge. A multidisciplinary system is a juxtaposition, even an 

association of several disciplines and also a cooperation that must not be mistaken with 

interdisciplinarity (a decompartmentalization of disciplines) or with 'transdisciplinarity' (cross 

functional competencies). Let us move on to real things, associate competencies and adopt a 

multidisciplinary approach while accepting to take one risk: the risk of changing. It is an ambitious 

and modern goal as we must change our practice through integrating the people with whom we 

work and decompartmentalizing studies, projects and teams. These changes have become the 

only path towards survival. 

At the junction of individual stories there are peculiar events sometimes. The creation, 

development and assessment of a teaching body and of a research programme in Human 

Resources over a significant period of time (1990 - 2008) are one of these events. HRM courses 

have drastically evolved over the years, notably with the obligation to go on a work placement 

every summer and the opportunity to do corporate missions. Most of the missions are offered by 

69

Sala 

the partner companies and allow the students good professional experience before their first 

employment. However, multidisciplinary and cross functional systems and HRM do not always 

match with transparency and Truth. The Man in charge of men, whether HR or operational 

manager, often gets his assessments, appreciations and settlements wrong. Is the Man in 

charge of teaching HRM really able to explain the parameters of globalisation and postmodernity? 

What follows is the extended article in French. 

Une nouvelle et dernière chance 

C'est à partir d'études psychologiques 

et épistémologiques sur les catégories 

fondamentales de la pensée que Jean Piaget 

et ses collaborateurs de l'Ecole de Genève 

ont pu mettre en évidence, dans les années 

70-80, les lois générales sous-jacentes à la 

formation de la connaissance. Envisageaientils, 

déjà à cette époque, l'apparition d'une 

nouvelle science, la gestion des ressources 

humaines, basée sur une possible économie 

de la connaissance ? Ce grand savant, 

décédé en 1980, ne peut plus nous répondre 

mais nous pouvons, sans crainte de le trahir, 

imaginer en toute légitimité que cette idée était 

déjà dans l'air du temps dans le dernier quart 

du XX° siècle. Les recherches de son école 

internationale d'épistémologie ont connu de 

multiples évolutions et développements dans 

la plupart des domaines de la connaissance 

contemporaine, tout d'abord en biologie, puis 

en psychologie, pédagogie, mathématique, 

physique puis enfin en économie et gestion. 

Les synthèses des rencontres de 1979 entre 

Jean Piaget et Noam Chomsky, au Centre 

Royaumont pour une science de l'homme, 

sont à bien des égards représentatives de 

ces idées dans l'air du temps, structuralistes 

et interactionnistes, stipulant avec force que 

notre monde ne peut pas faire l'économie de 

la connaissance accompagnée d'une 

réflexion permanente et critique de celle-ci. 

Près de trente ans plus tard, quelles 

questions l'économie de la connaissance, en 

gestion des ressources humaines, porte-t-elle 

mais aussi supporte-elle en postulant 

immédiatement que les réponses qui seront 

apportées ne pourront pas être posées 

uniquement par les économistes ou les 

gestionnaires. Il n'y a pas de nom donné à 

une science qui ne soit traversé par un non. Il 

n'y a pas non plus de nom et de non sans 

crise et sans conflit. Dans une hypothétique 

économie du savoir et de la connaissance, 

les crises et les conflits font florès et c'est 

peut-être justement là que se trouve la 

variable explicative la plus discriminante. Si le 

consensus se fait pour dire que nous 

sommes entrés dans l'économie de la 

connaissance, pour reprendre la belle 

expression de Jean-Pierre Archambault 

(Médialog, 2004) tout n'est pas joué loin de là 

et une réflexion épistémologique donc 

politique doit être engagée au plus vite pour 

éviter quelques dérives déjà observées. Ce 

qui donne le plus à penser se tient toujours 

dans un temps, une époque, une histoire, un 

fantasme, un conte, une économie de la 

connaissance. Rien ne se réduit à la mémoire, 

rien non plus n'est hors de la mémoire qui 

emprunte toujours la voie sensorielle et 

perceptive bien connue, celle de 

l'observation. Tandis que l'histoire est 

construite sur les traces du passé, la science 

les efface, visant à imposer aux hommes un 

présent toujours remis en cause par un 

mouvement perpétuel. L'histoire fait symptôme 

alors que la science n'a pas de mémoire 

même si elle est connaissance. 

Sur ce dernier point rappelons que 

toute connaissance, du monde extérieur 

comme des processus internes, emprunte la 

voie sensorielle et perceptive. Aucune 

science ne peut faire l'économie de ce mode 

d'investigation de son objet d'étude. Il en est 

ainsi dans toutes les sciences physiques, 

humaines et biologiques. Les sciences de 

gestion ne font pas exception à cette règle 

fondamentale, l’économie de la connaissance 

encore moins ! Cette dernière propose de 

capitaliser les connaissances et de mettre 

l’accent sur les compétences des ressources 

humaines présentées comme le seul et unique 

avantage compétitif pour les entreprises 

internationales. Cependant comprendre et 

70

expliquer en économie de la connaissance 

nécessite un construit, une construction de 

nouvelles structures opératoires, une attitude 

novatrice, une représentation graphique et 

imagée souvent élaborée à partir de 

méthodes dites d'observation. Si, dans 

d’autres domaines comme celui de 

l’ophtalmologie, ce que nous enregistrons en 

tant que perception n'est pas toujours 

conforme à notre image rétinienne, alors 

méfions nous de nos illusions dans nos 

observations de la réalité complexe des 

entreprises et des organisations en général et 

dans celle plus particulière de la gestion des 

ressources humaines (Bournois, Livian & 

Louart, 1993 ; Brabet, 1993 ; Dessler, 2008 ; 

Peretti, 1994, 1996 ; Piganiol, 1994 ; Sala, 

1991 ; Thévenet, Dejoux, Marbot & Bender, 

2007). 

Dans ce domaine de la connaissance, 

encore plus que dans bien d'autres, il nous 

faut oser la pluridisciplinarité, l'analyse 

réaliste d'un seul et même sujet par plusieurs 

disciplines. Oui osons ce genre de 

provocation vivifiante en 2008 car cela 

représente notre dernière chance pour lutter 

contre l'insuffisance et le recul de 

l'enseignement supérieur français 

(classement de Shanghai 2007). Une telle 

audace représente, selon nous, une chance 

pour l'Homme du 21ème siècle qui est au 

cœur du capital de l'entreprise et de ses 

métamorphoses. Les cloisonnements 

disciplinaires ont fait leur temps, leur 

impérialisme n'a que trop duré. L'idée même 

de « vérité scientifique » est battue en brèche 

et les sciences sociales et humaines doivent 

s'ouvrir davantage et se mettre à travailler 

ensemble si elles ne veulent pas disparaître. 

La recherche de l'universel dans chaque 

individu ou catégories, présentée par le grand 

sociologue Alain Touraine (2008), comme un 

principe de civilisation, est à la base de notre 

plaidoyer pour faire vivre la pluridisciplinarité. 

Ceci représente un défi surmontable à 

condition que nous acceptions de nous 

parler, de nous écouter, de nous poser 

quelques grandes questions 

épistémologiques nécessaires à l'élaboration 

et la mise en œuvre d'un tel challenge (Morin, 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

1994). 

Notre monde est défini comme 

complexe et ne tourne que par le travail 

soutenu, persévérant et intensif de millions 

d'ouvriers et d'employés, certains rémunérés, 

d'autres précarisés. Ce travail douloureux est 

accompagné de son corollaire, les charrettes 

d'exclus de toutes sortes. Le chômage, même 

s'il diminuait en France au début de l'année 

2008, touche encore toutes les familles. Si 

l'expérience du travail permet à nos 

concitoyens de se valoriser individuellement 

et socialement, elle génère également des 

troubles physiques et psychiques ainsi que 

de nombreuses souffrances, enregistrées 

chaque année par les médecins du travail. 

L'homme peut supporter les conditions de 

travail les plus dures et les plus artificielles, 

accepter la pression et l'accélération de son 

travail, à condition seulement que le moral 

tienne et, qu'en conséquence, son état 

psychologique général ne soit pas trop abîmé 

(Laplanche, 1981 ; Nothomb, 1999 ; Sala, 

2006 ; Wiesel, 2006). 

Dans les entreprises privées et 

publiques, le recrutement, l'intégration, 

l'identification des talents, la valorisation et le 

développement des ressources humaines 

doivent être bien faits. Cela exige, en 

particulier, des personnes DRH et des 

services de RH très performants. Mais le 

DRH, passionné hier de Knowledge 

Management, aujourd'hui d'économie de la 

connaissance, sait depuis longtemps ne 

renoncer à rien. Il ne sait échanger qu'une 

chose contre une autre à défaut de savoir se 

détacher des enjeux explicites et de ne pas 

suffisamment comprendre les enjeux 

implicites et par voie de conséquence 

inconnus et inconscients. Jouons carte sur 

table, nous savons bien qu'il n'y a que l'argent 

qui compte et que toute nouvelle science 

cache une forme de consensus et une 

espèce de mensonge. Aider et former les 

Hommes n'a qu'un but, celui du retour sur 

investissement et du profit à court terme. 

Trop souvent, les salariés se dopent 

pour tenir. Les hommes et les femmes de 

71

demain seront probablement dans des 

situations professionnelles difficiles dont ils 

essaieront de sortir tant bien que mal. Ils 

seront à la limite de la rupture pour un grand 

nombre d'entre eux et pour d'autres la chute 

sera au bout du voyage, de jour comme de 

nuit. Disons-le encore une fois ! Il y a de la 

violence sociale et de l'exclusion dans les 

entreprises contemporaines (Dejours, 2005 ; 

Eckert, 2006 ; Leclaire, 1998 ; Marsan, 2006 ; 

Sala, 2004). Le travail moderne n'a plus rien 

de commun avec ce que l'humanité avait 

appelé travail jusqu'à présent. De chaque 

côté de toutes les frontières du monde 

moderne, l'ensemble des hommes du 

troisième millénaire est mis sous pression, 

sous tension. L'hostilité est de tous les temps, 

mais les nôtres cybernétiques semblent plus 

étranges encore. 

Dans un tel contexte la 

pluridisciplinarité est probablement une des 

voies essentielles pour sortir de nos 

difficultés. Cependant elle connaît surtout du 

succès surtout sur la toile Internet mêle si 

tous les secteurs économiques et sociaux 

sont concernés et si toutes les sciences 

revendiquent cette pluridisciplinarité malgré 

quelques résistances individuelles et frayeurs 

collectives. La pluridisciplinarité est une 

association, une juxtaposition de plusieurs 

disciplines mais c'est aussi une coopération à 

ne pas confondre avec l'interdisciplinarité 

(décloisonnement des disciplines) ou encore 

avec la transdisciplinarité (compétences 

transversales). Passons des mots aux 

réalités, associons les compétences, 

pratiquons la pluridisciplinarité en acceptant 

de prendre un risque : celui de se 

transformer. Ce but est ambitieux et réaliste 

car la modification de nos pratiques en 

intégrant les gens avec qui on travaille, en 

décloisonnant les études, les projets et les 

équipes est devenue la voie de notre survie. 

Au carrefour des histoires singulières, 

il y a parfois des événements particuliers. La 

création, le développement et l'évaluation d'un 

corpus d'enseignement et d'un programme de 

recherche en gestion des ressources 

humaines, sur une période significative 

Sala 

(1990-2008), fait partie de ces événements et 

nous allons en rendre compte dans les lignes 

suivantes sans négliger les apports 

fondamentaux des chercheurs français et 

québecois de la même période (Arnaud, 1995 

; Bartoli & Duyck, 1992 ; Cazal, 1993 ; Duyck, 

1993, 1994 ; Guiot, 1992 ; Weiss, 1992 ; 

Werther, Davis & Lee-Gosselin, 1990). 

Une création d'une majeure 

Gestion des Ressources Humaines 

Un résumé idoine 

DUT, DU, DESS, DEA, DOCTORAT, 

voici très rapidement en quelques sigles bien 

connus l'ancien marché traditionnel de la 

formation en Gestion des Ressources 

Humaines : domination sans partage du 

monde des Universités, après la disparition de 

la plupart des Mastères des grandes écoles. 

Tous ces sigles ont vécus et ont été 

récemment modifiés par le fameux LMD 

(Licence, Master, Doctorat) qui a fait naître 

des diplômes nouveaux en apparence comme 

Master 1, Master 2 et Master Recherche. Que 

peuvent bien faire ou dire les grandes écoles 

dans un tel contexte ? Quelles sont leur 

légitimité, leur marché, leur apprentissage, 

leur compétence ? 

C'est à partir d'une expérience dans 

une de ces grandes écoles, le CERAM, que 

nous essaierons de rendre compte de la 

création puis du développement original et 

pérenne d'une formation GRH dans une école 

de commerce. Ce corps d'enseignement a été 

conçu dès le début sur le principe d'une 

pluridisciplinarité et d'une transversalité de la 

GRH. Il représente, en 2007-2008, un 

ensemble de 180 heures obligatoires sur la 3° 

Année et de 120 heures électives sur les 3 

années du cursus. Ce programme est 

reconnu par les entreprises et même un peu 

plus par les classements de la presse 

nationale (SMBG). 18 ans d'âge (1990-2008), 

ce n'est pas encore l'apogée ni le déclin mais 

c'est peut-être le moment de rendre compte 

d'une belle aventure arrivant à l'âge de la 

fameuse maturité et après deux audits 

internes (Bes, 1991 ; Le Moigne, 1995) et un 

audit externe (Benoît, 2002). 

72

Une introduction interpellative 

Sans nier l'efficacité de l'organisation 

de la science en disciplines spécialisées, il 

apparaît de plus en plus urgent de dépasser 

cette coupure. La fragmentation des 

connaissances entre les sciences exactes et 

les expertises diverses est patente et 

regrettable. Dans les sciences sociales, dans 

les sciences de gestion, il en est de même. De 

partout, le siècle nouveau apparaît comme 

celui de la mise en commun, pour une 

question de survie, des imaginaires 

individuels, du complexe, de l'indéterminé et 

du contradictoire. Dans la pédagogie, la 

problématique générale est de même nature. 

Les discussions sur les finalités, les profils, 

les choix, les allocations de ressources, les 

méthodologies d'apprentissage connaissent 

bien des rebondissements. 

Le débat classique entre généraliste 

ou spécialiste dépasse très largement les 

considérations pratiques du « tout petit monde 

universitaire » cher à David Lodge. Dans ce 

contexte, la pluridisciplinarité et la 

transversalité trouvent toute leur place. La 

toute moderne gestion des ressources 

humaines s'inscrit bien dans ce cadre car elle 

donne le vertige par le nombre de forces 

qu'elle combine. Bien que faisant partie, 

depuis longtemps, des enjeux principaux du 

management avec la finance, le marketing et 

la production, la gestion des ressources 

humaines se veut aujourd'hui plus moderne, 

plus rigoureuse, plus méthodique et plus 

directement articulée à la politique générale et 

à la stratégie des entreprises. Toute science 

a son jargon, son langage, son code 

linguistique, son référentiel, son praticien, son 

chercheur, son destin, son enseignement. Le 

jargon de la gestion des ressources 

humaines est particulièrement touffu dans la 

mesure où il se fait tout d'abord l'écho de la 

jeunesse du domaine, puis de la vieillesse 

relative des sciences connexes humaines et 

sociales, et enfin de la pluralité des écoles, 

des idéologies et des chapelles qui s'y 

affrontent (Duyck, 1994 ; Kets de Vries, 2003 

; Livian, 2008 ; Piganiol, 1994). 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

La GRH apparaît comme une science 

récente, prise en étau entre les méandres 

des sciences de gestion et les délires tout 

puissants et irréels du management intuitif, 

spectaculaire et stratégique. La GRH a bel et 

bien un objet d'étude spécifique, celui de la 

compréhension de l'enjeu du travail humain 

dans l'entreprise, celui de l'établissement d'un 

corps de connaissances valides, 

contradictoires, opératoires, issu de 

l'observation rigoureuse d'une ou de plusieurs 

entités organisationnelles. Le savoir de la 

GRH est aujourd'hui communicable et 

communiqué. Empreint de crises et de 

remaniements, il est traversé par une 

approche essentiellement cumulative et 

disparate. L'objet de la GRH est ainsi qualitatif, 

complexe, bien qu'il ne coïncide pas toujours 

avec les représentations bien pensantes et 

rassurantes des praticiens ou avec les 

discours académiques et souvent réducteurs 

des chercheurs. 

La GRH repensée, revisitée, est à 

resituer dans son contexte socio-historique, 

celui des changements, celui des 

bouleversements mondiaux, celui des risques 

d'isolation psychique. La GRH est confrontée 

à de nombreuses difficultés, internes et 

externes, inhérentes à un environnement 

mondial agressif, violent, conflictuel, 

concurrentiel, mythique, pathologique. Elle 

gère ces nouveaux défis, ces nouvelles 

contradictions, en transigeant avec des 

objectifs et des stratégies et en manipulant 

des êtres humains au gré de la productivité, 

de l'efficacité et de l'efficience. Plans sociaux, 

plans d'accompagnement, incitations au 

départ, les passages à l'acte se sont 

succédés allégrement dans la première moitié 

des années 90 justement celles de la création 

de l'option GRH du CERAM. Alors, comment et 

pourquoi avoir créé et animé un tel 

enseignement dans un contexte social et 

économique si difficile ? 

Un faible degré de spécialisation 

La réponse est historique et 

contextuelle. Le 10 décembre 1990 avait lieu 

la première réunion d'information concernant 

la création d'une option GRH au CERAM. 

73

1990-2008 : le temps est venu de faire le 

point sur cette innovation. Pourquoi cette 

option ? Quelle évolution a-t-elle connu ? 

Quelles sont ses perspectives pour les 

prochaines années ? Quelles leçons 

pouvons-nous tirer de cette expérience ? 

Quels conseils pouvons-nous donner à de 

futurs créateurs ou repreneurs ? 

En 1990, un questionnaire avait été 

passé auprès des étudiants de deuxième 

année, par rapport à leur intérêt pour une telle 

option. Il en ressortait plusieurs points. Les 

étudiants semblaient intéressés par la 

fonction Personnel, le terme de l'époque. 55% 

d'entre eux se disaient « peut-être intéressés 

» par cette option. La GRH, malgré son 

caractère récent, était perçue en très fort 

développement et jugée indispensable par les 

étudiants. Le quart des étudiants avaient un 

profil plutôt littéraire ou juriste. Dans la 

majorité des cas, ils n'avaient pas de projet 

professionnel très précis. 

En ces temps anciens, peu d'écoles 

de commercre offraient à leurs élèves la 

possibilité de consacrer leur temps et leurs 

efforts à penser et à comprendre les enjeux 

explicites et implicites du facteur humain dans 

les entreprises. Communiquer, accueillir, 

intégrer, mobiliser, convaincre, rémunérer, 

former, motiver, organiser, tels sont en 

substance l'objet même et les fondements de 

la gestion des ressources humaines. Vaste et 

utopique tâche, passionnantes missions s'il 

en est ! Créer une option GRH en 1990 dans 

une école de commerce représentait un 

risque aussi bien du côté de la direction de 

l'Ecole que de celui des élèves. En effet, que 

pouvait bien venir faire un enseignement de 

ce type dans une école centrée 

exclusivement sur les fondamentaux de la 

gestion à savoir la finance et le marketing. 

Les rares cours pré-existant à l'option 

étaient ressentis depuis longtemps comme 

faciles ou inutiles et étaient classés dans la 

catégorie des cours "pipeaux" pour reprendre 

le langage toujours nuancé des élèves. 

Aussi, le combat fut rude, les échecs 

nombreux et l'énergie pour continuer plus que 

Sala 

nécessaire. Ce qui a été clair dès le début, 

c'était l'idée qu'il n'était en aucune façon 

question de créer une option dite de 

spécialisation mais bien au contraire de se 

donner les conditions de la création d'une 

option d'ouverture professionnelle en GRH 

dans laquelle le facteur humain puisse trouver 

sa place, toute sa place, rien que sa place. 

Le CERAM était à l'époque centré sur 

la mise sur le marché de cadres généralistes. 

Aussi, il s'agissait de donner à ces étudiants 

une sensibilisation aux RH pour le plus grand 

nombre ainsi qu'une palette de cours qui, mis 

bout à bout, pouvaient représenter un cursus 

RH très significatif. Un étudiant passionné par 

ce domaine pouvait suivre près de 300 

heures de cours sur ce sujet pendant sa 

troisième et dernière année d'étude. Ce qui 

représentait quantitativement un quota 

correspondant à certains DESS. Pour la 

plupart des étudiants prenant l'option GRH les 

ratios réels ont été mesurés plutôt autour de 

200 heures, un grand nombre d'entre eux 

s'orientant vers des cours électifs en finance 

ou en marketing international. 

L'option Ressources Humaines était 

une véritable ouverture professionnelle. 

Organisée autour d'un enseignement 

généraliste en gestion, cette option proposait 

des stages et des études qui abordaient 

successivement et synthétiquement le droit 

social, l'audit social, la gestion des carrières, 

la gestion de la formation, la psychologie du 

travail, la sociologie des organisations, la 

formation de formateurs, la gestion de 

l'information et de la communication internes, 

l'animation et la motivation des équipes, la 

gestion internationale des ressources 

humaines et enfin la gestion des ressources 

humaines en PME et PMI. Le cursus a bien 

évolué en 18 ans. 

Le mot ouverture prenait ici tout son 

sens. Il ne s'agissait pas de spécialiser les 

étudiants à la GRH mais de leur offrir 

l'opportunité de s'ouvrir au monde 

professionnel par le regard particulier du 

facteur humain. Les mutations technologiques 

futures impliquaient une remise en question 

74

des qualifications et des formations. La GRH 

devait devenir le lieu de compétence du 

management de ces mutations. La logique 

pédagogique était clairement celle de 

l'ouverture des esprits et des consciences à 

l'égard de la place des Hommes dans les 

entreprises et les organisations. Les DRH 

sont aujourd'hui des penseurs et des acteurs, 

dont les missions sont explicitement articulées 

à la stratégie et à la politique de l'entreprise. 

L'enjeu humain est enfin perçu comme 

l'élément essentiel de la compétitivité. 

Une finalité professionnelle 

Tantôt considérée comme rivale, tantôt 

assimilée ou subordonnée aux filières 

traditionnelles financières, techniques et 

commerciales, la fonction RH est tout d'abord 

une fonction stratégique possédant en son 

sein un nombre significatif de professions de 

toute nature au service des diverses 

composantes de l'entreprise. L'option RH 

prépare à cet avenir et peut parfaitement être 

suivie par des étudiants qui aborderont leur 

carrière par le biais du commercial, de la 

finance ou de la vente. En créant cette 

ouverture de 3° année, cela permettait de 

porter l'effort sur l'humain sans que celui-ci 

induise quoi que ce soit pour la suite des 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

carrières des étudiants. 

Il était donc clair, dès le départ, qu'il 

fallait mettre l'accent sur l'ouverture 

intellectuelle et méthodologique avec un axe 

politique dans lequel l'enseignement de cette 

option avait une faible finalité professionnelle. 

La suite, dans une certaine mesure, a montré 

que certains étudiants ne se sont pas insérés 

en RH mais se sont orientés vers toutes 

sortes de carrières les plus diverses et les 

plus internationales. Ouverture, ouverture est 

bien le maître mot de cette majeure de fin de 

cycle. Pour d'autres, vraiment accrocs, les 

choses se sont poursuivies par des DESS et 

même par des DEA et des Doctorats. 

Un programme pluridisciplinaire 

La formation et l'histoire personnelle 

du créateur d'un cursus pédagogique, quel 

qu'il soit, explique en grande partie le contenu 

du programme en question.. Celui-ci était 

donc, dès son origine évolutif, réflexif, 

transversal et transdisciplinaire. Observons 

deux tableaux du programme à dix ans de 

distance. 

75

Un fort contact avec le milieu 

professionnel 

Le tableau ci-dessus représente avec 

force les évolutions qualitatives et 

quantitatives de ce programme de 3ème 

Sala 

cycle. Dès le départ, l'accent avait été 

également mis sur les relations avec les 

entreprises. Pourtant, à y regarder de plus 

près, travailler effectivement à l'élaboration 

d'un programme pédagogique avec les 

76

entreprises relève vraiment d'une totale 

sinécure. En effet, les attentes, les langages, 

les besoins sont fort différents selon que l'on 

soit une grande multinationale ou une PME. 

Dès son origine, l'option GRH a essayé de 

travailler avec les entreprises afin qu'elles 

construisent et valident le cursus, qu'elles 

envoient des cadres susceptibles d'enseigner 

ou de témoigner, qu'elles s'engagent à 

prendre des élèves en stage, en mission, en 

audit et aujourd'hui en apprentissage. 

Un comité de pilotage, devenu avec le 

temps comité scientifique, s'est réuni trois à 

quatre fois par an. Il s'agit d'une instance 

originale qui élabore et fixe les objectifs 

pédagogiques annuels de l'option. Ce comité 

permet aux professionnels et aux 

professeurs de différents horizons 

d'échanger, de se rencontrer et de mieux se 

comprendre. Les étudiants délégués 

participent, au sens vrai du terme, à chaque 

comité. Il est composé de chefs d'entreprises, 

de cadres, de DRH, de consultants, 

d'universitaires des secteurs publics et 

privés. 52 personnes, correspondant à 28 

entreprises petites, moyennes et grandes, ont 

participé en dix-huit ans à ces rencontres. Le 

comité est vraiment au travail et peut à tout 

moment modifier les contenus, les modules, 

les supports, les intervenants, les cours et 

leurs modalités d'évaluation. Ce comité existe, 

élabore les éléments de doctrine, travaille en 

améliorant en permanence la qualité du 

cursus et celle des apprentissages. 

Un faible degré de sélection à 

l'entrée 

Dans le passé proche, peu d'heures 

de GRH étaient dispensés pour tous les 

étudiants de l'école de commerce. L'objectif 

du CERAM étant de former des généralistes, il 

leur fallait développer la GRH, qui prenait une 

place de plus en plus importante dans les 

entreprises. Les formations de GRH et d'audit 

se développaient aussi bien en amont (IUT et 

DUT) qu'en aval (DESS). L'option Gestion des 

Ressources Humaines était donc vue comme 

un avantage concurrentiel par rapport aux 

autres écoles, comme une compétence 

distinctive. Ouverture professionnelle et non 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

option de spécialisation, ce choix entraîne 

nécessairement une approche particulière 

des étudiants qui passe, en partie, par une 

faible sélection à l'entrée. Le seul pré-requis 

de 2° année concerne le cours classique de 

droit social (30 heures). 

Une histoire de 18 ans 

Les cours de l'option GRH ont 

fortement évolué au cours des années ; par 

exemple, les cours de gestion internationale 

des ressources humaines et gestion 

prévisionnelle de l'emploi et du personnel. La 

gestion internationale a par exemple donné 

lieu à de multiples débats de contenu mais 

aussi de forme en particulier centrés sur celui 

de la langue d'enseignement (anglais ou 

français). D'autre part, le cours formation de 

formateurs a été absorbé dès la deuxième 

année par le cours gestion et ingénierie de la 

formation. Le nombre d'étudiants choisissant 

l'option est resté quasiment stable pendant 

toutes ces années (20-25 en moyenne). Le 

développement de la formation continue 

devait faire évoluer ce chiffre de manière non 

négligeable mais cette hypothèse ne s'est pas 

confirmée et c'est plutôt la réponse Mastère 

Spécialisé Bac + 6 qui est apparue de 2003 à 

2007. 

L'option a évolué, avec notamment la 

mise en place de stages obligatoires chaque 

été, et de missions durant le second semestre 

de la troisième année. Ces stages, audits ou 

missions, sont en grande partie proposés par 

les partenaires de l'option, et permettent aux 

étudiants d'avoir, avant leur entrée sur le 

marché de l'emploi, des expériences 

professionnelles intéressantes. En effet, le 

stage de fin de deuxième année, d'une durée 

de six mois, donne à l'étudiant une véritable 

expérience professionnelle dans le domaine 

des ressources humaines. D'autre part, les 

résultats en terme d'intégration 

professionnelle des promotions précédentes 

ne sont pas négligeables : CDD et CDI dans le 

domaine marketing/vente, DG créateur 

d'entreprise, CDI dans le domaine Gestion des 

Ressources Humaines mais aussi 

coopération, DESS de communication, DESS 

de Gestion des Ressources Humaines, 

77

Etudes de lettres, DEA, Doctorats. 

Il apparaît donc nécessaire de 

travailler au préalable dans un autre domaine, 

afin de mieux connaître le monde de 

l'entreprise, et de pouvoir aspirer ensuite à un 

poste en ressources humaines. Les 

perspectives d'avenir semblent bonnes 

cependant : le CERAM n'est pas en retard par 

rapport aux autres écoles de management, et 

propose une formule originale. De plus, la 

demande des entreprises pour des diplômés 

en ressources humaines semble s'accroître 

en raison de la pluridisciplinarité et de la 

transversalité des origines. 

Cependant force est de constater que 

Pluridisciplinarité et Transversalité et GRH 

n'entretiennent pas avec la transparence, la 

Vérité, des rapports absolument constants. 

L'Homme, en charge des hommes, DRH ou 

opérationnel, se trompe bien souvent dans 

ses évaluations, dans ses appréciations, 

dans ses arbitrages. De manière générale, 

l'Homme posé comme arbitre, garant de 

l'équité managériale, de la Loi, du règlement 

intérieur, ne tient pas assez compte de 

l'immense diversité que présentent ses 

collaborateurs. Il arbitre donc sans finesse, 

sans valeurs, sans compréhension des 

enjeux du je des inconscients, sans 

intégration des éléments affectifs et des 

contradictions corrélatives ou concomitantes. 

L'Homme, en charge des enseignements de 

GRH est-il plus à même de faire passer des 

messages aux étudiants intégrant les 

paramètres dont nous venons de parler ? 

A l'évidence, l'originalité et la légitimité 

de la recherche-action en GRH passent par le 

fait qu'elle doit aboutir, d'une manière ou d'une 

autre, à une amélioration des pratiques, des 

actions, des actes, donc à un projet de 

transformation des comportements et des 

moyens d'action du praticien, du chercheur, 

du consultant et de l'expert. Pragmatisme, 

finalisation de l'action et complexité ont permis 

à l'Entreprise de devenir un mythe, ces trois 

dimensions doivent impérativement permettre 

l'inverse, un renversement vers le contraire 

en quelque sorte. Régulatrice de l'action 

Sala 

collective, la GRH est traversée par les 

pulsions de ses acteurs, de ses auteurs, elle 

remet en cause les harmonies. La formationaction 

en GRH, nous venons de le voir 

rapidement, demande un effort de la pensée 

car il n' y a de science que du secret, que du 

caché. La GRH science clinique de l'Homme 

dans l'entreprise doit conduire ses acteurs à 

l'explicite. 

L'organisation des données de la 

GRH, par comparaison et classification, par 

modélisation, cache la forêt des décisions 

irrationnelles, calfeutrées, illégitimes. La 

vérification du « modèle » qu'il soit celui de 

l'instrument, de l'arbitre ou de la mise en 

oeuvre suppose la prévision. L'objet de la 

GRH n'est pas donné, il est construit par les 

chercheurs et les professionnels. L'objet de 

la saisie des données et de leur interprétation 

n'est jamais indépendant, quant à eux, de la 

forme de la saisie. Celle-ci peut être 

structurée sur un rapport de violence contre 

l'objet même de la connaissance, contre les 

artéfacts, contre les sujets. La dépression, la 

position dépressive du sujet guette alors le 

moindre faux pas. Alors, GRH science de la 

pluridisciplinarité ou de la transversalité ? Le 

savoir et les techniques de la GRH, les 

savoir-faire du DRH, les savoir-être du 

Management, sont les moyens et les outils 

d'analyse de la science de l'organisation. 

Management et organisation 

Selon Didier Cumenal, professeur de 

systèmes d'information au CERAM en 1997, 

les attentes d'un entrepreneur du 21ème 

siècle seraient aussi celles des étudiants 

d'une grande école de management. Les 

créateurs d'entreprise aujourd'hui ont appris 

ce que leurs prédécesseurs ignoraient, la 

gestion selon le beau mot de Peter, F. Drucker 

(1984). 

Trois arguments sont présentés par 

cet enseignant-chercheur : 

1°) Les futurs managers auront 

régulièrement besoin de créer et de déployer 

des stratégies de changement organisationnel 

(démarche de type CORDA : Comprendre - 

78

Observer - Réfléchir - Décider - Appliquer). Ils 

s'appuieront largement sur les nouvelles 

technologies émergentes liées à l'information 

et à la communication (la stratégie dite du 

sous-marin toujours selon l'auteur). Pour cela, 

ils devront apprendre à rendre leurs 

organisations flexibles et réactives. 

2°) Ils devront bâtir une organisation 

"apprenante" pour s'adapter rapidement à un 

contexte économique turbulent et développer 

ainsi de nouvelles performances et gagner 

plus (innover et créer des avantages 

compétitifs durables). 

3°) Ils auront à évaluer les impacts 

techniques, organisationnels et financiers 

d'une nouvelle technologie. Pour lors, ils 

seront placés en situation de décider. 

L'auteur propose par la suite la 

création d'un nouveau cours susceptible de 

permettre aux étudiants d'une grande école 

de découvrir les leviers et les freins d'une 

organisation ainsi que de simuler, par l'outil 

SAXSO, les fondements opérationnels d'une 

nouvelle stratégie organisationnelle. Une 

méthodologie générale et une évaluation 

pédagogiques sont alors déclinées. Tout 

semble au point et bien ficelé. Une réponse 

critique mais positive à ce projet pédagogique 

est cependant possible voire souhaitable. Elle 

s'exprimera sous trois formes, la 

Conversation, le Sujet et l'Autre. 

Silence et modestie sont 

commodes à la conversation 

Le Management de l'Organisation n'est 

pas seulement un ensemble de techniques, 

une nouvelle science, un système de 

communication, c'est aussi une aventure 

imaginaire, celle de la culture humaine, celle 

que produit l'Homme pour se penser et penser 

l'institution dans laquelle il travaille. Système 

de connaissance (encore et toujours 

incertaine) ou aventure civilisatrice (encore et 

toujours pérennante) ne s'opposent pas 

radicalement dans la mesure où ils 

comprennent tous deux des croyances, des 

coutumes, des règles sociales, des langues 

de bois et des techniques obsolètes. L'esprit 

de gestion est cependant souvent opposé à 

l'esprit d'entreprise. Ces idées, silencieuses 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

et modestes, supposent que le management 

de l'organisation est une aventure 

systématisée du savoir de l'Entrepreneur du 

XXIème siècle. Cet homme ou cette femme 

tentera bientôt d'organiser, de coordonner, de 

converser, de dominer par la formation de 

l'esprit scientifique et le raffinement 

intellectuel et moral la complexité et les 

incertitudes du monde des entreprises et des 

affaires internationales. Ils resteront 

cependant dominés et déterminés par leur 

histoire personnelle et par les rapports qu'ils 

entretiennent peu ou prou avec la question de 

l'Altérité. Comme le proposait Montaigne, 

silence et modestie sont commodes à la 

conversation. 

Là où Nous s'installe, Je doit 

revenir 

Le management, système univoque de 

représentation, prend le plus souvent la forme 

d'une pensée dogmatique, à savoir celle d'un 

impératif catégorique qui exige de la part du 

spectateur (étudiants, employés, cadres, 

fournisseurs, clients, politiques) l'audience et 

la créance sans apporter la moindre 

justification ou la moindre argumentation. Le 

Nous s'installe. Les nouvelles technologies et 

le management de l'organisation s'identifient 

souvent à une science, une idéologie, mais 

également à une croyance religieuse et 

métaphysique. Aussi être en position de 

Sujet, entrepreneur ou étudiant apprenant à le 

devenir, c'est être le jouet de la négation de 

l'incertitude. Prendre en compte cette dernière 

agite les acteurs économiques contemporains 

et les pouvoirs publics. L'avenir n'est pas 

prédicable, sauf à faire appel au religieux 

sous toutes ses formes, et les décideurs ne 

peuvent pas le maîtriser. Rien n'assure, bien 

au contraire, que ce ne soit pas précisément 

cet impossible qui permette de former une 

architecture validée de propositions 

pédagogiques. Les heureux chefs 

d'entreprise deviennent alors Je. 

Du look sophistiqué de l'Aventure 

Le management de l'organisation est 

traversé par une perpétuelle interrogation sur 

l'idée même du Non-savoir qui hante les nuits 

et les jours des entrepreneurs et des 

79

étudiants d'une Grande Business School. 

Alors que les stress professionnels, 

psychiques et biologiques, se multiplient et se 

diversifient, tout se passe encore comme si 

l'écoute de l'Autre était interdite. Etre à 

l'écoute des enjeux de la parole, pour soi 

comme pour l'autre, apparaît comme quelque 

chose de superfétatoire, d'inutile et de non 

économique. Le facteur humain n'est pas 

vraiment au centre des préoccupations 

managériales. A y regarder de plus près, le 

management commence quand le Sujet 

s'interroge sur le sens du profit ou sur celui 

de l'histoire des entreprises, de leur 

développement et de leur croissance. Les 

techniques de pointe ne seront pas le meilleur 

moteur de la croissance dans l'avenir. Elles 

en seront l'un des instruments, mais pas le 

plus important. Les sciences de gestion, 

synthétisées en partie par ce redoutable 

vocable management, sont encore et toujours 

attractives (nombre d'élèves aux concours) 

parce qu'elles découpent leur objet dans un 

univers présenté comme certain, fini et déjà 

mentalement constitué. Malgré les discours 

sur la complexité, c'est bien cette certitude 

pédagogique qui rassure les étudiants en 

gestion. Pourtant, en dehors des bancs des 

écoles fusent-elles Grandes, le management 

véhicule une connaissance actuelle précaire, 

faussement opératoire. L'équipe Nous/Je 

constitue un univers réificateur et 

souffreteux. Dans ce sens, management et 

science semblent différer radicalement. 

Les deux tendances du management 

d'une organisation (souci d'une métaphysique 

systémique et systématisée, curiosité inquiète 

à l'égard de la connaissance en gestion et de 

la pensée) s'affrontent depuis une vingtaine 

d'années et le XXIème siècle devrait être le 

réceptacle de refoulés toujours peu 

dépassés. Si aujourd'hui encore le nom même 

de Management évoque une prédilection 

particulière pour la répétition et le transfert 

des modèles américano-japonais, pour la 

valorisation outrancière des nouvelles 

technologies, il n'en reste pas moins qu'une 

défiance à l'égard du savoir mis en formules 

prend tout doucement forme dans les esprits 

les plus silencieux et les plus simples. Le 

Sala 

savoir définitif, mathématique, rationnel, 

fermé, complet, transmissible dans les lieux 

magiques et nobles des Grandes Ecoles 

présente, malgré la toute puissance des 

technosciences et des sciences de 

l'information, des signes d'essoufflement. 

Trop d'appel à la technique, à un savoir 

garanti qui rassure étudiants et managers, est 

le signe qu'on a surtout peur. L'enjeu du 

XXIème siècle sera, à n'en pas douter, plus 

éthique que technique. 

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LOUART, Pierre, 1993 - Recherches et 

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l'AGRH, Montpellier, 620-627. 

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interne Option GRH, in CERAM, Workingpaper, 

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poche, 187 pages. 

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Ressources humaines et gestion du 

personnel », Educapôle gestion, Vuibert, 223 

pages. 

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», Les Editions d'organisation, sous la 

direction de, 356 pages. 

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« Théories du langage, théories de 

l'apprentissage », Edition du Seuil, 533 pages. 

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un avenir radieux ? in 2° Congrès de l'AGRH, 

ESSEC, Cergy, pp. 585-589. 

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DRH », Paris, Les Editions d'organisation, 210 

pages. 

. 

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travail, Age, bouleversements et performance 

», Sous la direction de Florian Sala & Lyvie 

Guéret-Talon, Chronique Sociale, 300 pages. 

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Marbot, Eléonore & Bender, Anne-Marie, 2007 

- « Fonctions RH », Politique, métiers et outils 

des ressources humaines, Pearson 

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yeux, in Libération du 6 janvier, page 21. 

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Werther, William, B., Davis, Keith & 

Lee-Gosselin, Hélène, 1990 - « La gestion 

des ressources humaines », McGraw-Hill, 

Editeurs, 2ème édition, Québec, 770 pages. 

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décembre 1953. Il a écrit et dirigé trois livres 

(2000 - Bilan personnel et Insertion 

Professionnelle, Editions L'Harmattan, 431 

pages ; 2004 - Un Psy chez les DRH, 

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Pérennité au travail, Age, bouleversements 

Sala 

Weiss, Dimitri, 1992 - « La fonction 

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d'Organisation, 784 pages. 

Wiesel, Elie, 2006 - « Un désir fou de 

danser », Seuil, 330 pages. 

et performance, Chronique Sociale, 300 

pages). Ce chercheur éclectique partage son 

temps entre l'enseignement du management 

des ressources humaines et la recherche, le 

conseil aux entreprises et la psychothérapie 

psychanalytique pour dirigeants, jeunes 

cadres et étudiants. 

82

RSE et diversité confessionnelle: 

une responsabilité en clair-obscur 

Richard Delaye*, Marie Peretti**, et Patrice Terramorsi** 

*Observatoire économique des Banlieues (DGC, Saint-Denis) 

** CADIS (EHESS, Paris) 

*** IAE de Corse (Université Pascal Paoli, Corte), 

Résumé: Alors que 2007 a été déclarée année européenne pour l'égalité des chances, un 

nombre toujours plus important d'entreprises affichent leurs engagements en termes de lutte 

contre la discrimination et de valorisation de la diversité. Les actions promouvant l'égalité entre 

les sexes ou l'intégration des personnes handicapés, sont ainsi très largement avancées comme 

une preuve du caractère responsable des entreprises. Dans le même temps, la prise en compte 

de la diversité confessionnelle laisse place à un silence pesant. Or, selon une étude de la 

Commission Européenne réalisée en 2007 1 , sur l'état des discriminations en Europe, la France 

est le pays des 25 où l'existence de discrimination liée aux convictions religieuses est le plus 

fortement ressentie. A travers une approche transdisciplinaire mêlant apports de la sociologie, 

de l'anthropologie et des sciences de gestion, un travail de déconstruction a, à ce propos, été 

entrepris. Au plus loin des « effets cosmétiques » des autres actions engagées sous couvert de 

diversité, la diversité confessionnelle donne lieu à de réelles pratiques, dans les entreprises 

françaises aujourd'hui. Or, si ces pratiques semblent répondre à un réel besoin des entreprises 

comme de leurs salariés, elles apparaissent toujours plus ou moins occultées. S'appuyant sur 

une contextualisation du questionnement actuel sur la diversité confessionnelle en France, une 

approche itérative associant analyse théorique et expression des acteurs de terrains 

(responsables de la diversité et responsables de cabinet spécialisés dans la gestion de la 

diversité), pourra permettre d'éclairer les raisons du silence des organisations vis-à-vis d'une 

problématique essentielle au tissage d'un lien social durable vis-à-vis d'une population salariale 

hétérogène. 

Abstract & Summary in English followed by entire article in French: 

2007 was declared the European year for equal opportunity and at the same time an increasingly 

more significant number of companies promised to re-enforce the fight against discrimination 

and to promote diversity. Companies demonstrated their social responsibility by implementing 

procedures to promote equality between the sexes and/or the integration of disabled 

employees. Nevertheless there has been little talk of denominational diversity. 

However, according to a study by the European commission carried out in 2007 on the state of 

discrimination in Europe, France is the country of the 25 where the existence of discrimination 

related to religious convictions is most strongly felt. Through a multi - disciplinary approach 

mixing contributions from sociology, anthropology and management theory, a complete and 

thorough study on this subject was undertaken. 

Moving away from the “cosmetic approach” of other activities under cover of diversity, 

denominational diversity gives place to real practices in French companies today. However, if 

these practices seem to meet a real need for the companies as well as their employees, they 

always seem to be applied with more or less discretion. To conclude on the topic of the current 

1 . Eurobaromètre spécial (2007), La discrimination dans l'union européenne, Direction Générale Emploi, Affaires 

sociales et Egalité des chances, commission européenne 

83 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555

Delaye, Peretti et Terramorsi 

questions regarding denominational diversity in France, an iterative approach associating 

theoretical analysis with the views of the key professionals (responsible for diversity and 

those in charge of bureaus specialized in the management of diversity), will make it possible to 

clarify the reasons for this silence within organizations with respect to the problems associated 

with enforcing a durable social link with the heterogeneous wage population. 

Le long processus d'institutionnalisation de la 

question de la diversité, s'est en effet très 

largement accéléré, durant la dernière 

décennie. Les actions promouvant l'égalité 

entre les sexes, ou l'intégration des 

personnes handicapées, ont alors très 

largement été avancées comme une preuve 

du caractère responsable des entreprises. 

Parallèlement, la question de la diversité 

confessionnelle laisse place à un silence 

pesant. En France, 63 % des personnes 

interrogés pensent que la discrimination 

concernant la religion est « assez » ou « très 

répandue », contre 44 % pour la moyenne 

des pays de l'Union. 

«Certains Hommes croient en un dieu. 

D'autres en plusieurs. D'autres se tiennent 

pour agnostiques et refusent de se 

prononcer. D'autres enfin sont athées. Tous 

ont à vivre ensemble». 

Henri Pena-Ruiz, Qu'est ce que la laïcité ? 

(2003) 

Ce constat résonne avec force au 

sein d'une société où l'affaissement des 

institutions traditionnelles, fait peser sur 

l'entreprise la charge d'associer des 

individus, toujours plus libres et autonomes. 

Alors que 2007 a été déclarée année 

européenne pour l'égalité des chances, un 

nombre croissant d'entreprises affichent 

leurs engagements en termes de lutte contre 

la discrimination et de valorisation de la 

diversité. 2 

Le long processus d'institutionnalisation 

de la question de la diversité, s'est 

en effet très largement accéléré, durant la 

dernière décennie. En France, le vote en 2001 

de la loi sur les nouvelles régulations 

économiques a représenté une étape 

essentielle. Les entreprises dans l'obligation 

2 Comme en témoigne le nombre d'entreprises 

signataires de la « Charte de la diversité ». 

de produire, tous les ans, un rapport sur leurs 

actions en termes de développement durable 

(Igalens, Joras, 2002), ont mis en oeuvre des 

pratiques permettant de satisfaire aux 

attentes des parties prenantes et plus 

particulièrement des agences de notation 

sociale. Les actions promouvant l'égalité entre 

les sexes, ou l'intégration des personnes 

handicapées, ont alors très largement été 

avancées comme une preuve du caractère 

responsable des entreprises. 

Parallèlement, la question de la 

diversité confessionnelle laisse place à un 

silence pesant. Une illustration de ce 

phénomène est visible dans « les bonnes 

pratiques » de gestion de la diversité, 

diffusées par la Haute Autorité de Lutte 

contre les Discriminations et pour l'Egalité. Sur 

84 pratiques et outils, mis en avant par la 

HALDE, aucun ne traite directement de la « 

diversité confessionnelle » 3 . Or, selon une 

étude de la Commission Européenne réalisée 

en 2007 4 , sur l'état des discriminations en 

Europe, la France est le pays des 25 où 

l'existence de discrimination liée aux 

convictions religieuses est le plus fortement 

ressentie. Ainsi en France, 63 % des 

personnes interrogés pensent que la 

discrimination concernant la religion est « 

assez » ou « très répandue », contre 44 % 

pour la moyenne des pays de l'Union. 

Entre mise en lumière et zone d'ombre, 

cette réflexion sur la gestion de la diversité 

offre la possibilité de déconstruire les 

discours standardisés pour faire apparaît les 

contrastes existant entre responsabilité 

affirmée et véritablement assumée 

3 http://www.halde.fr/repertoire-bonnes-pratiquesinitiatives-86/repertoire-87/ 

4 Eurobaromètre spécial (2007), La discrimination dans 

l'union européenne, Direction Générale Emploi, 

Affaires sociales et Egalité des chances, commission 

européenne. 

84

(Brunsson, 1989) par les entreprises 

françaises. 

Dans un premier temps, une 

contextualisation du questionnement actuel 

sur la diversité confessionnelle en France, 

nous apportera les bases sociopolitiques 

indispensables à une réflexion sur un sujet 

complexe. Une approche itérative associant 

analyse théorique et expression des acteurs 

de terrains (responsables de la diversité et 

responsables de cabinet spécialisés dans la 

gestion de la diversité), nous permettra 

ensuite d'éclairer les raisons du silence des 

organisations vis-à-vis d'une problématique 

essentielle au développement d'une durable 

vis-à-vis d'une base salariale hétérogène. 

Religions, responsabilités sociales et 

entreprises 

Religions et société 

Confrontée aux retombées 

démographiques d'une faible natalité depuis 

des siècles, la France a fait appel à une main 

d'œuvre étrangère pour pallier au manque en 

découlant. Durant les trente glorieuses, des 

vagues d'immigration originaires du Maghreb 

ont introduit une diversité confessionnelle 

d'une ampleur sans précédent au sein de la 

société française. Parallèlement, et au fil de 

l'actualité nationale comme internationale, 

l'image du musulman s'est, dans les 

représentations sociales, surajoutée à celle 

déjà complexe de l'immigré maghrébin. C'est à 

travers cette image que sont aujourd'hui 

perçus nombre de jeunes Français. Au gré 

d'évolutions démographiques, politiques voire 

géopolitiques et économiques, force est de 

constater que la question du fait religieux a, 

ces dernières décennies, investi le débat 

public français. 

Deux bouleversements qui affectent 

profondément la société française doivent à 

ce propos être envisagés. Le premier a trait 

au passage d'une société « moderne » - dans 

laquelle grand nombre de rapports sociaux 

sont liés aux rapports de production propres 

à la société industrielle - à une société 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

qualifiée parfois de post-moderne, traversée 

de part et d'autres par des flux d'information 

et des réseaux de communication (Touraine, 

Khosrokhavar, 2000, p.45). 

Ici, à l'accélération de la globalisation 

des échanges, répond l'éclatement des 

espaces sociaux dans lesquels sont insérés 

les individus. Les processus d'individuation 

sont alors subordonnés à la capacité de 

chacun de maintenir en soi un semblant de 

cohésion, de résister aux injonctions souvent 

paradoxales du marché et de la communauté 

(Jung, 1986, Camilleri, 1999). Car le second 

bouleversement, dont découle en partie 

l'émergence du fait religieux dans l'espace 

public contemporain, peut être envisagé 

comme le passage d'un régime d'interaction 

au sein duquel la fiction prédominante est 

égalitaire (Martucelli, 2002, p.249) à un régime 

où la question de la différence est centrale 

(Wieviorka, 2001, p.43). Ce passage se 

traduisant par l'explosion au sein de l'espace 

public des sociétés démocratiques des 

attentes et des demandes de reconnaissance 

(Lazzeri, Caillé, 2004, p.88). Si ces 

bouleversements sont intimement liés, ils 

peuvent cependant être distingués dans une 

perspective analytique. Alors que le premier 

permet d'envisager la fragmentation des 

espaces sociaux dans lesquels les individus 

sont insérés, le second met l'accent sur les 

fictions politiques dominantes, fictions qui 

influent autant sur le débat public national que 

sur les représentations et pratiques des 

acteurs sociaux. 

C'est dans les interstices ouverts par 

ces bouleversements que l'émergence 

récente du fait religieux en France doit être 

envisagée. D'une part, le religieux pallie à la 

perte de sens générée par la fragmentation 

sociale, de l'autre, il prend appui et renforce 

les communautés qui s'érigent sur les 

cendres de la croyance en une République, 

une et indivisible, qui garantie l'égalité de ses 

citoyens. Et l'émergence du fait religieux au 

cœur de la nation française contemporaine ne 

va pas sans poser de problèmes. Une 

approche rapide des images publiques de 

l'immigration (Battegay, Boubeker, 1993) 

85

comme des débats socio-législatifs qui agitent 

notre démocratie ces dernières années (Weil, 

2005) permet d'envisager la prégnance de 

ces tensions dans notre quotidien ainsi que 

leur cristallisation autour de la figure du 

musulman. 

S'il ne s'agit ici d'en dénoncer les 

aspects médiatiques ou politico-juridiques - 

dénonciation déjà menée de façon marginale 

mais active par les chantres de la lutte contre 

l'islamophobie ou le racisme, force est 

toutefois de souligner leur puissance 

stigmatisante et excluante ainsi que le danger 

qu'elles font peser sur la possibilité, pour une 

partie non négligeable de la population 

française, de se construire sereinement en 

tant qu'individu, professionnel et citoyen. 

Ces éléments se répercutent de 

diverses manières sur l'espace social que 

constitue l'entreprise. Leur incidence en 

matière de gestion des ressources humaines 

ou de management peut notamment être 

soulignée. Le questionnement sur le rapport 

de la société au religieux, ne peut toutefois 

s'arrêter aux portes de l'entreprise, les 

conceptions actuelles du travail, de 

l'organisation et de la responsabilité des 

entreprises étant elles mêmes largement 

influencées par certaines éthiques 

religieuses. 

Travail, religions et responsabilité sociale 

La notion moderne de « travail », telle 

qu'elle se constitue à la fin du XIX siècle 

(Méda, 2007, p.1194), revêt au-delà de sa 

dimension instrumentale, une dimension 

spirituelle certaine. Celle-ci participe, selon 

Hegel, à la mise en œuvre d'un processus d'« 

extériorisation dialectique », permettant à 

l'Homme de se construire en participant à la 

transformation du monde (Lallement, 2007, 

p.26). Le travail revêt alors un enjeu nouveau, 

« pour chacun faire prendre conscience de 

soi tout en se faisant reconnaître comme 

membre de le communauté humaine » (Sobel, 

2004, p.198) 

D'autre part, le développement du capitalisme 


s'est, selon Max Weber, réalisé sur la base 

de l'éthique protestante et plus 

particulièrement du puritanisme calviniste, qui 

en favorisant le passage d'un ascétisme 

religieux à un ascétisme séculier, a influencé 

les comportements économiques et 

organisationnels (Fleury, 2001, p.44). La 

notion de « Beruf », présentée par Weber, 

traduit ainsi l'exigence dans les préceptes 

protestants de placer son action «dans le 

monde», non seulement vis-à-vis de ses 

pairs, mais aussi vis-à-vis de Dieu. Une telle 

doctrine excluant de ce fait « tout mysticisme, 

tout ritualisme, toute magie […] conduit ainsi à 

un désenchantement du monde et à une 

rationalisation de la conduite de vie » (Id, 

2001, p.48). 

L'entreprise moderne semble ainsi 

marquée par la double influence d'une « 

démagification » des comportements 

accompagnant le processus de rationalisation 

et par l'influence certaine d'une éthique 

religieuse dans la manière d'appréhender la 

réalité. 

Le paternalisme moral de la fin du XIXe 

siècle (De Bry, Ballet, 2007), le concept de 

responsabilité sociale du chef d'entreprise, 

puis de l'entreprise dans son ensemble et visà-vis 

de la société est caractéristique de 

cette dualité. De fait, la capacité du chef 

d'entreprise à répondre aux besoins de la 

société revêt un caractère à la fois, spirituel 

(Acquier, Gond, Igalens, 2005, p.89), utilitaire 

et idéaliste (Pasquero, 2005, p.132). 

L'ouvrage de Bowen (1953), Social 

Responsibilities of the Businessman - 

considéré comme l'acte de naissance de la 

conception moderne de la RSE - est ainsi très 

largement inspiré par l'éthique protestante. 

Constituant l'un des six travaux commandés 

par le Federal Council of the Churches of 

Christ in America, il est destiné à donner 

corps à une doctrine sociale protestante. 

Cela, en réaction aux encycliques du Pape 

86

Léon XIII 5 formalisant la position de l'église 

catholique romaine face à la dégradation de la 

condition ouvrière et la « menace » socialiste 

(Pasquero, 2005, p.90, De Bry, Ballet, 2007, 

p9). 

Parfois à visées pragmatiques, parfois 

plus marqué par des intentions éthiques, le 

concept de responsabilité sociale de 

l'entreprise a été au fil de son développement 

modelé par des courants aux perspectives 

divergentes (Capron, 2003). Tel qu'il est 

envisagé de nos jours, notamment en 

Europe, le paradigme de la RSE apparaît à 

première vue indépendant de toute influence 

religieuse - son intégration par les institutions 

internationales contribuant à une forme de « 

laïcisation», qui s'appuie elle-même sur le 

concept de « développement durable » 

(Acquier, Gond, Igalens, 2005, p.17). 

Selon Pasquero (2005, p.128), « 

grâce aux travaux sur la RSE, l'idée 

wébérienne [selon laquelle] en dehors de la 

rationalité instrumentale fondée sur 

l'efficience économique, il pouvait exister une 

rationalité tout aussi légitime fondée sur le 

respect de valeurs universelles, a 

définitivement trouvé sa place en sciences de 

gestion ». Cependant, malgré l'effort visant à 

remplacer l'éthique religieuse, à la base de 

ces « valeurs universelles », par une vision « 

laïque », les marqueurs religieux sont encore 

sensibles les engagements des entreprises 

en termes de responsabilités sociales. 

Ainsi, soulignons que même les 

penseurs s'intéressant à l'influence des 

autres formes d'éthiques religieuses, l'ont 

toujours fait dans le cadre d'espaces-temps 

distincts (Weber, [1920] 2006). Or, les 

sociétés contemporaines se caractérisent 

précisément par l'abaissement des frontières 

et la remise en cause des « systèmes de 

sens indiscutables» (De Foucauld, Piveteau, 

1995, p.109). Aujourd'hui, c'est au sein même 

des entreprises occidentales, que se pose la 

5 Léon XIII (1891) Encyclique Rerum, 

Novarumhttp://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/ency 

clicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerumnovarum_fr.html 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

question de la gestion d'individus aux 

références éthiques diverses, qu'elles soient 

religieuses où laïques. 

S'intéresser à la prise en compte de la 

diversité confessionnelle par les politiques de 

RSE, c'est alors s'interroger sur les limites 

rencontrées par un modèle de gestion pensé 

pour une population homogène, face à la 

rencontre d'acteurs sociaux aux valeurs et 

identités multiples. 

Dans les faits, le législateur place 

l'entreprise dans l'obligation de respecter un 

certain nombre de droits fondamentaux. Au 

niveau international, la Déclaration 

universelle des droits de L'Homme indique 

que « tout individu a droit à la liberté 

d'opinion et d'expression, ce qui implique le 

droit de ne pas être inquiété pour ses 

opinions (…) » (article 19) tandis qu'à 

l'échelon national la Constitution de 1958, 

dans son article 1er, reconnaît la liberté 

religieuse comme une liberté fondamentale. 

Le droit du travail décline de manière 

plus opératoire ces principes et offre un 

cadre d'action aux entreprises. Ainsi, l'article 

L 120-2 du Code du travail spécifie que « nul 

ne peut apporter aux droits des personnes et 

aux libertés individuelles et collectives, des 

restrictions qui ne seraient pas justifiées par 

la nature de la tâche à accomplir, ni 

proportionnées au but recherché ». 

Or, le principal problème réside dans 

le fait de savoir si ces convictions doivent 

être restreintes à la seule sphère privée. La 

Cour Européenne des Droits de l'Homme, 

s'appuyant sur l'article 9 de la convention 

européenne des Droits de l'Homme, apporte 

un début de réponse en soulignant que « si la 

liberté religieuse relève d'abord du for 

intérieur, elle implique de surcroît […] de 

manifester sa religion. Le témoignage en 

paroles et en actes se trouve lié à 

l'existence de convictions religieuses » 

(Katz, 2005). 

On est alors dans le cadre de la 

pensée de Rawls (1987), pour qui « la liberté 

87

morale et religieuse est la conséquence du 

principe de liberté égale pour tous; et en 

admettant la priorité de ce principe, la seule 

raison pour refuser les libertés égales pour 

tous est qu'on évite ainsi une injustice encore 

plus grande, une perte de liberté encore plus 

grande » (Id, p.250). 

Désormais, l'organisation est 

questionnée sur sa capacité à reconnaître et 

associer durablement, dans le cadre d'un 

modus vivendi renouvelé, le caractère à la 

fois universel et unique de ses salariés dans 

la recherche du bien commun. Dans une 

société affirmant avec force la laïcité comme 

l'un de ses principes fondateurs, les marges 

de manœuvre de l'entreprise, face à cet 

enjeu, apparaissent des plus étroites. Or, le 

respect de ces principes de laïcité ne signifie 

aucunement inaction. Tout en n'occultant pas 

l'objectif principal d'une organisation qui est 

de générer du profit et donc de veiller à une 

performance optimale, les entreprises 

peuvent et doivent agir. Des études 

canadiennes montrent ainsi que la religion est 

perçue pour 43 % des salariés comme la 

principale source potentielle de tensions 

sociales. Dès lors, même lorsqu'elles en ont la 

capacité, les organisations hésitent préférant 

se concentrer sur des questions plus 

consensuelles. L'environnement 

réglementaire et politique, français, souvent 

avancé comme une explication à l'absence 

d'action en matière confessionnelle, loin de 

représenter un obstacle insurmontable, 

représente une richesse unique. L'Etat luimême 

permet ainsi par une directive datant de 

1964 6 , à ses fonctionnaires de bénéficier 

d'autorisation d'absence pour motifs religieux. 

L'exemple de la prise en compte de la 

diversité confessionnelle au sein de l'armée 

française peut permettre de nourrir une 

réflexion à ce propos. 

Organisations et religions : l'exemple de 

l'armée française. 

La « vieille Dame » est historiquement 

habituée au brassage social et à l'intégration 

6 Circulaires FP/7, N° 901 du 23 septembre 1964 et N° 

2034 du 16 octobre 2 0 0 2 (Katz, 2005) 


des diversités d'une façon globale. Elle a, de 

plus, longtemps contribué au brassage de la 

population par la transmission de références 

communes. Et pourtant, cela ne va pas sans 

poser de problèmes. Prenons l'exemple de 

l'Islam, religion très présente dans nos 

armées depuis les débuts de la conquête 

coloniale et rappelons que, durant cette 

période, les Spahis et Tirailleurs étant des 

sujets de l'Empire, ils ne bénéficiaient pas d'un 

traitement identique à celui des métropolitains, 

considérés quant à eux comme des citoyens. 

Qu'il s'agisse de la solde ou de l'avancement, 

les règles étaient différentes. 

Aujourd'hui encore, l'Institution accuse 

un retard au regard de ce culte qui concerne 

près de quatre millions de nos concitoyens. 

Car si les Aumôneries militaires, dont les 

statuts datent de 1880, comptent quelque 233 

aumôniers à temps plein dont 176 catholiques, 

37 aumôniers protestants et 20 israélites 7 , 

c'est seulement en 2006 8 que le CFCM a pu 

proposer au chef d'Etat-major des armées un 

Aumônier en chef représentant le culte 

musulman. Un changement important s'est 

donc orchestré ces dernières années. Il peut 

être intéressant de s'arrêter un instant sur les 

tensions qui l'accompagnent. 

L'opposition des discours entre l'idée 

d'une éventuelle suppression des aumôneries 

- défendue par Alain Richard, alors ministre 

de la défense dans le gouvernement de Lionel 

Jospin - et le respects des pratiques 

religieuses - souligné par Jean-François 

Bureau, directeur du service de presse des 

armées qui rappelle officiellement que «les 

armées sont un modèle d'institution 

républicaine sur le plan de l'intégration et le 

sont aussi sur celui de la laïcité » tout en 

soulignant l'importance « de permettre à ceux 

qui le souhaitent de pratiquer leur religion » - 

est des plus explicites à ce propos. 

Malgré ces évolutions récentes, la 

place des imams au sein de l'armée reste 

problématique. Leur accession au statut de 

conseillers faisant fonction de références en 

7 Cf. : La Croix.com ( 17 mars 2005). 

8 Arrêté du 18 mars 2005. 

88

matière de rites religieux, à l'instar de leurs 

confrères d'autres confessions, ne semble 

aujourd'hui pas acquise. 

Ceci peut paraître paradoxal puisqu'un 

décret interministériel, précisant les termes 

l'intégration d'aumôniers musulmans par le 

chef d'Etat-major des armées, employeur des 

ces derniers devraient assurer une égalité de 

traitement. Il est même précisé que, dans la 

mesure où ils sont assimilés à des officiers, 

ils sont soumis à l'avancement et à 

l'ancienneté avec une solde afférente. Ils 

doivent également être disponibles et aptes 

(médicalement) pour accompagner les forces 

lors des missions à l'étranger. Car leur 

connaissance de la population autochtone 

lors des théâtres d'opérations est d'une rare 

préciosité. La volonté est donc bien là. 

Mais au sein de l'Institution militaire, ce 

projet suscite de sérieuses craintes. Le 

risque d'intégrer des fondamentalistes dans 

les armées, la tentation d'ouvrir les portes à 

une certaine forme de prosélytisme 9 sont 

notamment énoncées. Pourtant, la « grande 

muette » 10 , loin de se rétracter, anticipe cette 

éventualité en exigeant de ses aumôniers 

musulmans de posséder les critères 

essentiels à leur rang d'officier et en leur 

demandant de suivre une formation commune 

aux aumôniers sur la connaissance des 

armées ainsi que sur les relations d'aide et 

d'écoute, comme le suggère l'aumônier en 

chef protestant, le pasteur Bernard Delannoy. 

Dans l'optique de faciliter 

l'œcuménisme, il est même envisagé de créer 

des lieux de culte « interconfessionnels ». 

Ces différents éléments nous conduisent à 

considérer que nous sommes là face à une 

réelle action en faveur de la liberté 

confessionnelle, qui se traduit par des faits 

tangibles et s'intègre parfaitement dans la 

logique de l'institution. Opérationnellement, 

remplir la mission doit rester l'ultime objectif du 

militaire. En aucun cas, la pratique religieuse 

ne peut entraver ce sacro-saint principe et 

9 Propos de l'aumônier catholique régional de Lyon, le 

père Jean-Louis Dufour (Le Figaro, 10-07-2007). 

10 C'est ainsi que l'on nomme l'armée 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

remettre en cause les impératifs 

opérationnels. C'est la raison pour laquelle les 

besoins du service priment toujours sur 

l'aspect confessionnel et il paraît évident qu'à 

ce titre les possibilités de pratique diffèreront 

d'une armée à l'autre. Ceci semble toutefois 

parfaitement conciliable avec le respect des 

croyances de chacun, notamment en ce qui 

concerne des actions quotidiennes telles que 

la préparation de rations sans porc voire de 

double ration le soir durant la période du 

ramadan pour les musulmans, voire la mise à 

disposition de produits casher pour les 

israélites. 

Ces différents éléments permettent 

ainsi d'envisager qu'au sein d'une Institution 

républicaine telle que l'armée, la diversité 

confessionnelle peut donner lieu à des 

pratiques assumées. Interrogations et 

craintes ne sont pas, dans le cas de cette 

organisation, des motifs d'inactions. Ils 

représentent, bien au contraire, une exigence 

de réflexion éthique et de transparence. Peut 

être moins soumise que les organisations 

traditionnelles aux pressions de 

l'environnement, l'armée peut mener des 

actions ne cadrant pas directement avec la 

gestion institutionnalisée de la diversité, mais 

représentant dans les faits une véritable 

responsabilité sociale. A partir de ces 

pratiques d'autres visant à véhiculer un fort 

sentiment d'appartenance à la Nation, peuvent 

être développées, en complément des 

approches traditionnelles, face à une 

population aux parcours et aux attentes 

hétérogènes. 

RSE et diversité confessionnelle, 

raisons et conséquences d'un silence 

Analyse à partir de la théorie néoinstitutionnelle 

En bousculant parfois les normes 

sociales et organisationnelles établies, 

certaines organisations agissent ainsi en 

matière de gestion de la diversité 

confessionnelle. Cependant, très peu d'entre 

elles affichent cette responsabilité souvent 

assumée dans les faits. A travers une 

89

éflexion itérative s'appuyant, d'une part sur 

la théorie néo-institutionnelle et d'autre part 

sur le témoignage de praticiens spécialisés 

dans la gestion de la diversité, nous 

analyserons les décalages pouvant exister 

entre discours et pratiques. 

La théorie néo-institutionnelle naît de la 

conception d'une entreprise « encastrée » 

dans la société, à la recherche d'une légitimité 

symbolique lui permettant d'exercer ses 

activités (licence to opérate) (Capron, 2005, 

p.6). L'origine de cette pensée initialement 

économique est attribuée à Selznick (1969) 

qui, rejoignant la conception du système de 

Parsons, défend « une conception 'Holiste' de 

l'organisation et du lien social » (Rojot, 2005, 

p.421). Ainsi, les organisations désireuses de 

s'affirmer comme « responsables » sont 

amenées à adapter leurs structures, afin de 

répondre aux exigences externes (Meyer et 

Rowan, 1977, Previdente, 2004). 

Or, ne pouvant satisfaire 

simultanément aux attentes de partie 

prenantes multiples et à ses exigences 

économiques, l'entreprise va procéder à la « 

dissociation» de ses pratiques (Capron, 

Quairel, 2006). Brunson (1989), évoque ainsi 

la notion d'« entreprise hypocrite » pour 

rendre compte du décalage existant entre les 

réponses formelles, apportées aux attentes 

de l'environnement, et l'activité économique 

établie selon des objectifs de rentabilité. 

L'analyse à partir du prisme néoinstitutionnel 

nous permet ainsi d'avancer une 

explication sur le décalage omniprésent entre 

responsabilité sociale proclamée et réellement 

assumée en matière de diversité. 

L'importance de l'institutionnalisation des 

réponses, apparaît ainsi lorsque l'on demande 

aux praticiens spécialisés ce qui relève, pour 

eux, de la diversité dans l'entreprise : 

« Vous avez la qualification, vous avez l'âge, 

vous avez le genre, vous avez l'invalidité et 

vous avez l'origine étrangère». 

Responsable d'un cabinet de conseils 

spécialisé dans la gestion de la diversité 


L'institutionnalisation consiste, au sein de 

l'entreprise, à transformer des attentes 

sociales en objectifs techniques 

impersonnels, se plaçant au dessus de la 

discrétion individuelle (Rojot, 2005, p.433). Le 

choix des politiques mises en œuvre par 

l'entreprise en matière de diversité doit donc 

avant tout permettre le consensus. Les 

thématiques abordées par les entreprises 

s'imposent alors comme des valeurs absolues 

ne prêtant pas à évaluation. 

« Sur un problème comme le handicap, qui 

fait l'unanimité, on n'aura pas de freins 

véritables c'est très bien ». 

Directeur de la diversité, Secteur de l'énergie 

et des travaux publics 

« Dans nos fonction la gestion de la diversité 

consiste, pour l'instant et prioritairement, à la 

mise en œuvre des accords sociaux qui ont 

été signés, notamment sur le handicap et 

l'égalité professionnelle homme - femme » 

Chargé d'étude RSE et Diversité, Secteur de 

l'assurance 

Des lors, le décalage entre le 

développement de politiques de gestion de la 

diversité destinées à afficher la responsabilité 

de l'entreprise vis-à-vis de l'environnement et 

les autres mesures destinées à régenter 

réellement les interactions est sensible. 

« Les actions sur la diversité sont largement 

relatives à la communication, il ne faut pas 

se le cacher. Il y a des actions qui sont 

purement cosmétiques, il n'y a rien derrière. 

Je connais l'envers du décors, il y a rien ». 

Directeur de la diversité, Secteur de l'énergie 

et travaux publics 

« Aujourd'hui, ils ont compris qu'ils ne 

pouvaient pas se passer de communiquer 

dessus, mais pas forcément d'agir ». 

Responsable d'un cabinet spécialisé dans la 

gestion de la diversité 

La question des convictions 

religieuses demeure toutefois encore taboue, 

même si les personnes interrogées 

reconnaissent son existence au sein de 

90

l'entreprise : 

« Il est certains qu'il y a beaucoup plus de 

personnes d'origines culturelles ou de 

confessions diverses dans notre entreprise 

que de personnes handicapées, par 

exemple. Mais il n'y a pas d'actions prévues 

en ce qui concerne les religions. On n'est 

pas mature pour cela. Comme pour les 

préférences sexuelles. On va attendre un 

peu. Même si nous pourrions mener des 

actions, les salariés, la culture de 

l'entreprise ne s'y prêtent pas. Il faut y aller 

en douceur puis petit à petit ouvrir. On ne 

peut pas, du jour au lendemain, mettre une 

affiche ». 


l'assurance 

Par ailleurs, l'institutionnalisation des 

réponses à l'environnement passe par ce que 

Rojot (2005, p.433) nomme les codes « prépakagé[s] 

» et l'adoption « cérémonieuse » 

d'engagements qui permettent à l'entreprise 

de s'afficher comme une « bonne 

organisation », quel que soit le décalage 

existant entre discours et réalité des 

pratiques : 

« Tout a commencé pour nous avec la 

signature par le président du groupe de la 

charte de la diversité. Par la suite, il a fallu 

mettre en œuvre, au niveau organisationnel, 

ces engagements et donc, logiquement, la 

direction RSE a été créée avec un directeur. 

Mais celui-ci n'a pas pu occuper le poste 

pendant pratiquement six mois, car il était en 

poste ailleurs […]. Nous ne sommes pour 

l'instant que deux au sein de cette direction. 

» 


l'assurance 

Les leaders jouent un rôle de première 

importance dans le processus 

d'institutionnalisation des valeurs. C'est ainsi 

la définition même du leadership de choisir, 

suivant une perspective plus ou moins 

rationnelle, les valeurs de la société qui vont 

être incorporées durablement dans 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

l'organisation (Id, p. 421) : 

« Il faut que cela vienne de l'entreprise, et du 

plus haut niveau. Il faut que le président 

affirme la politique de l'entreprise de vouloir 

mettre en œuvre une politique de diversité au 

niveau des talents, et non pas de rester dans 

le cadre d'une politique où toutes les 

personnes sont les mêmes ». 

Directeur de l'innovation sociale - Secteur de 

l'énergie 

Concernant la diversité confessionnelle, 

l'entreprise se trouve dans la situation 

quasiment inverse. Si elle adopte 

ponctuellement des mesures destinées à 

faciliter les interactions entre les différentes 

formes de pratiques religieuses, ces actions 

ne sont pratiquement jamais assumées 

comme entrant dans le cadre d'une 

responsabilité de l'entreprise : 

« Il y a un problème d'ordre 'pratique', 

notamment au niveau du Ramadan. Car les 

travailleurs maghrébins, qui observent le 

Ramadan, lorsque c'est l'hiver passe encore, 

mais lorsque c'est l'été, je peux vous dire 

qu'il y en a qui font des malaises, qui ont du 

mal à travailler. [...] Il peut y avoir un 

phénomène de rejet de la part de leurs 

collègues. Au début c'est la compassion et à 

la fin c'est le rejet ». 

Directeur de la diversité, Secteur énergie et 

travaux publics 

L'entreprise traite donc au cas par 

cas, sans pour autant développer une vision 

globale de la problématique. Or, l'absence de 

lignes directrices fragilise la position des 

salariés placés dans une situation où 

l'informel fait loi : 

« Dans toutes les entreprises que je 

connais, il n'y a pas de prise en compte ! Il y 

a des prises en compte sur le vif : 'ah, mince, 

qu'est-ce qu'on fait, elle a mis son voile', 'ah 

bah mince on a que des sandwichs au 

jambon …' Donc ils découvrent. C'est vrai 

aussi que cette question-là n'était pas aussi 

puissamment posée, par exemple il y a vingt 

ans. Donc c'est vrai que c'est nouveau pour 

91

les entreprises et là, c'est toujours pareil : le 

mot le plus grossier, celui qui fait le plus 

peur dans le monde de l'entreprise, c'est 

anticiper ». 

Responsable d'un cabinet spécialisé dans la 

gestion l'innovation sociale et de la diversité 

Si les entreprises sont souvent 

amenées à réagir suite à des situations de 

tensions, qui restent au dire de nos 

interlocuteurs très marginales, la question de 

la diversité confessionnelle va bien au-delà 

des manifestations des faits religieux. Dans le 

mode de gestion actuelle, seule les cas les 

plus saillants accèdent à une certaine 

visibilité, laissant la grande majorité des 

individus, se fondre dans un cadre préétabli, 

et laisser de coté la richesse que représente 

leurs visions du monde. Ainsi, au-delà de la 

question des pratiques religieuses, c'est la 

possibilité de réaliser une construction 

spirituelle et identitaire de soi au sein de 

l'espace organisationnel, promu au rang 

d'institution sociale, qui est niée à des salariés 

déjà fragilisés (Sainsaulieu, 1992, Pauchant, 

2001). 

Le silence qui pèse sur la question de 

la diversité confessionnelle peut alors 

s'expliquer par le fait qu'à l'inverse des 

thématiques « classiques » de la diversité, 

elle ne peut être traitée dans le cadre du 

processus actuel d'institutionnalisation 

développé en matière de responsabilité 

sociale de l'entreprise. D'une part, l'influence 

de l'éthique religieuse dans la conception 

moderne de la responsabilité sociale de 

l'entreprise pose la question de sa capacité à 

reconnaître les autres orientations éthiques, 

de l'autre, la co-construction d'un cadre fixant 

les termes de l'interaction des convictions 

religieuses de chacun dans l'espace commun 

nécessite une réflexion complexe, qui ne se 

donne pas d'emblée pour acquise. Cette 

réflexion ne peut faire l'économie d'une prise 

en compte de l'estompement actuel des 

frontières entre espace public et privé. Elle 

s'avère aujourd'hui indispensable à 

l'association d'individus porteurs d'identités 

multiples. Le silence régnant à ce propos 


n'apparaît, en effet, pas exempt de 

conséquences socio-économiques. 

Des conséquences du silence 

Afin d'envisager les conséquences de 

ce silence au sein des entreprises, il peut être 

intéressant de s'arrêter sur un exemple au 

retentissement médiatique important, celui des 

espaces dévolus à la prière au sein des 

aéroports de Roissy Charles de Gaulle et 

d'Orly. Bien que marginal, cet exemple paraît 

en effet des plus significatifs, ne serait-ce 

qu'au vu des signifiants et acteurs sociaux 

qui ont été mobilisés à ce propos. 

Mais avant de nous engager plus 

avant, il semble tout d'abord nécessaire de 

préciser chacun des termes d'une 

configuration qui apparaît, à bien des niveaux, 

symptomatique. 

La nature du tissu économique, tout 

d'abord. Dans l'espace aéroportuaire se 

côtoient sociétés au rayonnement 

international et PME parmi les plus modestes. 

Alors que les premières disposent d'une 

population salariale relativement qualifiée et 

souvent syndiquée, les secondes, souvent 

spécialisées dans le traitement des tâches 

subalternes, sous traitées, font appel à une 

main d'œuvre précaire, souvent immigrée ou 

d'origine, recrutée à proximité géographique 

des lieux de travail. 

La chronologie précédant la 

construction de l'événement, ensuite. Depuis 

longtemps sur les aéroports de Roissy 

comme d'Orly, des parties de vestiaires ainsi 

que d'autres lieux à la fois peu visibles et peu 

valorisés sont utilisés comme lieux de prière 

par les employés des entreprises soustraitantes 

- seuls les salariés susceptibles 

d'accéder en zone publique ayant accès aux 

lieux de recueillement aménagés pour les 

voyageurs. Ces lieux de prières sont par 

évidence démographique des lieux de prières 

musulmans (prier cinq fois par jour est une 

obligation pour les pratiquants de cette 

religion massivement majoritaires dans les 

pays d'où sont originaires nombres de 

92

vagues d'immigration contemporaine). 

En avril 2006, Philippe de Villiers, 

président du Mouvement Pour la France 

publie un ouvrage, Les Mosquées de Roissy. 

Cet ouvrage dénonce l'existence de ces lieux 

de culte et insiste sur la présence de 

fondamentalistes potentiellement terroristes 

parmi les salariés présents dans l'aéroport. 

Ces deux éléments sont étroitement imbriqués 

dans l'ouvrage. Quelques mois après la sortie 

de son ouvrage, les lieux de culte officieux 

sont fermés par le Ministère de l'Intérieur qui 

supprime également les badges d'accès d'une 

quarantaine de salariés, annihilant ainsi leur 

possibilité d'exercer leur emploi 11 . 

La situation sociale en découlant, 

enfin. Parmi les salariés se retrouvant de ce 

fait soudainement au chômage, certains sont 

soutenus par la CGT et Sud aérien. Pour sa 

part la CFDT sera très active pour la 

restitution des badges d'accès leur 

permettant de travailler. 

Ici donc, l'informel dans lequel se situe 

la diversité confessionnelle ouvre un espace 

aux récupérations politiques les plus diverses 

tout en favorisant les tensions sociales. Cet 

exemple permet également de souligner que 

les éléments déclenchant la prise en compte 

de ce clair-obscur religieux, sont toujours des 

éléments négatifs (affaire du voile, affaire des 

Mosquées, terrorisme …), ce qui semble 

renforcer une appréhension négative de la 

place du fait religieux au sein de l'entreprise. 

Or, ces représentations négatives ont 

une incidence sur le recrutement et la gestion 

des ressources humaines au sein des 

entreprises comme sur les parcours 

professionnels de nombre d'individus. De 

véritables logiques auto-discriminatoires, 

voient ainsi le jour. Alors que tous les 

penseurs s'intéressant aux faits sociaux 

constatent une augmentation des signes 

extérieurs de religiosité dans la société 

française (Wieviorka, 2005), acteurs 

économiques comme institutionnels semblent 

se fermer toujours plus à la question. 

11 http://www.crcmidfcentre.com/actualite_050.htm 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Concomitamment, on constate le 

développement, en France d'une véritable 

classe moyenne supérieure de personnes 

issues de l'immigration du Maghreb et de 

confession judaïque ou musulmane. Parmi ces 

individus, certains se refusent à renoncer à 

une pratique contraignante de leur religion, 

préférant se tourner vers des entreprises qui 

présentent un caractère religieux ou 

identitaire et favorisent ainsi leur recrutement. 

Alors que, d'une part, des entreprises 

par ailleurs engagées dans la promotion de la 

diversité se privent de la richesse socioéconomique 

que constituent ces classes 

moyennes supérieures, de l'autre, se 

développent des organisations qui favorisent, 

dans leur recrutement, une certaine uniformité 

et captent de fait cette richesse. Le tableau 

ainsi esquissé nous permet d'entrevoir que 

ces différentes pratiques concourent à une 

mise à mal du principe de diversité. Au plus 

loin de toutes les théorisations de la laïcité 

comme espace garantissant l'égalité des 

chances, l'approche empirique conduit à 

concevoir que si l'entreprise n'aménage pas 

des espaces au sein desquels les différents 

individus qu'elle regroupe peuvent concilier 

appartenance confessionnelle et 

épanouissement professionnel de nombreux 

risques sont envisageables. Ces risques ont 

trait aussi bien à une perte, pour ces 

entreprises, en termes de compétences qu'à 

l'augmentation de micro-entreprises recrutant 

sur la base de l'appartenance 

confessionnelle. Ces dernières doivent être 

envisagées au vu de l'émergence de 

diasporas transnationales aux liens de plus 

en plus lâches avec leurs sociétés d'accueil. 

Arguments pour une gestion réfléchie 

et assumée de la diversité 

confessionnelle. 

Peut-on, sans promouvoir l'intégration 

du fait religieux au sein de l'entreprise, 

envisager sereinement l'intérêt d'affirmer de 

manière assumée une prise en compte d'une 

diversité confessionnelle existant déjà 

largement de fait ? Les différents éléments 

93

évoqués ci-avant, éléments relatifs aux 

dangers liés à la relégation de ces questions 

dans un espace informel, tendent à en 

démontrer l'intérêt. 

La prédominance de l'informel laisse, 

en effet, largement la place aux manipulations 

de tous bords. Dans une société désignée 

par certains penseurs comme « postmoderne 

» (Baudrillard, Derrida), l'affirmation 

d'une responsabilité sociale affirmée apparaît 

indispensable à l'établissement d'une réflexion 

distancée sur les modalités d'établissement 

d'un « espace commun » d'interactions 

capable de répondre aux attentes d'un 

individu à l'identité fragmenté, évoluant au 

sein d'une société éclatée (Rojot, 2005, 

p.451). 

De fait, suite à l'effacement apparent 

des institutions traditionnellement 

pourvoyeuses de sens (De Foucault et 

Piveteau, 1995, p.109), l'entreprise 

contemporaine apparaît comme l'un des 

principaux lieux d'articulation de l'individuel et 

du social (Bernoux, 1999 p.72). La 

commission européenne, fixant le cap de la 

politique de développement durable de l'Union, 

place ainsi « la cohésion sociale » et « 

l'investissement dans le capital humain » en 

tête de ses préoccupations 12 . 

La réflexion sur l'interaction entre 

individus de confessions diverses trouve 

ainsi sa place dans une perspective plus 

large où l'entreprise est chargée d'assurer 

une fonction jusque là réservée à l'Etat nation 

: la création et le maintien d'un lien social dans 

la durée (Pierre, 2001, p.141). Par delà la 

réalité d'une gestion informelle, le 

développement d'une éthique assumée par 

l'entreprise et allant au-delà des thématiques 

institutionnalisées de la diversité apparaît 

indispensable au développement des 

conditions facilitant l'implication d'une 

population hétérogène. En développant une 

responsabilité affirmée en termes de gestion 

de l'interaction identitaire, l'entreprise 

12 Commission des communautés européennes (2001). 

«Promouvoir un cadre européen pour la responsabilité 

sociale de l'entreprise», Livre vert. 


explicitera, à travers ses politiques et 

pratiques, ses valeurs. Elle pourra ainsi 

permettre aux salariés de procéder au travail 

d'association et de disjonction entre celles-ci 

et son histoire personnelle. Un tel processus 

semble nécessaire au développement de 

l'implication organisationnelle (Thévenet, 2004, 

Meyer, Allen, 1996). 

D'autre part, l'absence de politique 

globale des interactions confessionnelles 

semble, si l'on se réfère aux travaux de 

Savall et Zardet (1995), engendrer un certain 

nombre de coûts cachés. Insistant sur 

l'importance de l'investissement dans le 

capital humain, leurs recherches ont 

démontré que « le coût de la non-maintenance 

du patrimoine immatériel de l'entreprise, défini 

comme l'ensemble des ressources 

accumulées pour entretenir la capacité 

d'activité de l'entreprise, est très élevé » 

(Savall et Zardet, 2005, p.311). Pour ces 

chercheurs, « la capacité d'activité de 

l'entreprise repose sur un facteur clé, 

primordial pour la création de valeur ajoutée : 

son potentiel humain ». 

Face, à l'élargissement de la 

population salariale traditionnelle et à 

l'ouverture à de nouveaux profils plus variés 

(Peretti, 2006), la qualité de la gestion de 

l'interaction confessionnelle doit être 

considérée comme un élément essentiel du « 

capital social » de l'entreprise. Pour cela, 

l'organisation doit dépasser les freins la 

conduisant à adopter une position défensive 

consistant à agir au coup par coup et à nier 

toute responsabilité globale. Elle doit 

également développer une politique « 

proactive », au sens de Caroll (1979), lui 

permettant de traiter, de manière précoce, les 

signaux de tensions, « grâce à des intentions 

stratégiques plus déterminées qui permettent 

de développer des actions de prévention (…) 

» (Savall et Zardet, 2005, p.311). 

L'entreprise est donc face à un risque 

connu, et son intérêt à agir devient 

grandissant au fur et à mesure de 

l'accroissement de l'hétérogénéité de la 

population. Affirmer une responsabilité déjà 

94

largement assumée dans les faits, permettrait 

de clarifier une situation où l'informel favorise 

les comportements extrêmes et fait peser sur 

l'entreprise le coûts des tensions sociales et 

de la non implications des salariés. 

Conclusion 

Interrogeant les bases éthiques du 

concept moderne de responsabilité sociale de 

l'entreprise, puis analysant les pratiques en 

étant issues à travers l'approche néoinstitutionnelle, 

notre propos a été, ici, de 

déconstruire les discours dominants et de 

donner sens aux espaces de réflexion 

volontairement laissés dans l'ombre. Il nous 

est ainsi apparu que, par delà les tabous et 

les discours institutionnalisés, la question de 

la gestion de la diversité confessionnelle 

constitue aujourd'hui un enjeu économique et 

social pour des entreprises confrontées à la 

fois à la disparition de leur population salariale 

traditionnelle, à l'apparition de salariés aux 

parcours et aux attentes hétérogènes dans 

un contexte sociétal complexe. 

De fait, si pour Weber, la modernité 

était caractérisée par l'opposition insoluble de 

la sphère du religieux avec d'autres sphères 

de valeurs (Fleury, 2001, p.66), le passage à 

une société de l'information et de la 

communication à remis en cause les 

frontières existantes entre espace public et 

privé, rendant en grande partie les individus 

responsables de leur construction identitaire. 

Cette réflexion sur l'intégration de la question 

confessionnelle dans les politiques de gestion 

de la diversité offre un éclairage sur cette 

question du sens et, plus généralement, sur 

les conditions du tissage par l'organisation 

d'un lien social durable. 

Alors que ni le sentiment 

d'appartenance national, « ni les repères 

anciens d'appartenance sociale, ne suffisent 

[…] à définir les identités, individuelles et de 

groupes, nécessaires pour mobiliser et 

former les capacités productives dont 

l'entreprise à besoin » (Sainsaulieu, 1992), il 

apparaît que les acteurs économiques et 

institutionnels ne peuvent plus aujourd'hui se 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

soustraire à leurs responsabilités. 

Ces bouleversements posent ainsi de 

façon accrue la question de la gestion, par 

les entreprises, d'un fait religieux à 

l'importance grandissante. Autrefois, pensée 

comme un espace purement rationnel, 

l'entreprise est, en tant que système ouvert 

sur la société, soumise à un processus de « 

réenchantement » (Osty, 2002), lui-même 

porteur d'interrogation quant à sa capacité à 

s'affirmer comme un espace d'interaction 

créateur de sens. 

Aujourd'hui, cette gestion du fait 

religieux existe, mais elle ne déborde que très 

rarement de la sphère de l'informel. Or, la 

question des actions qui n'affectent ni les 

principes d'équité, ni les principes de 

neutralité qui prévalent au sein de l'entreprise 

peuvent être développée, mais le désir de 

s'afficher comme responsable et la peur de 

tensions sociales sont encore les plus fortes. 

Cette affirmation ne pourra être réalisée que 

par une mise à distance des stéréotypes et 

représentations, qui président parfois de 

manière quasiment inconsciente aux 

pratiques mises en place à ce propos. Ces 

stéréotypes et représentations apparaissent 

particulièrement forts et négatifs en ce qui 

concerne la religion musulmane. 

La responsabilité sociale de 

l'entreprise, réside alors dans sa capacité à 

développer une réflexion éthique globale 

concernant les conditions de l'interaction 

confessionnelle. Celle ci, loin de générer de 

nouvelles différences permettrait de répondre 

dans l'un « espace commun », que 

représente l'entreprise, au besoin 

fondamental des êtres humains qui est de 

donner sens à leur travail et à leur vie. 

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97

The Influence of Martial Arts on Companies 

Ocler Rodolphe 

ESC Chambéry, France 

ABSTRACT 

What would have happened if the strategy concepts were not based on Clausewitz but on Sun 

Tzu for example? To answer this question, we recommend using metaphors with a certain 

number of precautions, which have to be respected. The key concepts of Ki, Kokyu and Ma-ai 

serve to better define the notions of energy, flow of energy and distance/time/space 

relationships. Each of these has its practical application in the management of an organization, 

enabling us to conclude by proposing a new vision of the company and its links with its 

environment. 

Key words : Metaphors, martial arts, propensity, potential of situation, energy 

INTRODUCTION: 

The notion of stategy mainly derives 

from military concepts. The aim of this article 

is to propose a way to define strategy based 

on the asian view of military sciences. What 

would have happened if the strategy 

concepts were not based on Clausewitz but 

on Sun Tzu for example? To answer this 

question, we recommend using metaphors 

with a certain number of precautions, which 

have to be respected. We will thus 

demonstrate the distinction between 

structural and semantic metaphors, preferring 

the latter in social sciences. We will question 

the validity of the use of metaphors in 

scientific construction and try to establish a 

validation model for the scientific production 

that they generate. This leads us to show, 

how, by borrowing from the world of martial 

arts, and through the use of metaphors, a 

new definition of managerial concepts can be 

envisaged. The key concepts of Ki, Kokyu 

and Ma-ai serve to better define the notions 

of energy, of energy canals and 

distance/time/space relationships. We will 

then demonstrate how each of these has its 

practical application in the management of an 

organization, which enables us to conclude 

by proposing a new vision of the company 

and its links with its environment. 

Ocler 

METAPHORS AND 

MANAGEMENT 

Firstly, we propose to sweep away 

the theoretic field dealing with the use of 

metaphors in order to determine which are 

the contributions and the limits of the latter. 

After having defined these elements, we will 

endeavour to suggest a model for the 

application of metaphors in the company 

world at the same time making sure of the 

validity of these transfers. 

Definition of scientific concepts 

When analyzing the various 

approaches of knowledge production 

process in management sciences, we note 

that the use of the language calls upon 

problems of the different type: 

o Ontological: realistic/nominalist, 

o Epistemological: positivist/constructivist, 

o Praxeological: the role of the metaphor 

as a tool for comprehension of reality, 

o Paradigmatical: use of one or several 

metaphors. 

For Desreumaux (1998), the first two 

conflicts are of ontological nature and return 

to the question of knowing if organizational 

reality is produced by the metaphor or if it 

exists independently of metaphorical 

descriptions which one can make. 

98

According to Nietzche (1979), the 

process of knowledge production is working 

with metaphors, the truth being an illusion, a 

moving space composed of metaphors, 

metonymies and anthropomorphism. 

In a realistic approach, the metaphor is 

appreciated for its capacity to retranslate the 

essence of a given reality: existence of one 

reality that the metaphor will reveal. In a 

nominalistic approach, the multiple uses of 

metaphors must make it possible to avoid 

A dichotomy between these various 

poles is then possible. There would be then 

zones in which certain aspects would have 

higher weight than others. In other words, on 

a given axis, the process of definition of a 

concept can evolve/move between two 

poles, one praxeological, the second 

theorical. In the same way, the concepts 

used in management sciences can derive 

from an analysis with mathematical 

formalization or on the contrary to find their 

genesis in an approach much more 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

privileging with excess a point of view among 

the others: there is no reality but a multitude 

of interpretations of reality. 

When defining concepts, we can also 

notice another source of interrogation. 

Management sciences are at the crossroad 

between known as hard sciences and soft 

sciences. Moreover they integrate theoretical 

elements as well as practical elements. 

qualitative. In this case, the majority of the 

model is derived from a verbal phase: a 

process by which words are associated an 

idea. According to Reason and Torbert ( 

2001) : “the empirical positivist perspective 

adopts a realist ontology and draws on 

methods based on operationalization, 

measurement, and the generation and testing 

of hypotheses, ideally through rigorous 

experiment. Post-modern interpretivism, 

drawing on what is often referred to as the “ 

linguistic turn”, views reality as a human 

99

construction based in language; and draws 

on a variety of qualitative methodologies 

which attempts to portray these 

constructions, often to” see through” or 

“deconstruct” taken for granted realities” 

The process of concepts definition 

and the analysis of the organizations go 

through an obliged passage: the verbalisation 

phase which uses either a literal approach or 

a metaphorical approach. The critics on literal 

language or metaphorical language are done 

on the level of coding and decoding. The 

communication of information comprises three 

distinct fields: 

o Syntax: which covers the problems 

of transmission of information and is treated 

by the information theory (coding, 

transmission channels, capacity of the noise, 

redundancy); 

o Semantics: This analyzes the 

symbols which remain meaningless if the 

transmitter and the receiver did not agree 

before on their significance; 

o Praxeology: it studies the influence 

on the behaviour. 

Our analysis is mainly at the level of 

semantics. Indeed, for Nonaka (1991, 1994) 

the process of scientific discovery, especially 

in social sciences is strongly dependent on 

the language and thus by definition on the use 

of the metaphor. 

The problem of the use of the 

metaphors in sciences appeared with 

Aristote which introduces from the start the 

distinction between literal language and 

metaphorical language, this latter according to 

the statements of the philosopher, being 

reserved for poetry but eliminated from the 

natural science. 

For Pinder and Bourgeois (1982), 

metaphors are opposed to the literal language 

which is seen as basis for scientific 

knowledge. In this functionalist paradigm, the 

metaphor does not form part of scientific 

knowledge and can for even be harmful him. 

Consequently, if it is inevitable, it must be 

Ocler 

minimized. 

According to Desreumaux (1998), it is 

common to oppose the positivist 

epistemology, which nourishes a project of 

accumulation of knowledge on regularities 

and causal relations, supposed to 

characterize the world of the organizations, 

and the constructivist epistemology, 

expressing a subjective posture according to 

which one cannot include/understand the 

phenomena without analyzing the framework 

of reference of the participant in action. 

For the positivists, the use of the 

metaphor alone is unable to produce a 

rigorous knowledge of the organizations. It is, 

at most, only one preliminary stage with the 

development of a literal language which must 

be preferred. On the contrary, some consider 

that the handling of such a language is not 

possible, since there is no absolute truth but 

only truths built on the basis of framework of 

subjective reference: the metaphors are then 

essential since they structure the conceptual 

framework used and then are part of the way 

reality is socially built. 

Some authors privilege a median 

position. Marshak (1993) does not show any 

preference between the two types of 

approach and admits that instead of 

separating them, they could be used in a 

congruent way, especially in the projects of 

organizational changes. 

For Black (1962), the major advantage 

of the metaphorical speech is to introduce a 

theoretical terminology into still unexplored 

fields, and depends for this reason mainly on 

catachresis. The scientific terms, being fixed 

perfectly (specific and non interchangeable), 

can not in turn be used to explore these 

grounds. 

According to us, within the framework 

of a strategy of communication, the literal 

approach is to be privileged in the phase of 

formalization for a more effective diffusion; 

the metaphorical language being more 

appropriate in a process of definition and 

100

search for direction. Although we are close 

to Tsoukas (1991), when it declares that the 

metaphors are useful to capture a flow of 

experiment in the first stages of the 

development of a literal language, we are 

persuaded that the role of the metaphors is 

not limited to this starter. 

Metaphors and definition of 

concepts 

In rhetoric, the metaphor is a figure of 

style belonging to the family of tropes: a trope 

being a figure that modifies an expression or 

a word from its original sense. 

In attempting to define more 

clearly what a metaphor is, we find several 

interpretations: 

ο a metaphor is a transfer of the 

sense (first definition of the metaphor given 

by Aristotle) 

ο a metaphor brings together two 

separate elements placed in an environment 

that is only defined in a very global manner. 

(Le Roy (1999)) 

ο a metaphor consists of substituting 

one term for another, which is assimilated into 

it, thus creating a comparison between two 

notions that have an analogical relationship. 

(Durieux (2000)) 

ο a metaphor is a figure of speech 

whereby a notion or a descriptive term is 

transferred from one object to a different 

object, but analogical to the one to which it is 

normally applicable. (Tsoukas (1991)) 

ο a metaphor is a procedure which 

either juxtaposes the terms or the concrete 

examples in order to create a network of 

similarities and thus gives a sense to the 

description of reality (Kuhn (1993)) ; 

ο a metaphor is a cartography between 

two conceptual fields; normally separated 

(Sweetser (1990), Turner (1991)); 

ο a metaphor is a representation tool 

through which a concept can develop a 

sense. It reduces two terms to their joint 

characteristics; thus permitting a linguistic 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

transfer from one field to another (Coffey et 

Atkinson (1996)) 

ο A metaphor is a basic and structural 

form of experience through which humans 

commit themselves, become organised and 

understand the world (Morgan (1993)). 

We consider that metaphors constitute 

a possible tool for defining concepts in 

management science. According to Lakoff 

and Johnson (1995), the metaphor is not seen 

as simple figurative speech but as one of the 

most important means of understanding in the 

world, that is to say a process by which a 

field is understood and structured. These 

authors specify that, behind every linguistic 

metaphor, lays a conceptual metaphor that 

will guide the structuring of a field. They even 

postulate that metaphorical concepts which 

guide the majority of our activities, (decisionmaking 

process, time allocation, etc), 

structure our reality. Other authors, such as 

Travers (1996), agree with this view. 

According to Wacheux (1996), 

analogical reasoning, and therefore 

metaphoric, is an innovative methodology for 

separation, and makes it possible, in this way, 

to advance in management science. In the 

view of Desreumaux (1998), this method can 

be applied either in the understanding of the 

organization itself, or in a more circumspect 

examination of one of its practices or one of 

its vital processes. 

Metaphors are traditionally used to 

enable a great variety of analyses (Palmer et 

Dunford (1995)) and are to be found in 

different models (see in particular 'le 

Macroscope de De Rosnay (1975)'), models 

which give preference to a trans-disciplinary 

approach, filtering the details, developing 

what links the different methods, causing 

what brings them together to emerge. Certain 

authors insist on the fact that the use of 

metaphors enables us to go beyond a 

pragmatic analysis and unite the fields that 

seem, a priori, to be mutually exclusive. 

It is in this way that Barley and Kunda 

(1992), put forward the idea of a synthesis of 

101

idealistic and materialistic currents; the 

idealists prefer an analysis of the metaphor in 

itself whereas the materialists are more 

interested in concrete examples. 

According to Palmer and Dunford 

(1996), the use of metaphors enables an 

approach at the same time, etic and emic (the 

slight difference between the science of 

substance and that of form). Moreover, it is 

the method retained by Morgan and 

highlighted by Boje and Summers (1994). 

For a large number of authors, (Le 

Roy (1999), Granger (1987), Travers (1996)), 

the role of a metaphor is to create a 

representation of a field according to 

formalised models in another field. 

Confirmation of this is given by Tsoukas 

(1991), when he says that its role (the 

metaphor) consists in the global transfer of 

information from a relatively well-known field 

(source field) to a new rarely studied field 

(target field). Metaphorical transfer is, by 

nature, a non-conventional relationship: it 

concerns conceptualising an element from the 

target environment with reference to a 

concept originating from the source model. 

For Delattre (1990), the metaphor brings two 

separate elements together in a defined 

environment and in a very global manner. The 

metaphor is used, therefore, to create a 

sense and to look for solutions, thanks to the 

richness of the field to which it is transferred 

(Getz (1994)). However, for Black (1962), a 

connection exists between the source field 

and the target field and the sense is derived 

from this interaction. 

Metaphors and scientific 

validation 

The first observation that we will 

make is that metaphors, originating from the 

social sciences, have been largely used in 

management, even if this remains subject to 

caution. (Desreumaux (1998)). 

The main opposition to metaphors 

originates from West traditions, from Plato to 

Heidigger, who considered the verbalisation 

phase as an unfortunate necessity. The 

Ocler 

writings of March and Simon (1958), 

devaluing the role of the metaphor, also 

reflect this state of mind. 

On the contrary, for certain 

epistemological authors, metaphors represent 

a tool, which can enable us, at the same time, 

to create new vocabulary and to have 

access to greater mental images. For Nonaka 

andYmanouchi (1989) for example, 

metaphors are the images that help to reduce 

ambivalence and which, make it possible to 

articulate and to solidify the infrastructure 

within an organization. For Weick(1989) 

organizational life would be more orientated 

towards interpretation, intellect, metaphors 

and the research of the senses than by 

decision-making or adapting to the 

environment. 

This leads us to think that metaphors 

transmit sense if they are used in a nonprescribed 

but solely explanative way 

Pinder and Bourgeois (1982) remind 

us that the use of metaphors makes it 

possible: 

ο to acquire a legitimacy, particularly 

when it concerns borrowing concepts 

originating from, so called, 'difficult' sciences; 

ο to stimulate multi-disciplines, which is 

a very strong tendency in organisational 

theories; 

ο to avoid increasing existential 

problems: borrowing a word originating from 

another discipline makes it possible to avoid 

the personnel reflections of the researcher. 

ο to rapidly produce a body of 

knowledge 

If the search for an explanation goes 

through a necessary metaphoric phase, 

these metaphors must be considered as a 

definition tool as not as the definition itself. 

According to Getz (1984), metaphors 

are part of a scientific approach (which has 

the objective of a literal description of reality), 

and according to certain authors, (Lakoff and 

Johnson (1980)), they are even the essence 

102

of it, for all scientific descriptions are 

metaphoric. The use of metaphors is 

necessary in the process of producing a 

sense as Weick (1989) remarks, for it 

enables us to filter and structure the problems 

and make them tangible. 

It is thus necessary to make a 

distinction between structural and semantic 

metaphors. 

The structural metaphor contains all 

the connections that must be transferred from 

the source field to the target field. It provides 

an analysis of the reality, which will be 

duplicated in the target field. The semantic 

metaphor does not transfer this structure 

with it; it simply opens the door to new 

concepts. A concrete example will enable us 

to better illustrate this point. If, when we 

speak about the 'brains of an organization', 

we mean the CEO, and we are using a 

semantic metaphor. Using the same 

expression, we look at the CEO but also the 

points of contact (the executives as 

neurones), the flow of information (nerve 

impulses) etc. we are using a structural 

metaphor. 

After having created this framework, 

and swept aside our fundamental theories, 

we now arrive at the heart of our 

demonstration, by proposing, through the use 

of metaphors originating from the Japanese 

Martial Arts, and particularly aikido, a new 

perception of companies. 

COMPANIES AND AIKIDO 

Definition of terms 

Aikido is a martial art that was 

developed at the beginning of the century by 

Master Morihei Ueshiba, a contemporary of 

Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo 

L'aikido is a synthesis of different 

traditional Japanese martial arts and 

integrates as much spiritual as technical 

elements. 

It is principally inspired by Jujutsu (Kito 

Daito school), by Aijutsu (combats with a 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

sabre) by Bojutsu (combats with a stick), and 

the art of the Naginanta (Japanese lance). 

From a more spiritual point of 

view, it takes it roots from Shintoism, 

Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism by 

creating a synthesis between these different 

teachings. Although a synthesis of the 

different ways of thinking present in 

Japanese martial arts, aikido differs from them 

however, by its philosophy, at the same time, 

taking into account, men spiritual and his 

physical dimension. After this rapid 

presentation, we will examine more in detail, 

the key concepts which this martial art is 

based on. 

Notion of Ki (Chi or Prana) (Energy) 

The concept of Ki is present under 

different names in the Asiatic basin and can 

have different meanings. One can find the 

essence of the Prana in India, the Qi or Chi in 

China and the Ki in Japan. In Japan, the term 

is made up of two ideograms. The classical 

pictographic approach provides us with a 

very revealing image: two radicals linked 

together, rice and steam. The significance of 

these two radicals has been profoundly 

researched and the conclusions vary from 

one author to another. For Cauhépé and 

Kuang (1998), the term Ki can be interpreted 

as a synonym for the following words: spirit, 

vital energy, skill, opportunity, favourable 

instant. 

For other authors, the Ki is mainly 

centred round the notion of energy and more 

particularly that of vital energy. ( Wesbrook 

and Ratti (1996) or Protin (1977)). The latter is 

appreciated as the result of the harmonisation 

and coordination of physical and mental 

constituents previously assembled together 

and centralised in the hara (the stomach, the 

intestines) For Tohei (1978), former chief 

instructor of Aikikai (mother house) and 

founder of the Ki school, this energy which 

reflects the perfect balance between the 

mind and the body, is symbolised, at a 

physical level by the flux of respiration. 

103

Uemura (2000) makes us think about 

another way of defining this concept. For him, 

Ki must be understood as 'information' and /or 

the very character that is diffused, generally 

by the intermediary of the electro-magnetic 

waves in one's body. This concerns the 

recent introduction of a fundamental 

differentiation, for this author specifies that 

the notion is not synonymous with energy but 

really with information, and that it is precisely 

this information that will generate the energy. 

As a general rule, it is commonly 

admitted, that the term Ki is impossible to 

translate. It is to be found in diverse Japanese 

expressions with a different meaning each 

time. We can however describe with Ueshiba 

(2001), the archetype on which this notion is 

based, and which includes: 

ο a spiritual dimension: soul, mind, 

ο an affective level: instinct, intuition, 

sentiment, 

ο a psycho physiological axis: 

respiration, breath. 

The same author (1981) defines Ki, in 

a more esoteric manner, as “the principle of 

harmony, the source of creativity expressed 

in the Yin and the Yang (Laozi), the vital 

vacuity (Huinanzi), courage born from moral 

rectitude (Mengzi) and the divine force 

penetrating everything” 

From now on, it will be convenient for 

us to use this term, knowing that it links 

together the three aspects already evoked. 

We will see, in the next part, the real 

contribution of this concept to the 

understanding of the organizational world. 

Notion of Kokyu (Flow of energy) 

As well as the concept of Ki, we will 

develop the notion of Kokyu. If Ki is 

synonymous with energy, Kokyu is 

concerned more with the notion of a 

transporting, of conductivity, what conveys 

the energy from one point to another. It is 

therefore natural that certain authors define 

Kokyu as the power and the respiration 

(Cauhépé et Kuang (1998)). 

Different references to Kokyu exist in 

Ocler 

Aikido 

ο Kokyu dosa : method to overcome a 

partner with Ki instead of muscular force; 

ο Kokyu-ho undo : breathing regulation 

exercise, obtained by clasping the wrist, 

ο Kokyu nage : technique making it 

possible to throw a partner by the 

coordination of mind and body; 

ο Kokyu ryoku: extended breathing. 

Kokyu is thus naturally linked to 

energy conduction. It concerns the main 

physical channels through which energy 

circulates, and in the sphere of martial arts, it 

is very often assimilated with water, 

currents, and fluidity. Kokyu is what enables 

the Ki to be guided inside the body and, 

according to the martial technique chosen, to 

concentrate one's energy in a given place at 

a given moment without, in any way forcing 

or losing one's internal equilibrium. 

The notion of Kokyo concerns a 

systematic vision of Man and ensures that the 

whole of the human body is irrigated by the 

necessary information and energy, not only to 

function, but equally to evolve. 

All the techniques developed by Aikido 

using Kokyu as a vector have two aims: 

ο Firstly, that we could describe as a 

useful objective: to defeat an opponent, to 

neutralise an attack. It is the visible and 

technical part, what the Japanese call 'waza' 

ο The second, closer to an internal 

hidden finality: to ensure that the internal 

energy flows through specific and adapted 

channels 

Notion of Ma-ai (distance/space/time) 

We will now introduce a third notion, 

that of Ma-ai which integrates three different 

elements: time, space, distance 

For Protin (1977), “ Ma-ai can be 

defined as the ideal distance to put between 

oneself and one's opponent (or opponents) in 

such a way as to have a total vision of the 

104

elements and the circumstances of the 

combat, thus making it possible to pierce the 

opponent's defence, at the slightest 

indication, and to immediately take defensive 

action under the best conditions”. 

A comparable perception is to be 

found in the work of Cauhépé and Kuang 

(1998), who define Ma-ai, as the correct 

appreciation of time and space between one 

and one's partner. 

This term brings together two 

notions often perceived as mutually 

exclusive. Our approach is to integrate them 

both and to ensure that, not only have they 

really been taken into account, but that they 

have been in a concomitant and non-linear 

way (firstly one taken into account, then the 

other): linear logic limiting the scope of the 

technique, even making it inoperable. The 

principal virtue of martial arts training is to 

make the participants aware of this distance, 

of this space-time and enable them to master 

it. The technical perfection does not prove to 

be, in fact, of any usefulness if the technique 

is not used at the opportune moment 

To resume the previous 

remarks, the notion of Ma-ai can express: 

ο A simple notion of distance, 

ο The notion of distance and of time, 

which leads to the concept of opportunity, 

(accident or luck in the Greek sense); 

ο The distance and the opportune time 

for beginning an attack or a defence action, 

ο The control of time and distance 

between two opponents (in other words, not 

to let another person approach our centre of 

gravity without maintaining a possibility for 

action) 

We will use, from now on, this 

concept as a synonym for dynamic distance, 

for this definition seems to us to best resume 

the concepts contained in this notion. 

APPLICATION OF THE CONCEPTS 

IN THE ORGANIZATION 

This section will be consecrated to the 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

transposition of the principal concepts of 

aikido to the company. We will clarify here, 

that by convention, the different terms used, 

can be defined as follows: 

ο Ki :mind, intuition, energy and breath, 

ο Kokyu: energy conduction, 

coordination of body and mind, 

ο Ma-ai: dynamic distance (mastering of 

time and of distance as well as movements 

which makes it possible to find an opening left 

by one's opponent without leaving one's own 

opening), which enables a person to make an 

attack without his or her opponent being able 

to do the same (for a day to day application of 

Ma-ai see Tobert 2002). 

Ki in the organization 

It seems important to us to draw 

attention to the fact that, in the martial arts, as 

in companies, a clear vision of the adopted 

strategy is an essential element and a factor 

for its success. We actually think that it is 

essential that the company strategy be 

understandable and perceived in a clear way 

by all the players within the company. A 

formalised but flexible strategy, adaptable to 

external and internal changes must be 

developed to take into consideration the 

constraints, but also in order to not lose sight 

of the fixed objectives 

Ki in the organization corresponds 

firstly to this idea of the precise vision of the 

objective to be reached, of the direction to 

follow. The objective aimed at is to open up a 

path towards growth, permitting the company 

to ensure, at the same time, its continuity, and 

its development but also its survival in the 

short term as well as to respect a certain 

ethic. This path leads, at the same time, to 

going beyond a survival level from an 

economic point of view (level of profitability) 

and that of an axis, marking the investment 

limits (level of development) by emphasising 

the creation of essentially immaterial potential 

guaranteeing a certain stability of cash-flow 

in the future, but it also makes it possible to 

take into consideration the role played by the 

company in society. 

105

The second axis that makes it possible 

to define Ki in the organization relies on the 

notion of intuition, understood here in a 

different sense to that of its accepted one. 

We will now deal with the notion of 

structured intuition, which is in fact derived 

from a heuristic approach of organizational 

problems. According to Savall and Zardet 

(1995), “heuristics is a process for producing 

knowledge by treating the factual information, 

by an approach of intelligent trial and error 

where the search for the solution 

incorporates, step by step, the rules for 

discovering pertinent information.” Structured 

intuition is characterised by: 

ο The reduction of time in dealing with 

pertinent information, 

ο The correctness (adaptation of the 

decision to the objectives to be reached) of 

the decision taken; 

ο The immediate effect and the practical 

transposition of the decision taken. 

The reduction in the time necessary 

for decision-making and the rapidity of the 

action cause the appropriate reflexes to come 

into play. Intuition is therefore no longer just 

an accident or luck, but really a type of 

precise treatment and at the same time as the 

information is received. We could compare 

this type of function to the muscular memory, 

which activates automatic action where there 

is a precise stimulus. This structure is even 

stronger when the internal system for dealing 

with information is structured. 

The last point that we would like to 

take up in this part concerns the notion of 

energy. We consider that energy in the 

organization emanates directly from the 

people who are part of it. The energy, such 

as we see it here, can be defined as the 

process that enables them to go from one 

state to another. (the element of 

transformation) thanks to a synergy between 

the competences of the players. We have 

remarked that a lack of energy should not be 

confounded with an inability to master the 

energy channels and thus to transfer this 

energy from one point to another. We will 

Ocler 

now, as a logical sequence, consider these 

channels. 

Kokyu within the organization 

The energy centres within the 

organization are not generally structured and 

do not benefit from the change over 

necessary for the setting up of a process of 

permanent change. In other words, all the 

competences present, and consequently; the 

possibilities for change which ensue from it, 

are rarely identified and recorded within the 

organization. 

The hidden internal potentials are not 

always recognised. The classical internal 

structure (a communications system, work 

organization, etc.) does not allow different 

types of energy to circulate within the 

organization and the channels set up to 

convey it do not always send a good type of 

energy in relation to the objective to be 

reached. (kokay) The different types of 

energy that we were able to locate are: 

ο Strong energy: energy designed to 

limit the informal power of the players, 

ο Mild energy: energy designed to 

control the formal power of the players, 

ο Energy for transformation: energy for 

acting, 

ο Energy for conforming: energy for 

conforming to the rules and internal 

procedures, the time and resources used to 

adapt to these rules. 

The energy necessary for the good 

functioning of the organization must be 

identified and the channels for transferring 

energy (coordination meetings, hierarchic 

lines, etc) must be given particular attention. 

In concrete terms, management tools are 

likely: 

ο to establish the typology of the 

competences of each person, the first source 

of company energy, (management of 

competences); 

ο to mobilise this energy (management 

106

y objectives), 

ο to channel the latter (strategic plan of 

action)). 

Ma-ai within the organization 

Beyond the energy and the ways of 

circulation that it uses, we should reflect on 

the notion of time in strategic implementation. 

For Clausewitz, the two principles, 

which are determining factors lead back 

respectively to the notion of Kokuy and to the 

notion of Ma-ai : 

ο the fluidity des partisans “the 

popular war, like something hazy and fluid, 

which must never be condensed into a solid 

body, otherwise the enemy will send a force 

against this nucleus and break it »; 

ο the role of time “ the simple 

length of the combat will, little by little, bring 

the force of the defence to the point where 

his objective will no longer be an adequate 

equivalent, thus to a point where he will have 

to abandon the struggle”. 

In the implementation of the strategy, 

time and distance are of great importance. 

According to Jullien (1996), “We are faced 

with, not one, but two crucial moments, (i.e. 

the beginning and the end of the 

transformation) Before the final stage, the 

opportunity has become flagrant, although at 

the initial stage it was still hardly perceptible; 

but it is this first demarcation which is 

decisive however, because it is from this that 

the capacity for effect commences, the final 

opportunity being, in sum, none other than the 

consequence”. 

All the art consists in pinpointing this 

initial instant that determines the precise 

moment where the impulse must be given. 

When the famous 'non-action' is evoked in 

Japanese or Chinese literature, it obviously 

concerns the phase considered at the final 

stage. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

manifestation stage but is shifted to the 

previous phase, to the most infinite point, that 

of the beginning- there where the split 

between transformation and reaction starts to 

take place, and which is decisive. The wise 

or the good strategy is one that has the 

capacity to detect, at that moment, the 

potentialities of a situation. 'Acting' placed at 

the final stage, characterises reactivity; the 

same situation found at the initial stage 

signifies pro-activity. Jullien also maintains 

that good strategy is the one that intervenes 

before the process: it knows how to 

recognise the factors which are favourable 

to it when they have not as yet been 

actualised, and from then on, it can cause a 

situation to evolve in the sense that it wishes: 

when the accumulated potential proves to be 

completely in its favour, it resolutely begins 

the combat and success is assured. It is not 

therefore the final action that is determining 

although it is the most visible. 

TOWARDS A NEW VISION OF 

STRATEGY 

Potential of a situation 

Le Roy (1999) reminds us that, in 

military strategy, the strategic advantage is to 

be found in the element of surprise and 

rapidity: only necessity or the favourable 

opportunity, justify the battle. In a general 

way, it is necessary to know the enemy, its 

habits, the way its generals behave, its 

number and its positions. In the context we 

are interested in, we would even say that 

strategic genius is that of attributing, 

developing and using the resources, not only 

according to this environment but also to 

modify it. 

We agree with Jullien (1996) here, 

who stresses that two notions are thus to be 

found in the heart of the ancient Chinese 

strategy and are interlinked: 

ο On the one hand, that of the 

It is thus that the moment, said to be, 

situation or configuration (xing), such as it 

actualised and takes form under our very 

critical does not correspond to the eyes (as a power struggle); 

107

ο On the other hand and 

matching it, that of potential (shi ; pronounced 

she), such as it is implicated in this situation 

and that can be modelled to ones benefit. 

We are thus placed in an external 

environment that at the same time determining 

our internal environment, but also determined 

by this latter. 

The interaction between the external 

and internal thus create the opportunity, a 

phase that makes it possible to best use, 

according to the internal possibilities, the 

external potential. 

This author also maintains that it 

ensues that, if an operation must actually 

intervene before the beginning of a conflict, 

this must not be planned, but in fact an 

evaluation (notion of “xiao ”), or more 

precisely, a calculation (in the sense of 

evaluating, in advance, and by calculating: 

notion (notion of “ji ”). The evaluation will 

thus determine the possible fields, and in this 

way, help to avoid a too idealised and nonrealizable 

strategy. 

The essential point, therefore, is to be 

capable, during the evaluation or calculating 

phase to really understand the total potential 

of the situation, that is to say, to precisely 

identify the possibilities offered. It is by this 

faculty of detection that the genius of Chinese 

strategy can be recognised. 

We agree, on this point, with the 

vision of Lavalette and Niculescu (1999) who 

argue in favour of an intuitive approach, 

integrating in a sure way, the knowledge of 

global potentialities within the company, 

without being restricted by the current 

results, drawn from past analysis. 

In our opinion, pro-activity is derived 

from an analysis of the potential of the 

situation, for this latter makes it possible to 

develop a strategy, both efficient and 

structured: 

Ocler 

ο efficient, for it attributes external 

potentials to internal potentials et favours the 

108 

emergence of synergies which could not 

have otherwise been created; 

ο structuring, for it adapts the internal 

potential, at the same time acting on the 

environment in order to limit friction and loss 

of energy. 

Propensity 

The notion of propensity must be 

closely linked to the notion of potential. We 

consider, in the strategic framework: 

ο that, instead of constructing an ideal 

form that is projected onto things, it is 

preferable to endeavour to detect the 

favourable factors functioning in their 

configuration; 

ο that, instead of fixing a target for the 

action, it would be advisable to let ourselves 

be influenced by propensity, 

ο in short, that, instead of imposing 

one's plan on everyone, it is more efficient to 

rely on the potential of the situation. 

Adapting this data to the process of a 

socio-economic intervention can be described 

as follows 

ο Aiding the structuring, but allowing the 

information to emanate from the players 

(diagnostic); 

ο Formalising the tools, but allowing the 

players to use them themselves (project), 

ο Analysing the potential of the situation 

by structuring it (project), 

ο Endeavouring to follow the potential 

of the situation in its evolution (Evaluation) 

In fact, according to Jullien (1996), the 

conception of this potential ensures the 

transition between the initial calculations, 

made according to fixed rules, and the further 

development of the circumstances, once the 

process has started. For although one must 

not cease, during the operations, to put one's 

opponent off the track (understands here the 

external environment), it is necessary to 

constantly adapt to him. 

The calculation of the relationship of

the forces in action is established from a 

series of items that aim to recognise the 

situation in all its aspects. By systematically 

answering this type of questionnaire, and 

making the data converge, the political advisor 

reaches a sufficient level of knowledge of the 

factors at work, to be certain of the result of 

the operation that he has undertaken. 

Moreover, we note the parallel that can be 

made between this description and the socioeconomic 

diagnosis, based on a group of key 

ideas, generic of the problems the most 

frequently encountered in the company. The 

diagnosis serves to review the situation such 

as it is perceived by all the players. It thus 

determines the possibilities for evolution and it 

is in relation to the diagnosis that the project is 

created. It is therefore, in this case, really the 

potential of the situation that will determine the 

direction that the research for the solution will 

take. 

If we lean more towards the' Chinese 

analysis', “we observe that all effective 

Chinese thought, and whatever its idealistic 

options are, is to be found in this gesture: 

going back to the roots, the base, that is to 

say the departure point of what, as a 

condition, carried along by the evolution of 

things, will progressively assert itself on its 

own. The effect therefore, is not only 

probable, as in a relationship created with a 

means to an end, but as 'sponte sua' ensues! 

It inevitably happens. “From the moment that it 

is started, a process is meant to expand 

itself, something is undertaken which just 

asks to evolve. By itself, signifies that the 

expansion in question is contained in the 

present state of things that it goes 'without 

saying', that it is 'so', that this is natural. 

However, the fact that it is involved does not 

necessarily signify that this process will be 

realised, it is still necessary to provide the 

conditions for its development” (Jullien (1996). 

Effectiveness 

If we retain this vision, it therefore 

becomes clear that the proactive strategies 

are not built identically to traditional strategies, 

according to a target to reach ex nihilo. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.3 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Their essence is to be composed of 

both structured internal elements, that is to 

say, adapted to the variations of the 

environment and the structuring internal 

elements, that is to say, having an influence 

on the structuring of the external 

environment. 

Chinese effectiveness is not to act for 

or against, to undertake or to oppose, but 

simply, meaning in terms of the process, to 

initiate and to inhibit (to initiate what, in 

expanding will, itself spread in a favourable 

sense, and to inhibit what, however small, but 

already contained in the situation, would 

cause it to evolve in a negative way (Jullien 

(1996)). 

Strategy thus becomes the art of 

activating or of deactivating the elements that 

will enable the organization to evolve in a 

favourable way and to limit the differences 

between the desired objectives and the 

attained objectives (notion of Western 

effectiveness) 

It is also important to note that, in this 

context, the strategy can be described in 

terms of a process that integrates, at the 

same time, the internal and the external. The 

initiation and the inhibiting concern as much 

the company's own elements as those 

located in its external environment. 

It seems important to us here to make 

a point about the famous 'non-action' that is to 

be found in Asiatic literature and has too 

often been given a connotation of passivity. If 

we consider the definition of Chinese 

effectiveness, it appears that the action (the 

initiation and the inhibiting) disappears with 

time and it is not possible to trace the effects 

in a distinct way. The Asiatic non-action is to 

be understood in this sense. The action must 

not be undertaken in a rigid manner, by 

attempting to force a change of condition. On 

the contrary, it must take place beforehand, 

that is to say that it has a vocation to 

transform the determining elements of the 

potential of the situation in order that the 

desired result happens on their own. 

109

It is no longer a case of forcing, of 

opposing, but really of determining the 

circumstances in such a way that it is not 

possible to obtain a negative result. 

Strategy therefore really aims to 

manipulate_ its environment, in the first sense 

Ocler 

of the term, that is to say, to modify the 

configurations in order to put together those 

that will be the most adapted. An efficient 

strategy is thus one that succeeds in 

manipulating both the internal and the external 

environment. All these elements must lead to 

110

the setting up of a new type of strategy that 

can be qualified as proactive. (Ocler (2002)) 

such as it is described below: 

CONCLUSION 

After having established a framework 

for the use of metaphors in the production of 

knowledge in managerial terms, we mainly 

concerned ourselves with the transfer to 

companies of the key concepts, originating 

from martial arts. 

In this framework, we particularly 

analysed the notions of energy, of energy 

channels and space/time. 

These elements led us to propose a 

new vision of the company and of the 

environment in which this latter evolves, by 

using as a basis the constitutive elements of 

the Asiatic philosophy (propensity, situation 

potential, effectiveness) We proposed an 

outline in the form of an analysis grid aiming to 

link these elements to tangible existing 

constituents inside the company world. The 

next stage of our analysis would be to 

determine if a behaviour pattern based on 

these criteria would lead to the emergence of 

a distinct advantage. 

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of organizational knowledge creation, 

Organization science n°5 p.14-37 

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Managing innovation as a self-renewing 

process, Journal of business venturing 4,5 : 

299-315 

Ocler R, 2002, vers la notion de 

stratégie proactive : éléments de définitions 

et de mise en œuvre, Thèse de sciences de 

gestion, Université Lumière Lyon II, sous la 

direction de Marc Bonnet, 12 Juillet 

Palmer, I., et Dunford, R., (1996), 

Conflicting uses of metaphors : 

reconcepualizing their use in the field of 

organizational changes, Academy of 

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Rodolphe Ocler is head of the strategy and 

entrepreneurship department at the Ecole 

Supérieure de Commerce de Chambery, France. 

Dr Ocler's major area of research interest is 

Ocler 

pp1-37 

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de S. Pasquier, Economica p 498 

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n%20now,%202002.doc 

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discourse analysis and its implications for 

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112

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

TAMARA JOURNAL 

for Critical Organization Inquiry 

6.4 David Boje Guest Editor: Critical Feminism issue 

113

ISSUE 6.4 Special Guest Issue: Critical Feminism 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

(Guest Editor: David Boje) (Cover photo courtesy of Early Canadiana Online 

http://www.canadiana.org/eco.php?doc=privacy http://www.canadiana.org/citm/_images/common/c009652.jpg) 

1. David M. Boje - Introduction to speical issue: Critical Feminism 

2. Heather Höpfl - Master and Convert: women and other strangers 

3. Graeme Lockwood, Patrice Rosenthal & Alexandra Budjanovcanin - Sexual 

Harassment Litigation in Britain:A Window on the Socially Irresponsible Workplace 

4. Alexis Downs & Donna M Carlon - Viewing organizing through a feminist lens: 

The discursive and material creations of individual and organization identities 

5. Adrian N. Carr & Cheryl A. Lapp - Vive La Difference in the workplace: Feminism 

meets liberal theory in Las Vegas Casinos 

6. David M. Boje - Boje Feminism: Parallel Storyability of Male Vietnam Veteran and 


7. Lisa A. Zanetti - Musings on Feminism, Surrealism, and Synthesis 

8. Matthew Eriksen, Wanda V. Chaves, Angela Hope & Sanjiv S. Dugal - 

Creating a Community of Critically Reflexive Feminist Scholars 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 

114 

p. 115 

p. 116 

p. 132 

p. 145 

p. 166 

p. 184 

p. 209 

p. 222

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL GUEST ISSUE 6.4 2007 

Critical Feminism? 

David Boje, New Mexico State University, U.S. 

ABSTRACT 

This special number of Tamara presents articles on critical feminism. Critical feminism combines 

critical theory with feminism. The articles in this issue make their contribution as well to the 

multiplicity of voices that make up feminist texts. Each of the works is dialogical about feminism. 

What connects these articles is their 

critical feminism. Each of the pieces involves 

a critical empirical or a critical reflexive 

dialogic with other perspectives and voices. 

The articles come from presentations, 

then dialogue, and reviews of work done at 

the 2007 Standing Conference for 

Management and Organizaiton Inquiry 

meetings in Las Vegas. The theme of the 

conference that year was on feminism and 

diversity. 

The articles: 

ο Heather Höpfl (Master & Convert...) 

article is the result of her keynote lecture at 

the 19th meeting of Standning Conference for 

Management and Organization Inquiry (2007) 

in Las Vegas. http://scmoi.org 

o Graeme Lockwood, Patrice Rosenthal 

& Alexandra Budjanovcanin (Sexual 

Harassment Litigation in Britain...) gives us an 

empirical article on the socially irresponsible 

workpalce. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.2 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

o Alexis Downs & Donna M Carlon 

(Viewing organizing through a feminist lens...) 

is an analysis of the discourse and material 

conditions of individual and organization 

identities. 

o Adrian N. Carr & Cheryl A. Lapp (Vive 

La Difference in the workplace) is a Freudian 

look at liberal and conservative theory played 

out in Las Vegas Casinos. 

ο My own piece (Boje Feminism) is a look 

at parallel storytelling of my Vietnam war time 

as a golf pro and some stories of females 

caught in the sweatshop industry. 

o Lisa A. Zanetti - Musings on Feminism, 

Surrealism, and Synthesis 

o Matthew Eriksen, Wanda V. Chaves, 

Angela Hope, & Sanjiv S. Dugal - 

Creating a Community of Critically Reflexive 

Feminist Scholars 

I want to thank all the reviewers for their 

work on getting reviews back to Tamara 

Journal. I want to thank the authors for their 

contributions to this issue. 

115

Master and Convert: 

women and other strangers 

Heather Höpfl 

University of Essex 

ABSTRACT: 

This paper is about estrangement, about exile: about waiting to be called into existence. Waiting. 

In transit. Homesick. Lost. The paper offers an attempt to examine the position of women as 

foreigners, as strangers in a male world. Despite the criticisms of Kristeva's work for its lack of 

attention to class, gender and race, her ideas have currency for the examination of these areas. 

Other criticisms have mentioned the extent to which she deals with her own subjectivity in her 

writing. However, this seems to be a very unreasonable criticism. It is precisely Kristeva's own 

experiences which makes her supremely capable of this particular analysis and, for me, it works 

to open up not only a gendered space but also a class wound. 

Keywords: feminism, exile, foreigner, Kristeva, gender, psychological homelessness 

"A woman will only have the choice to 

live her life either hyper-abstractly (original 

italics) .... in order thus to earn divine grace 

and homologation with the symbolic order; or 

merely different (original italics), other, 

Waiting to be Called 

It is Saturday 19th March 2005 and I 

am at Copenhagen airport waiting for the 

flight back to London. I have been attending a 

two day “summit” on Organisational Theatre 

organised by the Learning Lab Denmark at a 

conference centre at Lisegaarden on the 

coast. The conference has brought together 

a group of people who are all involved in 

various ways in organisational theatre: 

directors, actors, choreographers, 

consultants and academics. The well-known 

Dacapo Teatret from Denmark is well 

Höpfl 

fallen.....But she will not be able to accede to 

the complexity of being divided, of 

heterogeneity, of the catastrophic-fold-of- 

'being', (Kristeva, 1986: 173). 

Copenhagen Airport 

represented. The event has been a strange 

and disjunctive experience. I am very tired. I 

have spent a congenial hour or so in the 

coffee bar before check-in with an old friend, 

Chris Steyaert, from St Gallen and a new 

friend, Jan Rae, from South Bank. Now, like 

actors entering the performance arena, we 

have to pass through check-in into the 

indeterminate space which is the international 

departure area. Not wanting to sit around for 

two hours, I have taken a trolley and I am 

wandering past the line of shops, stopping 

occasionally to gaze wide-eyed at the high 

116

prices of duty free goods. Trapped in this 

nether world like a lost soul in limbo, I become 

fascinated by the slow sweep of the aisles 

that I have started to make and I imagine 

myself like the tranquil robotic women of 

Stepford. And so, I begin playing out the role 

of a Stepford wife. I move majestically up 

and down the aisles of the duty free shop, 

glide silently out through Accessorize, along 

This paper is about estrangement, 

about exile: about waiting to be called into 

existence. 13 Waiting. In transit. Homesick. 

Lost. 

Diverted 

Fare forward, travellers! not escaping 

from the past 

Into different lives, or into any future; 

You are not the same people who left 

that station 

Or who will arrive at any 

terminus…………….. 

TS Eliot The Dry Salvages, The Four 

Quartets. 

13 In Transit photo 

http://mischarmed.wordpress.com/?s=singap 

ore 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

past a shop which specialises in Danish 

foods, along towards the bookshop. There I 

see Chris Steyaert casually studying the book 

titles but I glide on and past. I do not stop. We 

are in a different world now and the 

conventions of civility do not apply. I glide on. 

And wait to be called. 

In Transit at Airport 

Milan Kundera's ([2000] 2005) novel 

Ignorance is about the great journey, exile 

and return. In it he says, "The Greek word 

for 'return' is 'nostos.' 'Algos' means 

'suffering.' So nostalgia is the suffering 

caused by an unappeased yearning to return. 

To express that fundamental notion most 

Europeans can utilise a word derived from 

the Greek ('nostalgia, nostalgie') as well as 

other words with roots in their national 

languages: 'anoranza,' say the Spaniards; 

'saudade,' say the Portuguese. In each 

language these words have a different 

semantic nuance. Often they mean only the 

sadness caused by the impossibility of 

returning to one's country: a longing for 

country, for home”, (Kundera, 2000: 5). So 

there is a time of exile which is a time of 

117

Höpfl 

waiting to return: a time of homelessness. 

This is a time of heimweh: the pain of 

separation, homesickness. 

Similarly, Julia Kristeva in her book 

Strangers to Ourselves (1991) traces the 

position of the foreigner as an introduction to 

her discussion of the nature of otherness. 

She speaks of the elusive strangeness of the 

other in terms of the toccata and fugue. 

Toccata in terms of an inchoate otherness 

“barely touched upon”: a flourish of 

performance, something not defined, and 

fugue as that journey of the self, that 

diversion which distances the past and 

moves into a different future. The fugue is an 

elaboration, an excess which is 

characterised by digression. Here the 

intention is to take the ideas which Kristeva 

offers on the nature of estrangement and 

consider how such otherness might be 

applied to the feminine. It is a selective 

reading of the text, something which would 

not disturb Kristeva, and like her own writing, 

a personal reading. What is it then to 

acknowledge the strangeness of the world 

and to identify oneself with the foreigner, 

with the exile, with the other? 

Scars in the Flesh 

Kristeva makes a number of points 

about the foreigner. First, she says that the 

foreigner is always something “in addition” 

whether “perturbed or joyful” what she 

Returning 

describes as “the ambiguous mark of a scar” 

(Kristeva, 1991: 4). There is always 

something, she argues, between “the fugue 

and the origin”, between the diversion and the 

starting place, “a temporary homeostasis” 

(Kristeva, 1991: 4). It is temporary nature of 

this state which is of interest here. In the 

airport, being neither here nor there: being 

between departure and arrival - this is a state 

of not being at home. Kristeva's second point 

is about the “secret wound, often unknown to 

himself [sic], (which) drives the foreigner to 

wandering. The foreigner seeks the “invisible 

and promised territory, that country that does 

not exist but that he [sic] bears in his [sic] 

dreams, and that must indeed be called a 

beyond” (Kristeva, 1991: 5). Driven from 

home by the desire for home, nostalgic for a 

home which no longer exists, suffering the 

pain of separation, the foreigner is one who 

has lost the mother. Like Camus's stranger, a 

strangeness brought on by the death of the 

mother: physical, metaphorical, a loss of 

mother, mother land and mother tongue. The 

foreigner, Kristeva argues, find a role in 

assuming a position of humiliation, for 

example, by taking on the role of the domestic 

in relationships or being the partner who is a 

nuisance when ill or victim: the one who is 

put upon. 

118

Photo Source 14 

Immigrants for domestic service arriving in Quebec 

Kristeva says that this is not merely 

masochism, although this is a part of it, it is 

also “a hiding place” from which to scorn the 

“tyrant's hysterical weaknesses” (Kristeva, 

1991: 6). “The space of the foreigner is a 

moving train, a plane in flight”, (Kristeva, 

1991: 7, 8). The foreigner is caught between 

the courage to leave and the humiliation of 

difference, now homeless and dissimulating, 

the foreigner acquires multiple masks and a 

repertoire of performances that conceal an 

absence of self. 

14 Quebec photo 

http://www.canadiana.org/citm/_images/com 

mon/c009652.jpg 

http://www.canadiana.org/citm/imagepopups/ 

c009652_e.html 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

The foreigner explains him/herself as 

doing what is required of him or her, 

responding to the wishes of others. 

Kristeva's view is that the sense of “me” 

does not exist (Kristeva, 1991: 8). Moreover, 

Kristeva says that when the foreigner does 

find a cause albeit a job, a commitment, a 

person, he or she is consumed, “annihilated” 

(Kristeva, 1991: 9). 

119 

Polish women immigrants 1890s


Lost Homeland 

The foreigner might “survive with a 

tearful face turned towards the lost 

homeland”) where “the lost paradise is a 

mirage of the past he will never be able to 

recover” (Kristeva, 1991: 9, 10). And so, she 

argues, the foreigner turns the rage against 

others, against those who caused the exile, 

into a range against the self, “How could I 

have abandoned them? I have abandoned 

myself”. So that melancholia becomes the 

love of absence: the foreigner a “lover of 

vanished space” (Kristeva, 1991: 9). 

“Always elsewhere, the foreigner belongs 

nowhere” (Kristeva, 1991: 10), neither tied to 

the past or the present. However, Kristeva 

argues that there are two types of foreigner. 

“There are those who waste away in an 

agonizing struggle between what no longer is 

and what will never be” whom she terms “the 

ironists” (these she later, and perhaps more 

appropriately, terms the “cynics”) and “those 

who transcend: living neither before nor now 

but beyond, they are bent with a passion that, 

although tenacious, will remain forever 

unsatisfied: it is a passion for another land” 

(Kristeva, 1991: 10). These she calls the 

“believers”. While the ironists grieve, the 

believers convert. 

Höpfl 

15 

Polish Immigrants photo 

http://www.indianahistory.org/programming/i 

mmigration/images/polishgirls1890sclaghorn.jp 

g 

http://www.indianahistory.org/programming/i 

mmigration/INTRO/intro15.html 

120 

Conversion of Muslim women, 

bas relief 15C Grenada Cathedral 

Foreigners then, feel “completely free” 

(Kristeva, 1991:12) but such freedom is a 

form of solitude. According to Kristeva, 

deprived of belonging, the foreigner is free of 

everything, has nothing, is nothing. “No one 

better than the foreigner knows the passion 

for solitude” and believes it to be an 

enjoyment, or something to be borne as 

suffering, a space where “none is willing to 

join him [sic] in the torrid space of his [sic] 

uniqueness” (Kristeva, 1991: 12). The 

foreigner, she argues, “longs for affiliation, 

the better to experience, through a refusal, its 

untouchability” (Kristeva, 1991: 12). In other 

words, being excluded in itself confirms both 

the position of “outsider” and the elusive 

quality of affiliation. 

Belonging Nowhere 

The differences do not end here. The 

foreigner is “one who works” (Kristeva, 

1991: 17). The foreigner values work as 

means of achieving dignity and establishing 

their worth. The foreigner takes on all jobs 

and tries to succeed in those which are the 

scarcest, to find a niche, to think of something 

that has not been previously undertaken, to 

pioneer new ideas and developments. It is toil 

that is taken across borders and sacrifice. 

To the person who is without definition, 

without standing, work gives identity and 

meaning.


Undoubtedly, the foreigner 

experiences “the hatred of others”…………. 

“hatred provides the foreigner with 

consistency” (Kristeva, 1991: 13). Kristeva 

argues that the foreigner is authenticated by 

hatred. It makes experience real and, she 

argues, it confirms the secret hatred the 

foreigner bears “within himself” [sic] [original 

italics] against everyone and no one, the 

possibility of “being an other” [original italics] 

(Kristeva, 1991: 13). The foreigner learns 

what it is to be tolerated and to be expected 

to be grateful for such toleration, to be 

abused because one comes from “nowhere”, 

nowhere of any importance. The foreigner is 

always deficient, always lacking. 

…..and silent. The foreigner is silent 

because s/he is cut off from the mother 

tongue. The poetry of the foreigner's own 

language is lost. It “withers” to be 

replaced by attempts to gain mastery of 

the new language which will grant an 

accommodation, an assimilation: a desire 

to pass unnoticed amongst natural 

citizens. In the space between these two 

languages is silence. 

BBC Website discussing racial hatred 

“We must often remain silent, 

A sacred language is missing - hearts 

16 

BBC photo 

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38720 

000/jpg/_38720955_graffiti300.jpg 

121 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

are beating and yet 

Speech can't emerge?” (Hölderlin, 

1801, Homecoming, James Mitchell, 

translator). 17 

Mute in the absence of mastery, the 

foreigner must do rather than say. Activity 

replaces social discourse so the foreign 

becomes a master of activity: domestic, 

leisure and/or work. The foreigner is 

industrious and silent. Aware that s/he is 

being tolerated and hesitant in the alien 

language, the foreigner retreats into active 

isolation where the only respite comes from 

fellow foreigners and particularly those of the 

same kinship. Kristeva speaks of the new 

language as a “prosthesis” (Kristeva, 1991: 

16); an artificial augmentation which attempts 

to compensate for a missing or deficient body 

part, like a silicone breast implant that makes a 

woman appear something that she is not. The 

foreigner seeks to appear like a native. But, is 

never the real thing. “Saying nothing, nothing 

needs to be said, nothing can be said”, she 

continues, “it is the silence that empties the 

mind and fills the brain with despondency, like 

the gaze of sorrowful women coiled up in 

some non-existent eternity” (Kristeva, 1991: 

16). 

17 http://home.att.net/~holderlin/index.html


“The sorrowful gaze of women” 

Women Waiting for Food Distribution in Darfur 

More than silence, there is a 

reluctance to argue, to challenge the values, 

tastes, judgements of the native. Kristeva 

says that the foreigner feels that s/he has no 

right to argue with those who have such 

strong roots in native soil. The foreigner, in 

turn, she argues, begins to take root in a 

world of rejection unable to utter, to express 

her/his views. In this way, native and 

foreigner face each other across an abyss 

concealed by what appears to be “peaceful 

co-existence” (Kristeva, 1991: 17) by the 

silence of the stranger. 

18 Darfur photo 

http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive/ 

darfur_sudan.html 

Höpfl 

122


Quotations from women at the 

University of Pennsylvania: 

“I was the second or third French 

woman in the MBA program, and the only 

woman in most of my business classes, with 

all the conspicuousness you can imagine in 

those days. Whenever my name was called 

every single person (man) turned to me -- 

being the only representative of my gender 

and nationality, I was supposed to have an 

opinion (different?!) on any issue that was 

raised in class discussions! It wasn't always 

easy to deal with the sometimes 

condescending comments from teachers and 

classmates, but for the most part curiosity, 

recognition and respect were the most 

frequent attitudes people had towards this 

'daring and original student'.” --- Catherine 

Anne Geneste, 1972 A.M., 1973 M.B.A. 20 

19 

University Penn - archives Digital Images 

Collection 

http://imagesvr.library.upenn.edu/cgi/i/image/i 

mageidx?type=detail&cc=pennarchive&entryid=X- 

20030820001&viewid=1 

20 

Geneste 

http://www.archives.upenn.edu/img/2003082 

0001x180.jpg 

http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/feature 

s/women/quote8.html 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

University of Pennsylvania 

The foreigner comes to be feared as 

an invader, as someone who does not know 

his/her place, who provokes a sense of 

homelessness in the native who no longer 

feels “at home” in his/her world. This 

produces a desire to “kill the other” (Kristeva, 

1991: 20) who poses such a threat to the 

native's way of life and understanding. The 

foreigner's speech “fascinating as it might be 

on account of its very strangeness, will be of 

no consequence, will have no effect, will 

cause no improvement in the image or 

reputation of those [the foreigner] is 

conversing with. One will listen to you only in 

absent-minded, amused fashion, and one will 

forget you in order to go on with serious 

matters…… The foreigner is a baroque 

person” (Kristeva, 1991: 20): excessive in 

rhetoric and gesture. It seems that there is 

either silence or an insistent and defiant 

otherness: the playing out of a formulaic 

repertoire. 

123


Lost 

“At first glance, Kathy Prendergast's 

map of the United States appears 

straightforward, providing topographical 

information about mountain ranges, lakes, and 

state borders. Yet, closer inspection reveals 

that the only places located on this map have 

been named, "lost." Do these Lost Creeks, 

Lost Islands, Lost Mountains, Lost Lagoons, 

and Lost Canyons, describe the actual places 

and their hidden position or report on a 

particular wasted resource? Or do they 

describe the mental states of the early 

settlers who named them? Or, perhaps, the 

eventual fate of the native peoples and their 

traditions? The ambiguity evoked in these 

actual place names mirrors a feeling of 

possibility in a land of uncertainty. Lost, 1999, 

provides a poetically ambivalent reminiscence 

of American history”. 

21 For a fuller discussion of this debate see 

Ziarek, (1995). Photo Source: 

http://www.albrightknox.org/fresh/memory/m 

emory_images/P2000-4.jpg 

http://www.albrightknox.org/fresh/memory/m 

emory_pages/memory_04.html 

Höpfl 

Kathy Prendergast, Lost, 1999 

The acquisition of the appearance of 

the native separates the foreigner from 

her/his past, from parents and home so that 

the foreigner is alienated from past and 

present: an orphan. Lost. Belonging to 

neither world. “Friends ……… could only be 

those who feel foreign to themselves” 

(Kristeva, 1991: 23). She identifies 

paternalists, who are kind to foreigners as a 

gesture of largesse as long as they are in the 

power position of having more to offer, 

paranoids who identify with the otherness of 

the foreigner until they see this too as an 

element of their oppression, and perverse 

people whom she says prey on the 

foreigner's need for a home at the cost of 

“sexual or moral slavery”. One response to 

this is for the foreigner to form an “enclave of 

the other within the other, [where] otherness 

becomes crystallized as pure ostracism: the 

foreigner excludes before being excluded” 

(Kristeva, 1991: 24). Here the foreigner 

adopts a fundamentalism, a symbolic “we” 

which is given meaning by austerity and 

sacrifice (Kristeva, 1991: 24). On the other 

hand, to cross one boundary permits the 

crossing of many others and permits the 

casting aside of inhibition and an excess of 

124

difference. The foreigner can become 

liberated to the excesses of the flesh, 

experimental and transgressive, can throw 

him/herself into unrestrained physicality but, 

as Kristeva observes, this can also lead to 

the “destruction of psychic and corporeal 

identity” (Kristeva, 1991: 31): a paradoxical 

annihilation of difference. 

Conversion 

Men do not realise the extent to which 

women live as strangers in their world. What 

is normal and taken for granted is a world 

which is defined, constructed and maintained 

by male notions of order. Kristeva's analysis 

of foreigners provides a range of issues 

which apply very well to the position of 

women. Strangers to Ourselves ([1988] 

1991) does not apply theories of difference to 

race, class or gender yet her analysis of the 

foreigner appears to offer significant insights 

into what it is to be a woman and a stranger 

in a male world. Of course, some might reject 

this notion out of hand. Some would argue 

that the world has changed over the past 

thirty years and that, in any case, the world is 

what you make of it. However, these are 

also the self assurances which the foreigner 

offers him/herself. “It is not too bad”, “You 

can make of it what you want”. “If you are 

prepared to work, you can achieve anything”. 

This is the simple rhetoric of those who 

desire to be assimilated. It is the language of 

resignation and stoicism. 

Kristeva's work is redolent with 

personal insight and subjective tensions. This 

has not made her ideas acceptable to some 

critics who see her work as concentrating on 

the psycho-analytical to the exclusion of the 

socio-political (Butler, 1990; Fraser, 1990; 

Ziarek, 1995). However, other writers, 

notably Young (1986) have seen 

considerable potential for the 

reconceptualization of the political in 

Kristeva's writings. In relation to this, women 

can only be defined, constructed and ordered 

as objects in that world and to be saved must 

submit themselves to the therapeutic quest 

for order: must be converted to reason. To 

become accepted as a member of an 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

organization, a woman must either conform to 

the male projection offered to her or else 

acquire a metaphorical phallus as the price of 

entry into membership (Höpfl, 2003). Women 

who do conform acquire the status of 

“honorary man” but in order to do so they 

must accept impotence. 

Kristeva's Strangers to Ourselves 

([1988] 1991) which forms the theoretical 

backbone of this paper, has been criticized 

for its lack of attention to class, gender and 

race and Kristeva has been criticized for her 

lack of political insight and confusion of the 

personal in the text. Yet it is clear that many 

of the insights that she offers on the 

foreigner derive from her own experiences in 

Paris in the 1960s. Kristeva is Bulgarian by 

birth and upbringing. She arrived in Paris 

around Christmas 1965. She was twentyfive, 

Bulgarian and supported by a French 

government scholarship (Lechte, 1990: 91; 

Moi, 1986: 1). She was already disposed to 

an ambivalence towards French language 

and literature from her Bulgarian education, 

already had an awareness of oscillating 

positions and exclusions. These two 

constructions alone have had a significant 

influence on her work. She had come to 

Paris to study and was at first committed to 

the communist cause and was a supporter of 

Maoism but she later remained in Paris as an 

exile from Bulgarian-Soviet communism. 

Within a year, she was contributing to the 

most influential and prestigious journals, 

Critique, Langages and Tel Quel. In the 

subversive mood in the Paris of the mid 

1960s, Kristeva found a fertile site for her 

ideas and, no doubt, gained insights from her 

own experiences of exile and of difference 

which gave impetus to her prolific writing 

during this period. From the start of her 

studies in Paris, she was to work with some 

of the leading figures in French structuralism. 

She was particularly influenced by Roland 

Barthes who, as one of the foremost 

champions of structuralism, had sought to 

reveal the ways in which bourgeois ideology 

was embedded in French language and 

literature. Barthes was one of the "New 

Critics" and a semiotician. This concern with 

125

semiotics and the implicit regulation of 

language was significant in terms of the 

development of Kristeva's writings although it 

is clear that she was already forming a 

dialectical relationship to these ideas even in 

her early writing. Barthes himself 

acknowledges Kristeva's influence when he 

says that she "changes the order of 

things......(that)....she subverts...the authority 

of monologic science and filiation" (Moi, 1986: 

1), (vide: Höpfl, 2004) 

A Stranger 

Kristeva had gone to Paris to study 

Bakhtin. She had been schooled in Marxist 

theory, spoke fluent Russian and had lived 

under the strictures of Eastern European 

communism. She had a formidable intellect, 

knew Latin and Greek, spoke French, 

Russian, German, as well as her mothertongue 

Bulgarian, and, at the same time, she 

carried powerful experiences which, with 

simplification, one might set against her 

intellectualism. Clearly such tensions find 

expression in her ideas and in her writing. 

She was a foreigner and a foreigner exiled 

from her native land: estranged from her 

own country and estranged from the 

theoretical ideas to which she was exposed 

in her adopted one: another vacillation 

between the appeal of semiotics and her own 

theoretical position. The notion of 

strangeness/estrangement was to play an 

important part in the development of her 

ideas. Not only this but also, in the mid 1960s, 

Kristeva was a woman in the masculine 

world of French intellectuals. It seems that in 

virtually every respect Kristeva was 

confronted by repressive structures, by 

alterity and by estrangement. Yet, it is 

precisely these experiences which provided 

the tensions from which her ideas spring. It 

is as if the more emphatic the restriction, the 

more emphatic the resistance. Her writing 

disrupts and disturbs the phallogocentric 

order. Along with estrangement and exile, 

there is the notion of subversion and 

revolution in Kristeva's writing. There is also 

the border. The border plays a very important 

role in Kristeva's ideas. Given her 

Höpfl 

background and experiences, this is not 

particularly surprising and her concern to 

examine the borders of subjectivity seems to 

relate to her own homelessness and exile. 

Foreigners/Women 

It is not possible to do more than 

outline some of the implications of Kristeva's 

characterization of the foreigner for an 

understanding of the position of women. 

However, it is worth considering this is more 

detail. First perhaps one might consider her 

description of the foreigner as being defined 

by work. The foreigner, unable to speak 

freely in a tongue other than the mother 

tongue is first reduced to silence and then 

defines him/herself by a commitment to work. 

I think of my mother, now over eighty, who 

has for years told me that I should “not say 

anything”. “Don't say anything” she counsels 

every time I look as if I might be angry or fed 

up. “Don't say anything, keep quiet, smile”. 

My mother is a strong woman: not at all meek, 

and she offers me this advice more in 

defiance than in submission. “Don't say 

anything or he will know he has got you”. 

She is saying don't place yourself into a 

position where you can be manoeuvred. Her 

words are meant to salve and she is telling 

me, “Don't get into competition. Men can't 

stand that. Don't get involved. Don't submit”. 

I remember when I was working at a new 

university in the north east of England and the 

new Vice Chancellor announced a 

restructuring. At that time there were twenty 

two Heads of School of which ten were 

women and twelve were men. After the 

reconstruction and following amalgamations, 

there were eleven new schools and they 

were to be headed by ten men and one 

woman (a woman who left within eighteen 

months of the new regime). Following this 

period of displacement, and when fates were 

sealed and it was too late to attempt to bring 

about changes, the newly homeless women 

consoled each other. “Don't let them know 

how you are feeling. Smile and nod” they said 

to each other. They were not reduced to a 

mute compliance but rather united by a sense 

of outrage and impotence: spectators as their 

126

own destinies unfolded and yet completely 

unable to act. Grief and distress was private. 

It took place in the homes of mainly female 

colleagues where a “tearful face [was] 

turned towards the lost homeland” (Kristeva, 

1991: 9, 10). “Waiting. Displaced. Homeless. 

So, what of Kristeva's explanation 

that the foreigner, unable to speak, puts 

every effort into activity be it domestic, leisure 

or work. Certainly, women work. Studies of 

women at work seem to suggest that women 

do more to achieve the same degree of 

promotion as men. There is a polite collusion 

which indicates that women are now 

accepted in organizations on an equal footing 

as men. However, the reality is rather 

different. Just as is the case with Kristeva's 

own experiences and the support she 

received through influential men, it is still 

arguably the case that women achieve 

participation in organizations to the extent that 

they first, renounce or annihilate themselves 

in order to conform more fully to the male 

desire for organization, which Jung has 

described as the pursuit of "sterile perfection" 

(Dourley, 1990: 51), and secondly learn to 

speak in the prosthetic language of the 

patriarchal discourse. Sterile perfectionism, 

according to Jung, is one of the defining 

characteristics of patriarchal consciousness. 

Order and rationality function to exclude the 

physical. The organization is not a world for 

real women of flesh and blood. Whitmont puts 

forward the view that the control of passions 

and physical needs traditionally have been 

valorised because they idealise maleness 

(Whitmont, 1991: 243) and give emphasis to 

the “merely rational” [italics added] (Whitmont, 

1991: 243). Organisations then, as 

expressions of collective expectations, 

render physicality “dirty” corrupting and, by 

implication, not good. Indeed, the corollary of 

this emphasis on rationality is a distrust of 

natural affections and the loss of compassion 

(Whitmont, 1991: 245). Flesh is exiled from 

the site of production. Women can only enter 

as ciphers: as homologue or as objects of 

desire. Recently, I had a conversation with a 

young woman academic in her early thirties. 

She had recently finished her doctorate and 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

contemplated improving her publications, 

“But”, she confided, “I haven't given up the 

idea of having a family. But it would be so 

difficult. I don't have family nearby who could 

help and the university is no place for that 

sort of thing”. That sort of thing - the 

physical, pregnancy, with all that goes with it 

such as a changing body, the smells and 

realities of maternity - have no place in a 

world dedicated to abstraction and tidy 

rationality. In this sense, Kristeva is right the 

foreigner is exiled from mother, mother tongue 

and mother country. In the organization, it is 

the mother who is exiled. Women must 

dedicate themselves to work as the price of 

their participation. They cannot permit a 

personal life, the life of the homeland, to enter 

the ordered world of organization. Recall the 

terrible story told by Joanne Martin of the 

woman who arranged to have her baby 

induced early so she would be available for 

the launch of some corporate initiative or 

other (Martin, 1991). Germaine Greer once 

famously remarked that most women have 

very little idea how much men hate them. In 

psycho-analytical terms, the boy must kill off 

the mother in order to become a man and this 

dynamic remains. Not surprising then that the 

organization is not a place for the mother. So, 

in effect, women can enter as quasi males 

but in order to do this they must first be 

neutered - just as a foreigner might be 

naturalized in order to be granted citizenship 

in the country of exile. 

This is more than to neuter as one 

might neuter a cat: render it sexless. There is 

no term in the English language to refer to the 

removal of a woman's power. To remove a 

man's power is to e-masculate. However, to 

effeminate is not a term in use: effeminate 

means unmanly, womanly. In order to enter 

into membership a woman must not only be 

rendered sexless but must be turned into an 

impotent man: must not be a threat to male 

reality definitions. Women permitted to enter 

are not real members and do not possess 

real members. Such quasi-men cannot 

become the “fathers” of the organization. In 

any event, since organizations only produce 

“sons” reproduction of the organization is 

127

entirely phallocentric. Women who become 

true homologues renounce the friendship of 

other women, declare themselves to prefer 

the company of men and make phallic shows 

to confirm their membership. There is a lot of 

“bad faith” (Sartre, [1943] 1989) amongst 

women about the extent of their permission to 

participate. Women have to be converted in 

order to achieve standing in this male world. 

They must be converted to reason and rule 

by logic, to the language of order and to the 

rules of their adopted country. They must 

demonstrate that they are believers. As 

converts they must not only conform but do 

more. They must actively demonstrate their 

commitment to the values and customs of 

their new land. 

And is the stranger treated with 

hospitality? One might say, only if they agree 

to renounce their old ways and be received 

“out of heresy” as the old form of words for 

the reception of converts into Catholicism 

used to say. Here, Kristeva's comments on 

paternalists, paranoids and the perverse 

seem to have some relevance. Indeed, some 

men welcome women as they might welcome 

the stranger and are generous while power 

remains on their side. Others might seek to 

share some intimate meaning, to try to 

understand a common sense of oppression 

and other might seek to exploit or manipulate 

women for their own ends. These are 

thumbnail sketches that require more detailed 

and sophisticated analysis. However, the 

point here is merely to identify the way in 

which Kristeva's characterization of the 

foreigner might be further explored. 

The paper offers an attempt to 

examine the position of women as foreigners, 

as strangers in a male world. Despite the 

criticisms of Kristeva's work for its lack of 

attention to class, gender and race, her ideas 

have currency for the examination of these 

areas. Other criticisms have mentioned the 

extent to which she deals with her own 

subjectivity in her writing. However, this 

seems to be a very unreasonable criticism. It 

is precisely Kristeva's own experiences 

which make her supremely capable of this 

Höpfl 

particular analysis and, for me, it work to 

open up not only a gendered space but also a 

class wound. My own experiences of 

moving between classes accords very well 

with Kristeva's account of her own 

strangeness. It is on the political front, 

however, that the criticism of her work is 

perhaps least founded since Kristeva offers 

a way forward through her postmodern 

characterization and her commitment to a 

new approach to ethics. Kristeva's appeal to 

us to find “the foreigner within” as a means of 

establishing a new cosmopolitanism deserves 

further attention. However, one place to start 

is with postmodern characterization which 

involves “first, the confusion of the 

ontological status of the character with that 

of the reader; secondly, the decentring of the 

reader's consciousness, such that she or he 

is, like the character, endlessly displaced and 

'differing'; and, thirdly, the political and ethical 

implications of this 'seeming otherwise', 

shifting from appearance to different 

appearance in the disappearance of a 

totalized selfhood” (such that there is) “a 

marginalization of the reader from a 

centralized or totalized narrative of selfhood” 

(which renders) “the reading subject-inprocess 

as the figure of the dissident” 

(Docherty 1996: 67). 

This is an interesting and provocative 

suggestion which invites women to take up 

the position of dissident in relation to the text. 

To move to a position of “marginalization and 

indefinition; [where] they are in a condition of 

'exile' from a centred identity of meaning and 

its claims to a totalized Law or Truth”. 

Docherty argues that exile itself is a form of 

dissidence “since it involves the 

marginalization or decentring of the self from 

all positions of totalized or systematic Law 

(such as imperialist nation, patriarchal family, 

monotheistic language)”. Hence, Docherty 

puts forward the proposition that postmodern 

characterization, “construed as writing in and 

from exile, serves to construct the possibility, 

for perhaps the first time, of elaborating the 

paradigmatic reader ….. as feminized” 

(Docherty 1996: 68) "always dispositioned 

towards otherness, alterity”. Consequently, 

128

to perceive oneself as “the foreigner”, as an 

exile is a good starting point. A 

compassionate community requires that the 

man must learn to bear the child: to 

experience the other within. The man must 

learn to bear the child and this requires a loss 

of standing. To move and to carry requires a 

renunciation. It is a renunciation of both 

standing and of the power to define. If 

women are no longer to simply wait or learn 

to be like men, there needs to be both bearing 

and moving: to move and to bear. This is 

accomplished when the man learns to bear 

the child. In other words, when men find the 

feminine in themselves and learn to bear 

children as well as they bear words. Women 

know this in their hearts: even from exile. 

The man must learn to bear a child. 

"A Palestinian man carries a badly wounded child..." (Khalil Hamra, AP, 2004/05/19) 

"A Palestinian man carries a badly 

wounded child as others rush to help 

moments after an Israeli missile strike on a 

demonstration in the Rafah refugee camp, 

southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 19, 

2004." 22 

22 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news? 

tmpl=story&u=/040519/481/akcf110051913 

49 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Andrews, EA (no forename given) 

1875 A Copious and Critical Latin-English 

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1934 London: JM Dent. 

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Hopfl, HJ 1994 Learning by Heart: 

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Höpfl, HJ 2004 "The Maternal Body 

and the Organisation: the influence of Julia 

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Stephen Linstead (ed), London: Sage. 

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Passion and Performance, sufferring and the 

carrying of organizational roles, in Fineman, S 

(ed) Emotion in Organizations, London: 

Sage. 

Kristeva, J 1977 Polylogue, Paris: 

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Moi, T (ed) 1986 The Kristeva Reader, 

Oxford: Blackwell (for Leon Roudiez' 

translation of Kristeva's Stabat Mater). 

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Language, New York: Columbia University 

Press. 

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melancholia and love: the work of Julia 

Kristeva, Fletcher, J and A Benjamin (eds), 

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Ourselves, translated Leon Roudiez, New 

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Lechte, J 1990 Julia Kristeva, 


Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994 The 

Catechism of the Catholic Church 

(authorised English translation in Canada), 

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Bishops Publication Services. 

Kundera, M 1985 The Unbearable 

Lightness of Being, trans MH Heim, London: 

Faber. 

Kundera, M 2003 Ignorance, 

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Metcalf, A and Humphries, M (eds) 

1985 The Sexuality of Men, London: Pluto 

Press. 

Moi, T (ed) 1986 The Kristeva 

Reader, Oxford: Blackwell. 

Oliver, K 1993 Reading Kristeva, 

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Oliver, K (ed) 1993 Ethics, Politics 

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Simpson, DP 1964 Cassell's New 

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Sartre, J-P ([1943] 1989) Being and 

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Whitmont, EC 1983 Return of the 

Goddess, London: Routledge and Kegan 

ABOUT THE AUTHROR: 

Heather Höpfl is a Professor at the 

University of Essex. She is editor of Culture 

and Organization Journal, and co-editor of 

Tamara Journal. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Paul. 

Whitmont, EC 1991 The Symbolic 

Quest, Basic Concepts of Analytical 

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131

Sexual Harassment Litigation in Britain: 

A Window on the Socially Irresponsible Workplace 

Graeme Lockwood, Patrice Rosenthal and Alexandra Budjanovcanin 

Department of Management, King's College London, UK 

ABSTRACT: 

Sexual harassment is a widespread organizational phenomenon and an evolving legal issue. 

There is a growing literature on sexual harassment, but a dearth of research on claims that have 

been pursued in the courts, especially outside the US context. The paper explores the 

organizational and legal context in which parties to claims are operating and presents a 

preliminary analysis of the population of sexual harassment cases heard by Employment 

Tribunals and Employment Appeals Tribunals 1995-2005. Core findings relate to the imbalance of 

power between parties to claims; an over-representation of claims from women in 

paraprofessional occupations; a notable proportion of owners or proprietors involved in cases, 

pointing to problems in small businesses; the predominant nature of claims clearly reflecting 

sexual harassment as an operation of power; and a range of outcomes relating to initial 

complaints of SH and to subsequent litigation. Policy and further research implications of these 

preliminary findings are discussed. 

INTRODUCTION 

Sexual harassment (SH), as a widespread 

organizational phenomenon and an 

evolving legal issue, clearly is relevant to 

analysis of social responsive and socially 

responsible workplaces. Corporate social 

responsibility has become a new buzzword 

(Carron 2006: 2). An important device for 

improving the ethical performance of an 

organization is the deployment of diversity 

policies designed to tackle discrimination or 

harassment in the workplace (Jenkins 2002). 

Sexual harassment has been recognized in 

most countries as a form of sexual 

discrimination. By some accounts, it touches 

the lives of 40 per cent to 50 per cent of 

working women (European Commission, 

1999, Fitzgerald et al, 1995). Organizations 

should strive to improve policies in this domain 

because morally and legally it is the correct 

approach. It constitutes good organizational 

citizenship and failure so to do can have 

significant costs to individuals and to 

organizations (Dansky and Kilpatrick, 1997). 

A wide variety of literature has identified the 

detrimental impact of sexual harassment in 

the workplace (Crull 1982; Crull and Cohen 

1984; Loy and Stewart 1984; Gutek and Koss 

1993). Research has found a wide range of 

Lockwood, Rosenthal, & Budjanovcanin 

psychological and work-related harms, 

including diminished work performance, lower 

job satisfaction, absenteeism, career 

interruptions, job loss, depression and health 

problems (Gutek, 1985). Economic effects to 

organizations have been assessed in US 

studies as $6.7 million on average per 

company per year, excluding the litigation 

costs (Dansky and Kilpatrick, 1997) that 

probably represent the greatest perceived 

risk from a managerial perspective. 

Litigation as a Focus of the Study and 

its Importance to Organizational Theory 

The paper explores the organizational and 

legal context in which parties to claims are 

operating and presents an analysis of the 

population of sexual harassment cases heard 

by Employment Appeals Tribunals 1995-2005. 

For a problem that receives widespread 

attention by lawyers, academics, policymakers 

and management, surprisingly little is 

known about SH litigation in Britain. There is 

no systematic understanding of the extent, 

nature or outcomes of SH cases reaching 

tribunal hearings in Britain. Such records are 

available, but heretofore have not been 

analyzed systematically. This is a significant 

lacuna in the literature; as such knowledge 

132

would strengthen organizations 

understanding of SH and how to tackle it. 

The research is relevant to organizational 

studies because it is important that the 

employer responds adequately to a complaint 

of SH, carries through a proper investigation 

and takes remedial steps (Lynn Bowes and 

Sperry). It is the responsibility of 

organizations to set the climate of behavior in 

the workplace and make it clear that individual 

employees must not be treated abusively or 

with disrespect. Hunt et al. (2007: 6) 

observes that if management allow a climate 

of disrespect to exist within an organization 

this makes it more likely for certain 

inappropriate behavior to be taken for 

granted, leading to the creation of a 'incivility 

spiral' 

The research will also clarify the ground 

from which the law is refined and developed 

and the manner and contexts in which 

individuals use this mechanism for the 

enforcement of employment rights. The 

detailed case record could provide numerous 

avenues of contribution, not least a window 

on the operation of SH in organizations - in 

behavioral and/or perceptual rather than legal 

terms. The narratives captured in tribunal 

cases can in general terms reflect how SH 

'works' in practice. That is, they can say 

something about this day-to-day enactment of 

power in organizations beyond the strictly 

illustrative or anecdotal accounts currently 

available in the literature. 

The litigation record can also help in an 

understanding of how/when SH does not 

'work' - in other words, cases in which the 

target's response to perceived harassment 

has not been submissive or passive but 

direct, formal and litigious. An understanding 

of who has brought and sustained cases 

against what kind of respondent, in which 

kinds of occupations and organizations can 

aid in an understanding of reactions to SH. In 

particular, a comparison of these data against 

the existing research on incidence of SH 

(where and against whom it is more 

prevalent) could help illuminate understanding 

of obstacles to the filing of claims. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Finally, a detailed understanding of the 

litigation record can also provide value of a 

more practical kind. Policy makers and 

managers need an understanding not just of 

abstract legal issues, but also of the individual 

and organizational factors associated with 

litigation - that is, whether particular sectors, 

occupations and work relationships are 

particularly prevalent. This can help 

managers in assessing their risk and in a 

more general movement towards responsible 

workplaces - not merely to avoid legal liability, 

but to reduce the incidence of SH in the first 

place. 

The paper is structured as follows. In the 

first section, the legal framework in which 

claims are pursued is outlined. In the second 

part of the paper, we identify the empirical 

shape and detail of litigated cases over time in 

Britain. In the final section, we consider some 

practical and further research implications of 

this analysis for organizations. 

SEXUAL HARASSMENT: THE LEGAL 

FRAMEWORK 

Since 1986 UK tribunals and courts have 

interpreted section 6(2)(b) of the Sex 

Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA) in a manner 

which recognizes that sexual harassment 

may constitute a 'detriment' on grounds of 

sex, against which protection is available 

under the SDA (Porcelli v Strathclyde 

Regional Council [1986] IRLR 134). Section 

41 (1) of the SDA states that an act done by 

an employee in the course of employment 

shall be treated as done by his employer as 

well as by him, whether or not it was done 

with the employer's knowledge or approval. 

For an employer to avoid liability for acts of 

sexual harassment by its employees, section 

41(3) SDA provides that it is necessary for 

the employer to prove that it took such steps 

as were reasonably practicable to prevent 

the employee from committing in the course of 

his employment, an act of harassment. An 

employer cannot avoid responsibility for 

harassment merely by arguing that there was 

nothing it could have done to prevent it. That 

argument will only succeed where the 

employer has laid the groundwork in advance 

133

y adopting, implementing and disseminating a 

sound anti-harassment policy. 

An employer may respond to an allegation 

of sexual harassment by: relying on the s.41 

(3), statutory defense, denying the claims by 

the respondent, or by arguing that the actions 

complained of do not constitute sexual 

harassment. Denial that the alleged 

harassment took place appears a favored 

argument of employers. This is unsurprising, 

since the extant literature has revealed the 

evidential difficulties faced by applicants in 

proving claims of sex discrimination in 

employment tribunals (Earnshaw 1993; Hows 

and Drummond 2006). 

A person who considers that they have 

been discriminated against can make a claim 

to an employment tribunal. Such a claim must 

be made within three months of the act 

complained of. An appeal from an 

employment tribunal on a question of law or a 

mixed question of law and fact can be made 

to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). 

SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASES HEARD: 

1995 - 2005 

Research Design and Method 

The population of individual Employment 

Appeals Tribunal (EAT) case records with a 

sexual harassment component was 

accessed via the BALII database for the 

period 1995-2005. These case records were 

content-analyzed using a framework of 

variables developed for the study. In addition 

to the core data on EAT cases, we also 

report some findings relating to first hearings 

Employment Tribunal (ET) cases. These data, 

which are interesting in context setting for the 

EAT analysis, were collected from analysis of 

secondary data provided by the Equal 

Opportunities Commission, who receive 

material on discrimination cases from the 

Employment Tribunal Service. 23 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

23 We are grateful to the EOC for their assistance with 

the research and the Leverhulme Trust for its financial 

support. 


We present the findings on SH litigation in 

three main sections. First, we set 

background and context to the core 

analysis of EAT cases by reporting on the 

extent of such litigation (numbers of cases 

reaching tribunals) and the additional (to SH) 

claims brought in the cases. Second, we 

present findings relating to the detailed 

content of the cases themselves, namely a) 

the characteristics of the claimant and 

respondent and the workplace and 

organizational context from which the 

litigation arises, b) the nature of the SH being 

claimed and c) some core legal aspects of the 

litigation. Third, we report on outcomes, 

these relating a) to the alleged SH and b) to 

the litigation itself. 

In the discussion below, we use the 

terms claimant and applicant to refer to the 

individual employee bringing the tribunal case. 

We use the term respondent to refer to the 

organization and/or the named individual 

against whom the case has been brought. 

Background and Context 

Extent of SH Litigation 

In the period 1995-2005, approximately 

914 claims alleging SH reached 'full merits' 

hearings of employment tribunals. 24 In 832 of 

these cases, the litigation ended with the 

tribunal judgment. In another 82 cases, this 

judgment was appealed (by either the 

claimant or the respondent) and heard by the 

EAT. These 82 cases form the first tranche 

of data for the study and the focus of this 

paper. 

Table 1 presents the extent of litigation 

identified above along with the rate of 

success and failure of the first hearings 

claims. These ET data indicate that claimants 

reaching a tribunal hearing have a little less 

than 1 in 2 chance of winning their cases. 

24 

This figure is an approximation based on analysis of 

raw data provided by the EOC, in turn provided by 

Employment Tribunals in Great Britain. These data are 

incomplete as not all case data are provided by 

Employment Tribunals to the Commission. 

134

Additional Jurisdictions 

Our data suggest that applicants do not 

claim SH on its own when bringing cases 

against their employer. 80% of cases 

included at least one further type of 

complaint, as outlined in Table 2. Table 3 

presents the types of additional complaint 

It should be noted that the vast majority of 

tribunal filings are dismissed, settled or 

otherwise dropped prior to full merits 

hearings. According to Department of Trade 

and Industry research (Survey of Employment 

Tribunal Applications, 2003), just 27% of 

claims filed with an ET (across all 

jurisdictions) make it to a full merits hearing. 

The significance of the finding of multiple 

types of complaints in cases involving SH (ie 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

brought by workers in our cases. Unfair 

dismissal was the most common additional 

claim brought by workers alleging SH, 

followed by victimization. 

that SH is not claimed in the absence of other 

claims) requires further consideration. It likely 

relates to the costs of filing claims (which 

may encourage applicants to maximize the 

number of claims made in a case) and also to 

the particular nature of SH as an operation of 

power - likely therefore to be implicated in a 

wider range of harms, such as victimization, 

dismissal and so forth. 

135

The Content of EAT Claims 

A key focus of the analysis concerned 

the detailed content of EAT cases, relating to 

the individual characteristics of claimant and 

respondent, the workplace and organizational 

contexts giving rise to the litigation and the 

nature of the SH being alleged. We also 

report some key legal aspects of the cases, 

including the nature of the defenses relied 

upon by employers. 

Characteristics of Parties, Relationships 

and Contexts Associated with Tribunal Cases 

Who brings cases to tribunal? 

The vast majority (96%) of workers 

bringing claims of SH were female. Our data 

suggest that claimants were more likely to be 

single than married. Of the cases in which 

the claimant's tenure with the organization 

was available, this ranged from a few days' 

service to a high of 13 years. 28.4% had 


been employed one year or less and 31.9% 

two years or more when the alleged SH 

occurred. 

Claimants' occupations ranged across a 

wide spectrum, however a number of 

occupations appeared repeatedly in the 

cases. These included bar staff, secretary, 

cleaner, administrator, police constable and 

sales assistant. We also coded occupations 

according to the Standard Occupational 

Classification 2000 (SOC) as used in the 

Labor Force Survey and other analyses. 

Table 4 demonstrates that the largest 

proportion of claimants work in the associate 

professional and technical occupational 

category, followed by administrative and 

secretarial roles. 

136

The data indicates that the category of 

associate professional and technical workers 

is strikingly over-represented compared to 

LFS data on occupation by gender (ONS, 

2002, 2005). This finding with respect to 

paraprofessional women has support in the 

US literature on sexual harassment charges 

(Terpstra and Cook, 1985). 

Against what kind of respondent? 

In many ways, the profile of respondents 

appears a mirror image of claimants. This is 

true in terms of gender (92% are men) and 

also in terms of organizational power. Table 

4 above presents the SOC data for 

respondents as well as claimants. It shows 

that the large majority of individuals named as 

respondents in SH cases are managers or 

professional employees. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Table 5 presents the role relationship 

between the parties in SH claims. In 75% of 

claims, the alleged harasser was in a 

superior hierarchical position in the 

workplace. In over half of claims, it was the 

claimant's manager. And, in one suggestion 

of the problem of SH in small workplaces, in 

almost a quarter of cases, the alleged 

harasser was identified in the case records 

as the owner of the company. Colleagues 

and subordinates accounted for 21% and 1% 

of respondents, respectively. SH of workers 

by customers has been identified as a 

growing concern given the dominance of 

service jobs and emphases on quality and 

customer sovereignty (Korcyznski, 2001); 

however, claims of SH by customers 

represent only 3% of EAT cases over ten 

years. 

137

In what kind of workplaces and 

organizations? 

The EAT cases analyzed in the study 

reflected a wide range of workplace and 

organizational settings. 77% of cases were 

associated with private sector organizations 

compared to 23% linked to public sector 

organizations. Analysis of the industrial 

sectors involved in EAT cases reveals 

several noteworthy findings. One is the wide 

range of sectors involved in SH litigation. 

Another is the large majority of cases located 

in the service sector broadly defined, as 

would be expected given its dominance in 

terms of employment. A quarter of the cases 

arose in sectors that could be clearly defined 

as 'male preserves' (Gruber, 1997), including 

manufacturing, police, prison/corrections and 

the military. Finally, only 1% of EAT cases 

were based in the financial sector. This 

contrasts with the heavy play that SH cases 

based in financial institutions are often given 

in media reports of SH. 

Fitzgerald et al's (1997) model, 

conceptualizes SH in three dimensions of 

motive and accompanying acts. The first, 

'gender harassment', includes acts meant to 

convey degrading or insulting attitudes 

towards women (eg remarks, slurs, display 

of obscene materials, hostile acts). The 

second consists of 'unwanted sexual 

attention', where the aim is to gain sexual 

cooperation through verbal or physical acts. 

The third, 'sexual coercion', involves attempts 

to coerce sexual favors in exchange for 


The Nature of the Sexual Harassment 

Claimed 

Claimants in 97% of the cases were 

alleging SH directly focused on themselves as 

individuals - as opposed to claims of a hostile 

environment generated by harassment 

directed at women as a group in the 

workplace. In 16% of cases, the alleged 

harassment was a one-off occurrence and in 

42%, numerous instances taking place over a 

span of time were claimed. SH may also be 

understood in terms of the kinds of acts or 

behaviors involved. Table 6 presents a 

typology distinguishing between unwelcome 

acts that are verbal (eg sexual remarks or 

requests), non-verbal (eg the posting of 

obscene materials, looking up a woman's 

skirt), physical (eg sexual touching, etc), and 

assault. As shown in the table, verbal SH is 

the most prevalent of the types claimed, 

however a worrying proportion of physical 

acts and indeed assault, feature in the claims. 

employment opportunities (eg such as 

keeping one's job. We used this model to 

analyze the narratives presented in the EAT 

records and found that hostile environment 

SH is the far more prevalent type of claim 

(see Table 7). Only one case alleged direct 

sexual coercion. Just over half of the cases 

alleged acts consistent with the unwanted 

sexual behaviour type. Yet, a substantial 

proportion of cases (just over 40%) alleged 

activities consistent with the gender 

harassment type. This latter finding 

138

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

underscores the value of approaching SH as concepts of sexual drive). 

an operation of power in the workplace (in 

contrast to understandings grounded only in 

Legal Aspects of the EAT Cases 

Where appeals were brought against the 

SH aspect of the claim, (59 cases in total), 

66% were brought by the claimant from the 

first stage hearing. As shown in Table 8 

Vicarious liability on the part of the 

employing organization was at issue in almost 

all the cases as indicated in Table 9. Where 

the organization was named as a respondent 

(either alone or joined with an individual as 

below, the majority of the SH appeals cases 

brought relied upon an error in the application 

of the law as the basis for the appeal, with a 

little over a third citing perverse findings as 

the basis. 

second respondent), the organization was 

found to be vicariously liable for an 

employee's actions in 46% of cases. 

139

As to defenses used by respondents to 

avoid liability in SH cases, Table 10 

demonstrates that by far the most common 

response, both by organizations and 

individuals faced with allegations of SH, is 

straight denial of the actions. A much smaller 

and roughly equal proportion of cases reflect 

either the statutory defense or an assertion 

that the actions complained of did not 

constitute SH. 

These findings may have implications for 

understanding responses to SH. The 

literature suggests that outcome expectancy 

may (along with other factors) drive an 

individual's response to SH. This expectancy 

(Will I be believed? Will there be 

repercussions?) may be a powerful influence 

on whether individuals come forward initially. 

But, given the large majority of cases in 

which the claimant had either been sacked or 

resigned following the internal complaint, the 

filing of tribunal cases may be driven less by 

outcome expectancy and more by a sense of 

injustice or a feeling of nothing left to lose. 

It is worth noting that 36% of those 

dismissed from their jobs as a consequence 

of alleging SH did not bring an additional claim 

of unfair dismissal despite having the tenure 


Outcomes 

The final aspect of analysis concerned 

outcomes of SH and SH litigation for claimants 

and for respondents. We look at outcomes 

for individuals, first in relation to having 

complained of sexual harassment within their 

organizations (i.e. prior to the tribunal filing). 

These are presented in Table 11 below. The 

most common outcome for these claimants 

alleging SH in the workplace was resignation 

or dismissal (46% each). A much smaller 

proportion of cases involved claimants being 

transferred or continuing to work in their 

current roles. 

to do so. Amongst those who resigned as a 

result of sexual harassment in the workplace, 

a far higher proportion (70%) brought a claim 

for unfair (constructive) dismissal in 

conjunction with their sexual harassment 

claim. 

Of the claimants who had been dismissed 

subsequent to the internal complaint, 38% 

went on to win their tribunal case, while 63% 

were unsuccessful. Of those who had 

resigned subsequent to the internal complaint, 

57% won their ET case and 43% were 

unsuccessful at the full merits ET hearing. 

Outcomes of the appeals themselves are 

presented in Table 12. The data show that in 

SH cases, appeals generally are much more 

likely to be dismissed than upheld. The data 

further suggest that respondents from first 

140

hearings (typically, the employing 

organization) do rather better at appeal. They 

have a lower proportion of their appeals 

dismissed than do the original claimants and 

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 

FOR ORGANIZATIONAL STUDIES 

This paper has outlined a set of results 

from analysis of sexual harassment cases 

heard on appeal in Britain 1995-2005. This 

research reveals some important findings that 

policymakers within organizations need to be 

aware of when developing anti-harassment 

policies. First, the data is reflective of the 

dominant scenario in social science research 

wherein SH is most likely perpetuated on 

women with less organizational power by 

men with more of such power. This 

suggests that incidence and reaction 

(litigation) may be broadly in synch - that 

lower level workers are more likely to be 

harassed and also more likely to file cases. 

This may be a somewhat heartening result 

given a plausible expectation that managerial 

or professional women with more individual 

resources might dominate in terms of formal 

SH complaints - and probably points to the 

importance of the support available through 

the EOC and other organizations. 25 

The over-representation of 

paraprofessional claimants, also found in US 

research, may complicate the picture 

25 An additional possibility may be that professional 

and managerial women may be more likely to 

negotiate acceptable settlements of their cases earlier in 

the conciliation process. Further research would be 

needed to explore this possibility. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

are more likely to win a remit for a fresh 

hearing. 

however. It may be that paraprofessional 

women are more likely to be harassed, given 

their relatively low hierarchical position and 

perhaps the nature of their (close but 

unequal) work relationships with managerial 

and professional men. Or, as Terpstra and 

Cook (1985) suggest, they may be more likely 

to file complaints, in that they tend to work in 

looser extra-organizational networks 

compared say, to professionals (meaning that 

reputation effects for making complaints 

would be less of an issue) and may find it 

easier to get alternative employment. Further 

research is needed to clarify this finding and 

its relation to incidence v reaction. 

A second key finding explicitly relates to 

SH in small businesses. The nature of the 

case records throw up significant difficulties 

in identifying the size of the organizations 

involved in tribunal cases. However, the 

finding that a quarter of cases involve 

allegations of SH against the owner of the 

organization clearly reflects a problem in small 

workplaces. New legal requirements require 

workers to make formal written complaints 

within their organizations (and for those 

complaints formally to be investigated) prior to 

seeking redress in the tribunal system. Given 

the power dynamics in small business, the 

new regulations likely will have a chilling 

effect on filings in these workplaces in 

particular. This may rebound on individual 

141

workers and on small workplaces by 

increasing the hidden costs of SH in low 

performance, low morale and resignations. 

The third key finding relates to the nature 

of the harassment being claimed in tribunal 

cases. The Fitzgerald et al model appears a 

useful analytical tool and the findings in this 

regard are important in highlighting the 

complex and multi-dimensional nature of SH in 

workplaces. In particular, the prevalence of 

'gender harassment' claims, in which the 

nature of the offensive behaviour is not to 

secure sexual cooperation, but to insult, 

demean or control, particularly clarifies and 

supports SH essentially as an operation of 

power, a position argued in much of the 

social science literature (Welsh, 1999). 26 

The final set of results to be highlighted 

relates to the outcomes of SH and SH 

litigation. One of the most striking findings 

concerns the consequence for these 

claimants of complaining of SH within their 

organizations, with 43% being sacked and 

another 43% resigning (and most of the latter 

thereafter claiming constructive dismissal). 

This demonstrates the importance for 

organizations - along with the development 

and dissemination of SH policy - of effective 

and appropriate investigation and handling of 

internal SH complaints. In particular, it may 

demonstrate deficiencies in procedures for 

dealing with complaints including absence of 

sympathetic counselors and independent, 

objective investigations. This stands as a key 

practical implication of the analysis so far - 

along with the suggestion of particular types 

of workers strongly associated with SH 

claims and the particular issues relating to 

small workplaces. 

Finally, based on the data available to this 

point, it appears that claimants filing and 

sustaining sexual harassment cases to full 

merits tribunal hearings have about a 

50%/50% chance of prevailing. Given the 

26 It is worth noting that gender harassment was the 

type recognized in the 1986 British case first 

establishing SH as a type of sex discrimination, 

Porcelli V Strathclyde Regional Council. 


power differentials between individuals and 

organizations in most cases, these might not 

be considered bad odds. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS: 

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144

Viewing organizing through a feminist lens: 

The discursive and material creations of individual and 

organization identities. 

Alexis Downs* and Donna M Carlon** 

*Emporia State University 

**University of Central Oklahoma 

Abstract 

In recent years, feminist scholars have made substantial inroads toward a better understanding 

of the intricacies and complexities of organizing. Through the metatheoretical lens of a 

“feminist communicology of organization,” gender is seen as a dynamic principle of organizing, 

and organizations are seen as fundamentally gendered. By looking at both the macro- and 

micro-level activities of gendered organizing, we obtain a much richer, organic understanding 

of the processes inherent in creating and sustaining organizations. 

Such an approach helps us to understand one of the newest forms of organization-the virtual 

one-that exists both discursively and materially only in the virtual world. To better understand 

how organizing is accomplished in the virtual world, we have chosen to focus on the postings to 

a “renegade” web site called “Teamster.net.” This site was established by and for members of 

the International Brotherhood of Teamsters but is not sanctioned by The Teamsters. Through 

content analysis, we studied the ongoing discussions concerning if, and how, this site should 

be moderated, and by whom. 

We found that these chat room dialogues exhibit the key characteristics of multiple discourses 

occurring simultaneously. Contributors are both social actors and the objects of multiple 

discourses that seek to normalize and control these actors, often occurring in disjunctive and 

contradictory ways. While contributors acknowledge the need for both social equality and 

respect, their mechanisms for dealing with these contradictions are most often unconscious; in 

psychoanalytic terms, compromise formations. Thus we offer this deeper understanding of 

virtual organizations through the metatheoretical lens of feminist communicology and the 

theoretical lens of compromise formations. 

Key words: Feminist communicology, compromise formations, organizing 

As research into the nature and 

extent of organizing has enveloped feminist 

strategies, a new framework for a deeper 

and richer understanding of organizations 

has emerged: i.e., the “feminist 

communicology of organizing” (Ashcraft & 

Mumby, 2004b). The six premises of the 

framework serve as tools to examine 

(gendered) communication processes in the 

workplace. Arguing that all organizations are 

inherently gendered and that gender is a 

fundamental principle of organizing, Ashcraft 

and Mumby (2004b) suggest that a 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

metatheoretical approach to studying 

organizations and organizing is required 

which views an organization as an enduring 

social structure, offers the tools needed to 

analyze the structure as a material object, 

and incorporates both social and institutional 

contexts in the analysis. Thus their approach 

to studying organizing is both conceptual and 

analytical, situating everyday actions within 

the broader theories of feminism and 

gendered relations. 

145

To begin this exploration, we have 

chosen to focus our research on the postings 

to a “renegade” web site called 

“Teamster.net.” This site was established by 

and for members of the International 

Brotherhood of Teamsters but is not 

sanctioned by The Teamsters. In fact, 

organizers of the site have indicated that the 

union has been trying to shut it down since it 

was launched in mid-2002. The site appears 

to cater to individuals who want to converse 

about union-related issues in a public space 

but do not want to, or are unable to, appear in 

more traditional public spaces such as union 

meetings. 

Chat rooms are possibly the newest 

form of organizing in action. But since the 

medium is so new, we know virtually nothing 

about how individuals are influenced and 

changed through participation in a site, 

especially when the postings are influenced 

by an organization, its leaders, or 

organizational activities. Research into the 

multitude of uses and effects of electronic 

media is young. It is only in the last decade 

that widespread installation of these tools has 

made possible both routine and not-so-routine 

electronic communication between individuals 

and within organizations. Dialogue in a chat 

room can be simultaneously more equalizing 

and less respectful. The ability to post 

anonymously has the potential of equalizing 

contributions, or at least of eliminating 

preference based on name or position. (It 

does not, as we demonstrate below, eliminate 

other forms of preference based on, for 

instance, language use or misuse.) We know 

of no models of interactivity associated with 

individual development and change via chatroom 

postings. Nor is there any available 

research focusing on the interconnectivity of 

the knowledge economy, gender, organizing, 

and electronic communication media. 

Ashcraft and Mumby's (2004) model 

of organizing suggests that organizational 

and individual identities can best be examined 

by evaluating the relationships between 

gender, discourse, organizing, and power. 

Their framework consists of six basic 

Downs & Carlon 

elements: (1) a feminist perspective of 

subjectivity that is unessential, unstable, and 

evolutionary; (2) a privileging of the 

contradictory nature of dynamic, resistive 

power relations in everyday communication; 

(3) inclusion of historical context which gives 

rise to dominant discourses; (4) 

acknowledgement that organizational 

discourse has “tangible effects on real, fleshand-blood 

people” (Ashcraft & Mumby, 

2004b, p. 78); (5) a fundamentalist notion of 

gender, and the dialectics of masculinity and 

femininity; (6) an ethic of political engagement 

that uncovers discursive mechanisms that 

privilege the status quo. Finally, they situate 

the model at the intersection of modern and 

postmodern theorizing, incorporating the 

materialism and dominance that are inherent in 

modernity with postmodernity's notions of 

discourse, identity, power, and organizing, “a 

view that moves beyond essentialism and 

toward irony and contradiction” (Ashcraft & 

Mumby, 2004b, pp. 111-112). It is this 

contradiction that we are most interested in 

as we explore Teamster.net. 

Thus we begin our paper with a 

discussion of feminist communicology. We 

then situate Teamster.net website within this 

framework before proceeding to identify 

contradictions inherent in this act of 

organizing. 

The feminist communicology of 

organizing 

Ashcraft and Mumby (2004b) 

open their discussion of a feminist notion of 

organizing by first exploring the modernistpostmodernist-critical 

triumvirate that frames 

organizational studies. They situate their 

model at the intersection of modern and 

postmodern theorizing, incorporating 

essentialism and relativity in the same model. 

Thus gender, discourse, organizing, and 

power are both constitutive and productive of 

the act of organizing as evidenced in their 

six-element framework of subjectivity, 

resistance, history, materiality, 

masculinity/femininity, and an ethic of political 

engagement. 

146

Subjectivity 

Ashcraft and Mumby (2004b) seek to 

redefine the agent/identity dichotomy in 

modern organizations by suggesting that a 

much more powerful concept of subjectivity 

derives from the acknowledgement of the 

multiplicity of identities, discourses, 

organizations, and actions that exist 

simultaneously. This is, in part, a melding of 

feminist's values of agency and identity with 

the postmodernist position of the decentered 

self. “We see no contradiction between 

viewing people as both decentered selves 

who are the product of multiple discourses 

and as agents who engage in the social 

world in an active and meaningful way” 

(Ashcraft & Mumby, 2004b, p. 119). Identity 

construction is an evolutionary process that 

happens in a range of contexts and through a 

variety of discourses which simultaneously 

complete, complement, contradict, and resist 

each other. 

Resistance 

Long positioned as a reactive affect 

of domination and control, resistance takes on 

a much more holistic meaning in Ashcraft and 

Mumby's model. Instead of the dualistic 

definition of power that is prevalent in most 

organizational research, they suggest that a 

more fruitful approach is dialectic which 

examines power as disjunctive and 

contradictory discursive formations of day-today 

communicative events. 

History 

Again citing apparent inadequacies in 

many models of organization, Ashcraft and 

Mumby (2004a, 2004b) position the third 

element of their model-history-as providing 

contextual understanding of the everchanging 

economic, political, and cultural 

forces that influence organizing and help 

shape organizations. An historical 

perspective provides two benefits. First, it 

enables researchers to explore developing 

discourses in the context of the already 

established discourses. Second, it 

acknowledges the evolutionary nature of 

discourse that responds to changes in 

shifting economic and cultural environments. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Materiality 

Materiality enhances the organizing 

model by acknowledging that communicative 

processes are enacted by real people in real 

settings. They do not dismiss the discursive 

nature of organizations; they just situate them 

within the material world. This approach is an 

enhancement of the constitutive nature of 

communication within the highly politicized 

context prevalent in most organizations 

today. 

Masculinity/femininity 

In the feminist communicology model, 

individuals within an organization as well as 

the organization itself are gendered (Ashcraft 

& Mumby, 2004a). Thus their model argues 

for a fundamental notion of gender that is 

enacted in multiple ways in multiple settings. 

Gender is always present in organizing; how 

it appears is the focus of this model. 

Ethic of political engagement 

In this model, the ethic of political 

engagement is a values-driven analysis of the 

creation and evolution of hierarchies and 

other forms of structure. Thus it is a processdriven 

look at how some voices are privileged 

over others, how some interests and needs 

take precedence over others, and the 

resulting consequences of such privileging. 

Again, Ashcraft and Mumby (2004b) assume 

that all organizing is privileged; their model 

seeks to uncover the ways in which day-today 

interaction create organization 

hierarchies and structure. 

Organizing and virtual materiality 

The use of postings to the 

Teamster.net site produces an interesting and 

unique melding of organizing and the virtual 

world. Established in 2002 by and for the 1.4million 

members of the International 

Brotherhood of the Teamsters, the website 

serves as virtual organization of union 

members, most of whom have never met 

face-to-face or interacted in any other way. 

Its stated purpose: “Teamster.Net is a web 

site built and maintained by Teamster 

Members who share the idea that Members of 

the Teamsters Union needs (sic) a common 

147

place to exchange ideas and information” 

(www.Teamser.net). Thus it is a site of 

participation and engagement. This 

participation is just one of the ways that union 

members create, establish, and recreate their 

identities. 

Most researchers view participation 

as a positive element of worker identity. This 

is true of mainstream organizational 

researchers such as Monge & Miller (1988), 

Wisman (1997), Deetz (1992), Stohl and 

Cheney (2001), and Holtzhausen (2002), as 

well as industry specific scholars, such as 

Lazes and Savage (1996) and Schurman and 

Eaton (1996). Holtzhausen initially describes it 

as an anecdote to “The marginalization of 

workers in decision-making about their own 

future…” (p. 30). She then suggests that 

participation is “the most visible and dominant 

variable” (p. 33) in workplace democracy, 

citing more than a dozen scholars who have 

investigated workplace participation. Wisman 

(1997) privileges worker-owned and workercontrolled 

organizations, and then uses 

“democracy” interchangeably with 

“participation.” Dissatisfied with a simplistic 

explanation, Cheney (1995) delves into the 

meaning of participation: 

A system of governance which truly 

values individual goals and feelings (e.g., 

equitable remuneration, the pursuit of 

enriching work and the right to express 

oneself) as well as typically 

organizational objectives (e.g., 

effectiveness and efficiency, reflectively 

conceived), which actively fosters the 

connection between those two sets of 

concerns by encouraging individual 

contributions to important organizational 

choices, and which allows for the 

ongoing modification of the organization's 

activities and policies by the group 

(pp.170-171). 

From the perspective of the individual, 

Chaney's definition incorporates selfactualization, 

voice, and accomplishment, and 

requires a structure (system), presumably 

with rules that govern behavior. It is still 


participation-driven, as evidenced by the 

phrase “individual contributions to important 

organizational choices.” Thus the act of 

organizing is multi-faceted, occurring 

simultaneously at the discursive and 

materialistic levels. It requires an ethic of 

participation at the micro level while reacting 

to the dialectic of control that is inherent in the 

macro-level practices. 

One issue that the organizers of the 

Teamster website still deal with is the 

structure of participation. Initially seen as way 

to equalize voice, the website existed for 

almost three years with little restraint on 

postings. But as participation grew, 

contributors started to demand control, 

asking, for instance, that some postings be 

eliminated because of disrespectful language 

or because a contributor was “hogging” the 

site. What started out as a purely democratic 

environment, soon turned into one of debate 

and derision, leading site administrators to 

grapple with the process of constraint. It is 

this grappling that we study here. 

The influence of the mind on an 

ethic of participation 

Since participation is a social contract 

that begins with the individual, it's important to 

understand how we come to develop ethical 

stances. Although ethical knowledge has 

been assumed to be analytic (e.g., Brady 

1986), we take the position that management 

ethics rely upon individual psychodynamics. 

To some extent, we agree with ethicists who 

describe ethics as “conversations”: i.e., 

“dialogues people have about their 

experiences and the abstract principles 

designed to account for those experiences. . 

. . The principles are mirrors in which a 

person examines his or her own moralities” 

(Kahn, 1990, p. 315). Since the ethic of 

participation concerns individual dynamics 

rather than normative or contextual dynamics, 

we examine this ethic as individual 

compromise formations. Brenner (1982) 

defines a compromise formation as a 

consequence of psychic conflict: i.e., a land 

of paradoxical wish accompanied by 

unpleasure (p. 7). Brenner (1982) identifies 

148

the components of this type of psychic 

conflict as drive derivatives, anxiety and 

depressive affects, defenses, and superego 

functioning (p.7). Drive derivatives are 

wishes for gratification of the biological 

needs of libido and aggression (Brenner, 

1982, p. 24). Individuals seek satisfaction of 

these drives but are not always successful. 

When their wishes are frustrated, individuals 

experience anxiety and/or depressive affects 

and are motivated to defend against the 

affects. For example, if a child feels that the 

mother no longer loves him or her, the child 

experiences depressive affect: i.e., loss of 

love. Depressive affect occurs as a result of 

past misfortune and anxiety occurs as a 

result of anticipated misfortunes. When 

unpleasurable affects are aroused, 

individuals do whatever is possible to avoid 

or reduce the affects. Defenses ward off 

unpleasurable affects. 

The superego is born of the conflict 

between wishes and unpleasurable affects. 

As explained by Brenner (1982), “The 

superego is both a consequence of psychic 

conflict and a component of it. . . . . The 

superego is a compromise formation or, to be 

more precise, a group of compromise 

formations originating largely in the conflicts 

of the oedipal phase” (p. 120). In short, the 

superego has multiple functions. Its moral 

strictures oppose drive derivatives and 

conflicts of the oedipal phase, but the 

superego continues as a component of later 

conflicts as well. 

Brenner (1982) identifies compromise 

formations as either “normal” or 

“pathological.” A vocational choice is a normal 

compromise formation (p. 222); neurotic 

symptoms, such as a fear of flying, are 

pathological (p. 143-144). The underlying 

conflict becomes apparent in dialogue through 

discontinuities in expressed thought: that is, 

failures of defense in psychoanalytic terms. 

Shevrin and Dickman (1980) discuss such 

failures in terms of “discontinuity” (p. 422). 

They explain, “A discontinuity is inferred 

when the apparent (i.e., consciously 

accessible) causal factors for a particular 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

thought, feeling, or act are not, in and of 

themselves, sufficient to explain its 

occurrence” (1980, p. 422). 

Influenced by Freudian theories of the 

unconscious, Swogger (1999) addressed 

“the reality of psychic complexity” and its 

contribution to studies of “personal and 

ethical responsibility” in organizations (p. 

233). That is, according to Swogger, 

unconscious dimensions influence behavior, 

and Swogger posed questions for the 

Western legal tradition that focuses on 

conscious intent and state of mind. In his 

discussion, Swogger describes the 

relevance of the individual superego to 

conscience and ethics. 

Swogger generally describes the 

relevance of depth psychology to 

organizational ethics, but in this paper, we 

use empirical data to examine the emergence 

of ethical democracy. In the following 

paragraphs, we argue that these ethics are 

normal compromise formations that occur 

when an individual seeks to resolve the 

paradoxes inherent in the practical application 

of workplace democracy. Thus, to better 

understand the development and application 

of workplace democracy, we must first study 

these compromise formations. 

Methodology and description of 

data 

Our data are drawn from the general 

forum discussions and freight chat rooms on 

www.Teamster.net. We chose to gather 

data from Teamster.Net for several reasons. 

First, web-based organizing is a new 

phenomenon which obscures the boundaries 

between the materialistic and discursive. 

Second, a gendered notion of organizing 

provides new insight into an abundantly 

masculine forum. Finally, we can think of no 

better way to evaluate the validity of a 

feminist metatheory that privileges a gendered 

notion of organizing than an abundantly 

masculine forum. In short, we see in the 

Teamsters a conflation of gendered identities 

and issues that are uniquely suited to an 

exploration of the communicology of 

149

organizing. 


site and discourse about restricting/controlling 

Using the qualitative research those postings have real life effects on the 

software NVivo (2002), we utilized a four- site participants; (5) The unfolding of the 

step process to identify and analyze postings discussion is influenced by the gendered 

to the site. First we searched for nature of the site participants, the union itself, 

conversation threads that specifically used and the medium of electronic communication; 

such words as “morals,” “democracy,” (6) The resulting restrictions are heavily 

“right,” “free speech,” “equality,” and influenced by an ethic of engagement and 

“participation.” We then read those postings participation that is one of the cornerstones 

closely, focusing on a wealth of comments of unionization. Our working hypothesis was 

relating to free speech in the context of that Teamster.Net, a site for Teamsters to 

democracy. Two topics stood out: the role of exchange ideas and participate in open and 

the Teamster.Net moderator, especially in democratic forums, would reveal multiple 

regards to potentially offensive content; and discourses, occurring simultaneously and 

the propriety of anonymous postings. As of played out in disjunctive and contradictory 

January 2, 2008, there were 6,676 registered ways. That is, we expected to see individual 

users and more than 235,000 posts to eight compromise formations apparent in the posts; 

forums. Teamster.net imposes few in dialogue with others, the individual would 

restrictions on screen identities. It permits experience unpleasurable affect and modify a 

users to contributive through multiple screen 

names with or without identifying information. 

compromise formation. 

It also permits anonymous postings but does Sample Data 

prohibit the “hijacking” of another poster's Since we are particularly interested in 

identity. 

discursive contradictions that arise through 

the management and control of posts to this 

Based on Ashcraft and Mumby's web site, we chose to read messages 

model, we make the following assumptions: posted during the first six months of the site's 

(1) the identities of the moderator, existence--June 20, 2002, and January 2, 

administrators, and contributors to 2003. In the passages reproduced below, 

Teamster.net are fluid, and because of the we have omitted some discussion in order to 

virtual nature of the medium, are perhaps, focus on those passages most relevant to 

more erratic than the “real world” ones; (2) our research. Omissions are noted in the 

Any debate about restrictions to the site will text. In order to familiarize our readers with 

produce contradictory, dynamic, resistive Teamster.Net, we provide below examples 

power relations because all communication from discussions of the role of the moderator, 

does so; (3) Any discussion of restrictions Phil Ybarrolaza, and examples from 

occurs within the historical context of the 

nature of The Teamsters Union and the 

origins of Teamster.net; (4) Postings to the 

discussions regarding anonymity. 

150

The above posts from July 2002 

exemplify much of the discussion about the 

role of the moderator. The following posts 

from September 2002 and December 2002 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

discuss anonymity: 

151


152

We analyze the issues of ethics and 

voice in the following paragraphs. 

Data Analysis 

In order to analyze the data, such as 

that data exemplified above, we looked for 

“discontinuities” or failures in defenses 

(Brenner 1922; Shevrin and Dickman, 1980, p. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

422). Given our data, discontinuities appear 

as contradictions, logical inconsistencies, and 

changes in grammar or spelling. Such 

discontinuities reveal conflicts, which may or 

may not be interpretable here due to data 

limitations. In other words, Teamster.Net is 

not a therapy group. 

153

The consequences of conflict are 

compromise formations, as defined by 

Brenner (1982), and may be normal or 

pathological. Using the threads about the role 

of the Moderator and the function of 

anonymity, we looked for conflicts that result 

in new, normal compromise formations. The 

superego as a moral function is itself a 

compromise formation or group of 

compromise formations arising in the oedipal 

phase (Brenner 1982, p. 120). Here, we 

proceed by providing examples of 

discontinuities; then we provide an example 

of a new compromise formation; finally, we 

interpret the discontinuities to the extent 

JC 53 Agent expresses a 

contradiction: i.e., he is “a proponent of those 

who wish to exercise their right to dissent,” 

but “that, however, is not you.” In short, he 

advocates and stifles dissent. The 


possible with our data. The example of a 

new compromise formation together with an 

interpretation of the data provide evidence of 

emerging ethics through dialogue. 

Discontinuities 

Sentences and phrases that we 

consider discontinuous are highlighted and 

italicized in the following posts. The 

following posts from July and August 2002, 

address the problem of free speech on 

Teamster.Net. The posters are JC53 Agent 

and the moderator, Phil Ybarrolaza. 

contradiction is a discontinuity and indicates 

conflict. 

154

The moderator's statement that he is 

”entitled to an opinion” and has “moderated . .. 

to the highest standard of neutrality” is a 

discontinuity. If he expresses his opinion, 

he's not neutral. The discontinuity indicates 

conflict. 

Vegas Jim loves “discussing and 

debating issues,” but he refuses “to do so 

with an obvious racist.” His statement is 

discontinuous, contradictory, and conflictual. 

Vegas Jim's post is followed by a “niger 

funeral” joke which we do not include. The 

joke was posted by an anonymous user on 

December 14, 2002 at 14:52. The joke 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

The following posts are responses to 

the Trent Lott fiasco. We see posts that 

welcome dissent, but struggle with racist 

comments. 

precipitates additional discussion about free 

speech and the role of the moderator. For 

example, on December 16, 2002, one poster 

writes, “Heisler giving a warning on T Net 

rules is similar to a hooker trying to teach 

morals at Sunday School.” 

155 

Heisler responds in the following post:


Sniper71 responds, as follows, by pointing to Heisler's discontinuity: 

Sniper 71 points out that Heisler 

wants to delete racist jokes, but Heisler also 

is incensed when the moderator suggests 

that he [the moderator] will delete posts that 

violate Teamster.Net rules. (Note that Sniper 

71 is quoting Heisler, who refers to a 2001 

post from an earlier version of Teamster.Net.) 

When Heisler responds on December 

15, 2002 at 13:08, he castigates “'white 

power' loosers [sic] . . . that could tickle [sic] 

156

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

your funnybone.” Citing the spelling errors, an and writes, as follows: 

anonymous poster recognizes the 

discontinuity or failure of defense of Heisler 

The point is that sudden misspelling is 

a discontinuity that indicates preconscious 

conflict. In Brenner's words, “Conflict 

occurs whenever gratification of a drive 

derivative is associated with a sufficiently 

intense, unpleasurable affect” (p. 55). We 

suggest that the above discontinuities in 

posts indicate the authors' conflicts. New 

compromise formation would be 

consequences of conflict. 

Compromise Formation 

Our data include a new compromise 

formation for the moderator. As a 

consequence of psychic conflict regarding 

his role as a moderator, Phil struggles to 

develop a compromise formation: i.e., a new 

ethical position. The superego, the moral 

function, is itself a compromise formation and 

becomes a component in later compromise 

formations. Because of the psychic conflict, 

we would expect the moderator to develop a 

new compromise formation. He does in the 

following post from August 10, 2002: 

157

The moderator has developed the 

new compromise formation-i.e., to post his 

opinions separately-as a consequence of 

internal conflict. His new compromise 

emerges in dialogue with posters. 

Interpretation. 

In our interpretations of conflicts, we 

cannot exceed our data. Our interpretations 

are based upon Brenner's conflict theory 

(1982), so we focus on libidinal and 


aggressive drive, derivatives, unpleasurable 

affects, defenses, and superego functioning. 

Also, interpretations are contextual and 

require that analysts, of any sort, know their 

data. We read and re-read and re-read again 

the postings about free speech. 

158

For JC 53 Agent, Heisler and Vegas 

Jim, we do not find enough data for an 

interpretation. However, for the moderator, 

we find data. We think the following thread 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

provides interpretable data, and we have 

highlighted significant words. 

The moderator replies, as follows, on 

August 11, 2002: 

159

The moderator's reference to 

“creating a monster” is interpretable data. 

Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein created a 

monster when he harnessed electricity and 

obtained the brain of a criminal; he was the 


monster's father. The moderator has 

combined electronic technology and an 

organization with a history of corruption; he is 

the monster's (Teamster.Net's) father. In an 

earlier post, Bill writes about the moderator's 

160

father: 

One interpretation is this: The 

moderator wishes to replace his father; such 

a wish causes conflict. We expect 

additional conflict and additional compromises 

in future postings; however, the point is that 

the compromise is moral and ethical in the 

sense that the superego is a component of 

the compromise and the new, ethical position 

is internalized in a way that formal ethics are 

not. In addition, the moderator is himself a 

component in the formation of others' 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

compromises. 

The moderator (below) is open to 

information from posters, who are open to 

each other. Teamster.Net serves as a 

powerful example of emerging ethics through 

dialogue. 

161

Discussion 

The feminist model of communicology 

provides a rich approach to examining identity 

formation and organizing in the virtual world. 

It's clear from this research that all of its 

elements are at play. Teamster.net permits 

anonymous postings and permits contributors 

to post under multiple names. The website 

consists of multiple forums, where 

contributors may (re) create their identities 

based on context and control. Issues of 

control consume significant resources; in 

fact, a review of postings in February 2008, 

almost five years after the initial debate about 

control, clearly shows the ongoing, 

contradictory nature of equality and 

participation (Teamster.net). 27 Considerations 

27 

http://www.teamster.net/index.php?act=anno 

unce&f=1&id=6 


of right and wrong (ethics) coupled with 

equality and respect (democracy) are of 

paramount concern to individuals who use 

chat rooms as a way of building community. 

It's evident from the postings that the 

contributors all have at least one thing in 

common, and perhaps only one thing: a level 

of interest in the International Brotherhood of 

Teamsters. Some are Teamsters; others are 

not. Some post regularly, others log on and 

never post at all. Some are knowledgeable 

about the workings of the IBT and some are 

members of various locals. Only the 

moderators have any assigned duties related 

to the site and only the moderators have any 

obligations concerning the site. The only 

acknowledged objective of the individuals 

who are part of the site is to discuss various 

topics of interest; not all topics are even 

related to the IBT. 

162

As shown in our data analysis, 

conflicts arise between the theoretical and 

practical. This is most obvious when trying to 

understand the need for a moderator. The 

initial discussion in the chat room began when 

Maniac asked Phil (the moderator) to block the 

postings of a non-Teamster. “Phil, is there any 

change of getting a [name omitted]-Free 

board. As soon as I see his name 50 times on 

a page, I wanna puke, and I certainly won't 

read him…He's just so dam long winded. He's 

not a Teamster. Please block him.” JC53Agent 

initially agrees but then backs off of the 

blocking, asking for an “ignore” feature so 

that site doesn't have any “'free speech' 

issues”. Phil responds by asking for 

volunteers to serve as moderators. “One 

mandatory requirement is that all moderators 

must keep their politics separate from any 

moderation or system responsibility. If I can 

do it you can to (sic)!” Another poster 

named “Bill” maintains that “Being a moderator 

is not at all difficult, if the person you select 

has the ability to seperate (sic) there (sic) 

personal beliefs and take a middle (moderate) 

stance on all issues that come before them.” 

We have moved from individuals who can 

“keep their politics separate” to those who 

“take a middle (moderate) stance on all 

issues”. Since Phil is forced to come to some 

kind of resolution of these contradictions, 

psychoanalytic theory would suggest that a 

internalized ethic in the form of a compromise 

formation be used as the bridge from equality 

(anyone can post anything) to respect (I am 

entitled to a personal opinion). That does 

happen with three postings on October 8, 

2002 from “ThePghKid” who says “I believe 

Phil is allowed to have his own opinion…I also 

think to seperate (sic) his views from those 

of “Teamster.Net” he should post under 

another handle.” An anonymous poster 

continues “I agree. TeamsterNet is suppose to 

be a fair and neutral website. Phil is entitled to 

his opinions and should be allowed to present 

them…using his name, and not as 

TeamsterNet. I think Phil crossed the line 

here.” And Phil responds “I just read all of the 

replies and posting with a separate handle is 

not a bad idea, I will do that in the future! 

Thanks!” 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Phil has clearly come to an internal 

resolution of the discontinuity between having 

an opinion of his own and being the 

moderator of the site. An important element of 

this compromise formation was the input from 

contributors to the site, some of whom are 

probably known by Phil and some who are 

not. (Since some of the postings were 

anonymous, it's impossible either for us or for 

Phil to know for sure.) In fact, the anonymity 

of some of the postings raises some 

interesting issues concerning external 

influences in the compromise formation. The 

dialogue cited above concludes when Phil is 

challenged by an identifiable poster-mickyfinn. 

Once Phil has reached a resolution of the 

discontinuity, he is unable or unwilling to 

accept additional criticism and input. In other 

words, he's happy with his compromise 

formation and does not, at least at this time, 

see the need to change it. mickyfinn says, “I 

understand and realize that you are entitled to 

your opinion, so let me ask you this now that 

you have opened this can of worms…..I don't 

really want your opinion I just wanted to point 

out that you may have created a monster 

here.” Phil responds, “Yes a can of worms is 

open but in my experiance (sic) this has been 

a necessary discussion about one a year. I 

don't feel that I need to make any attempt to 

defend TeamsterNet's neutrality. There is a 

(sic) overwhelingly (sic) large amount of data 

that proves that everyone has been treated 

equally. I am guilty! I am guilty of catering to 

everyone….I am also guilty of creating a 

monster!” So not only has Phil rejected 

mickyfinn's input, but in the process has in 

fact defended himself and the site even 

though he maintains that he doesn't fell the 

need to! Would Phil have been so quick to 

reject this criticism and defend himself if the 

poster had been anonymous? It's impossible 

to tell with these data, but the influence that 

identity plays in democracy and ethics is an 

important one. 

It's also clear that these posters do 

not consider participation to be a means to an 

end, since there is no “end” here except the 

ability to post commentary while respecting 

others. These postings demonstrate both the 

163

fundamental principles of democracy and the 

paradoxes inherent in each: equality 

(“everyone has been treated equally” and “I 

just don't believe views like yours deserve 

the time of day”) and respect (“Phil is entitled 

to his opinions and should be allowed to 

present them” and “I wish to employ an 

“ignore” feature”). Recognizing the inherent 

contradictions in organizing, the identities of 

the contributors, moderators, administrators, 

and the site itself shift as the discourse 

enfolds. To deal with the contradictions, the 

individuals employ compromise formations as 

an ethical device in their conversations, all the 

while maintaining a democratic stance. Thus 

they effectively resolve the tensions inherent 

in organizing and everyday interaction. 

Conclusion 

Clearly, organizing in the virtual world 

exhibits many of the same complexities as 

does organizing in the more traditional 

settings; perhaps more. We've gotten just one 

glimpse into it with this project. While the 

feminist communicology of organizing is a 

recent creation, we believe it's provided a 

valuable theoretical lens by which to study 

just one aspect of organizing: compromise 

formation and its role in virtual identity 

development. We also have just begun to 

scratch the surface of this phenomenon. Our 

data were drawn from “the third space.” We 

have no knowledge of the posters' feelings 

about their virtual identities or about what 

catalysts exist to spur deliberate creation of 

multiple identities through multiple user names. 

We know little about the context of the 

identities or about the relationships between 

the posters outside of the web site. 

Ultimately, the value of such any 

metatheory, including the communicology of 

organizing, is in its ability to explain entire 

phenomenon-not just pieces of it. So our 

exploratory analysis is just that-exploration. 

Further work with this site, other chat boards, 

and other aspects of organizing is necessary 

before we can draw any generalizations 

about this virtual world. 


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management ethics. Academy of 

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Alexis Downs is an associate professor of 

accounting at Emporia State University, 

Emporia, KS. Dr. Downs' academic and 

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theoretical and organizational topics, focusing 

primarily in strategic management and 

accounting. 

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Stohl, C. & Cheney, G. (2001). Participatory 

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Social Economics, 24(12), 1388-1402. 

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Donna M. Carlon is an associate professor of 

business communication at the University of 

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leadership roles. 

165

Vive La Difference in the workplace: Feminism meets 

liberal theory in Las Vegas Casinos 

Adrian N. Carr* & Cheryl A. Lapp** 

*Centre for Social Justice and Social Change 

University of Western Sydney 

New South Wales, Australia 

**Labyrinth Consulting 

British Columbia, Canada 

ABSTRACT 

This paper discusses the broad strokes of liberal theory, feminism and universal rights. It covers 

opposing conservative arguments in which we review individual and social psychodynamics 

that we believe form the foundation for the tension between Liberalism and feminism and 

perhaps, more widely, Liberalism and Conservatism. It is within these discussions that we offer 

practical application of these posits in the form of our summary of precedent setting legal cases 

originating in Las Vegas and reported from Las Vegas. The cases are all united by the fact that 

they not only relate to Nevada, but that all, in one form or another, concern the matter of sexual 

difference. In our view they are also united in the manner in which they represent a perceived 

tension that arises in Liberalism as it is espoused in the United States and how it seeks to 

eradicate sexual difference under the law. We strive to unravel issues of identity as they pertain 

to the synthesis of Liberalism, feminism and the psychodynamic vantage. 

Bright light city gonna set my soul 

Gonna set my soul on fire 

Got a whole lot of money that's ready 

to burn, 

So get those stakes up higher 

There's a thousand pretty women 

waitin' out there 

And they're all livin' devil may care 

And I'm just the devil with love to spare 

Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas 

(Viva Las Vegas, 

Words & Music: Doc Pomus & Mort 

Shuman, 1964; italics added) 

In 2000, the Standing Conference for 

Management and Organization Inquiry held 

its annual conference in Las Vegas. At that 

conference, a number of ideas were put 

forward including the prospect that Las 

Vegas was trying to remake itself as a family 

destination for what was termed “visual 

Carr & Lapp 

consumption” (Carr, 2000, 2001). It was 

argued that this remake largely relied upon 

being able to tap into common fantasies given 

the many ways the 'art', 'arts' and buildings 

on display were simply amusements to be 

consumed rather than 'analyzed' or critically 

appraised. In another idea, it was suggested 

that the glitz, glitter and newness of the 

present Las Vegas appears all the more 

meaningful in light of the archaic. Drawing 

upon Homer's tale of The Odyssey (trans. 

1991), the argument was advanced that one 

can clearly reveal how risk-taking, self-denial, 

repression and sublimation are archaic 

constituents in modernity that are noticeably 

'played out' in Vegas. Some of that argument 

was captured in the following paragraph: 

166 

The sweet songs of the Sirens may have 

been replaced by the alluring tones of 

popular entertainers but, the song of the 

Sirens has also taken the form of the 

sound of poker machines and the 

barrage of aural stimulation associated

with winning and the announcement of 

jackpot winners. The urge, so akin to an 

Odyssean approach to temptation, to 

defy the odds and emerge triumphant 

with money in hand. Being able to enjoy 

the entertainment of it ALL is a temptation 

not to be resisted [“it is impossible to hear 

the Sirens and not succumb to them” 

(Adorno & Horkheimer, 1947/1997, p. 

59)], but it is a temptation to be mastered 

through cunning. Earlier we noted that 

“cunning … is defiance in a rational form” 

(Adorno & Horkheimer, 1947/1997, p. 

59). One can allow oneself the fun of it 

all, and even to be mesmerized by the 

spectacle, but at the same time, still 

sufficiently aware that this is a spectacle 

that has the intent to seduce one to 

spending more money than one had 

intended. Of course, there are those 

who cannot resist the 'song' and are 

fatally drawn to the allurement. (Carr, 

2001, pp. 135-136) 

It was the juxtaposition of the archaic 

with modern Las Vegas that afforded us an 

opportunity to see ourselves in spite of 

ourselves. This also applies to females 

working in Las Vegas casinos, who also 

become economically drawn to the allurement 

of working in these establishments. 

In 2007, we return to the 'devil's 

playpen', where attention is brought to bear 

upon how this “Bright Light City” provides us 

an opportunity to reflect. This time our sights 

are set on the manner in which Las Vegas, 

Nevada and some casinos in particular, have 

handled employment relations in their 

workplaces. In this context, we are 

particularly interested in sexual and gender 

discrimination and how some of the courts 

have responded to these disputes. In a 

number of these cases, the judgments have 

had important ramifications for employment 

relations throughout the United States; and 

they pose some interesting questions and 

challenges for feminist movements in the 

context of the broader development of 

Liberalism, across this and other countries. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Section one of this paper discusses 

the broad strokes of liberal theory, feminism 

and universal rights. Section two follows with 

opposing conservative arguments. In section 

three, we review individual and social 

psychodynamics 28 that we believe form the 

foundation for the tension between Liberalism 

and feminism and perhaps, more widely, 

Liberalism and Conservatism. It is within these 

discussions that we offer practical 

application of these posits in the form of our 

summary of precedent setting legal cases 

originating in Las Vegas and reported from 

Las Vegas. The cases are all united by the 

fact that they not only relate to Nevada, but 

that all, in one form or another, concern the 

matter of sexual difference. In our view they 

are also united in the manner in which they 

represent a perceived tension that arises in 

Liberalism as it is espoused in the United 

States and how it seeks to eradicate sexual 

difference under the law. By using this 

reporting combination, we can see how 

organisational policy before and after 

legislative 'fixes' influences those in and 

outside of our workplaces. Finally, in section 

four we strive to unravel issues of identity as 

they pertain to the synthesis of Liberalism, 

feminism and the psychodynamic vantage. 

Feminism, liberal theory and 

universal rights 

In attempt to provide an overview of 

feminism, we borrow some main precepts: 

1. “Woman” exists in an irreducible way as 

an essence hitherto unrecognized. 

2. This feminine essence gives women the 

potential of a psychic existence which the 

Occident crushes and hides. 

3. This feminine essence of woman can 

only be discovered outside the oppressive 

social framework, that is to say, in the body 

of the woman. 

28 Like many other scholars, we use the term 

psychodynamics in preference to the term 

psychoanalysis, as psychodynamics is a less 

'treatment' oriented term that implies the 

normality and dynamic nature of psychological 

processes. 

167

4. The potential existence of woman 

thus depends on the discovery of her 

essence, which lies in the specificity of her 

body (Schor, 1994, p. 6; see Plaza, 1980). 

In the first place, woman is the 

representative of feminism who, relative to 

man has and also is an essence of feminism. 

Second, feminism supports the existence of 

woman's intrinsic knowledge and use of 

intuition. Third, for others to recognise 

feminism, this recognition usually occurs 

through the viewing and then the analysis 

and or evaluation of the woman's body. 

Finally, in order to find separation between 

feminine and for example, masculine, it is the 

woman's body, what it looks like, what it 

does, and what it does not that is its essence 

of what the “oppressive social framework” is 

not: feminist. It is our contention that 

Liberalism, an “oppressive social framework”, 

can be considered to 'own' feminism and the 

bodies that represent feminism such that 

sexual difference becomes irreducible under 

conservative liberal 'rules'. 

Liberalism can be defined as: 

… an ideological orientation based on a 

belief in the importance of the freedom and 

welfare of the individual and the possibility 

of social progress and the improvement of 

the quality of life through change and 

innovation in social organization. 

(Theodorson, 1969, p. 230) 

Although the term Liberalism has had 

many denotations, it is seldom separated from 

the Latin word liber, to be free. For the 

purposes of analysis, Liberalism can be seen 

as being of two separate philosophical 

traditions: classical Liberalism; and, that of 

utilitarian tradition. Classical Liberalism, 

heavily influenced by Thomas Hobbes (1588- 

1679) and John Locke (1632-1704), and 

sometimes referred to as contract or natural 

rights theory, has a number of major tenets 

that can be summarized under four headings: 

Carr & Lapp 

Individualism: A highly atomistic 

conception of society based on the 

absolute autonomy of individual will and 

worth. Classical Liberalism viewed society 

as an aggregation of individuals who might 

choose by individual acts of will to act in 

concert. 

Contract theory: The legitimacy of 

government rests upon the free consent of 

the governed. The only legitimate and 

enduring means of securing domestic 

tranquility, therefore, is by law based upon 

reason and representation rather than force. 

Liberty: There are certain inalienable 

rights invested in individual humankind without 

which the individual would be dehumanized. 

Often referred to as natural rights, they ought 

to be protected by and against government 

through constitutional guarantees such as a 

bill of rights. This also led to the belief that the 

government that governs least, governs best. 

Liberal epistemology: A 

transcendental order exists in the universe, 

which ordinary mortals can understand 

without divine revelation. Reason and will, 

however, are required before an individual 

can translate this universal order into a 

practical guide for moral conduct. The choice, 

therefore, between liberty and license, order 

and anarchy, is an individual one. (see McCoy 

& Wolfe, 1972; Scruton, 1982; Szacki, 1979) 

By upholding these fundamental 

tenets, liberals supported such things as: a) 

freedom of expression; b) abolition of 

slavery; c) increases in civil liberties; and d) 

opposition of all but 'essential' government 

interference in economic activities that 

supported free competition. 

In the 19th century through the 

influence of utilitarian thought; and particularly 

that of John Stuart Mills' (1806-1873) ideas on 

freedom in his essay On liberty (1859), 

liberals came to believe that freeing the 

individual from autocratic control was not 

sufficient. Instead, as the collective 

representation of society (i.e., on behalf of 

168

the State), government must take positive 

steps to ensure each person's welfare (i.e., 

setting precedent for each group of similar 

persons' welfare). Under this influence, 20th 

century Liberalism supported increases in 

government regulation that ensured minimum 

wage clauses, pure food and drug acts, civil 

rights legislation and the like. Thus, in 

attempting to ensure the welfare of the 

individual, Liberalism has come to support 

certain curtailments on the classical notion of 

the freedom of the individual, who in this case 

is woman as is depicted below, in the 

practical legal case: 

Case # 1: Jespersen v. Harrah's 

Casino 

Darlene Jespersen, a bartender at the 

Nevada at Harrah's Casino was 

dismissed in 2000 for a failure to comply 

with the following employer's written 

policy for female bartenders in relation to 

grooming: “Makeup (face powder, blush 

and mascara) must be worn and applied 

neatly in complimentary colors. Lip color 

must be worn at all times”. Males were 

subject to a policy that did not permit “eye 

and facial makeup” but required that “hair 

must not extend below top of shirt collar. 

Ponytails are prohibited”. The requirement 

for the hair of female staff was that “Hair 

must be teased, curled, or styled every 

day you work. Hair must be worn down 

at all times, no exceptions”. Jespersen 

felt that makeup made her feel “forced to 

be feminine” and “dolled up” as some kind 

of sexual object (see Colb, 2005; 

Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co., 

Inc, April 14th, 2006). 

Jespersen sued her employer on the 

grounds of sex discrimination; and 

specifically that the requirement placed 

unequal burdens on men and women and on 

the grounds that such differentiation requires 

employees to conform to specific sex 

stereotypes and as such, is unlawful. The 

original panel of judges dismissed 

Jespersen's case and upheld the employer's 

right to dismiss the employee for non- 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

compliance with the policy. The court 

determined that the policy did not run counter 

to the federal anti-discrimination law in as 

much as it placed an equal burden upon both 

male and female employees. In December 

2004, this ruling was upheld in Jespersen's 

appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 

in a 2-1 decision of the three-judge panel. 

Upon further appeal, in May of the following 

year the court reversed the decision and, 

without comment, ordered the case to be reheard 

by a panel of 11 judges. In April of 

2006, in an affirming 7-4 decision in favor of 

Harrah's Casino on the basis that the plaintiff 

“failed to create any triable issue of fact that 

the challenged policy was part of a policy 

motivated by sex stereotyping” (Jespersen v. 

Harrah's Operating Co., Inc, April 14th, 2006, 

p. 4121). 

This case shows clearly that liberal 

support of freedom of expression and 

'essential' government interference in 

economic activities (among others) is 

transgressed and especially in light of 

feminism and its 'properties'. 

The paradox of freedoms 

The handed-down values of 

Liberalism; and especially the appeal to 

'reason', have been the subjects of much 

critique (see, for example: Crozier, Huntington 

& Watanuki, 1975; Spragens, 1981; Walzer, 

1980), much of which has been inspired by 

the work of Karl Marx. In the face of the 

demands of a complex industrial world, often 

the focus of the more contemporary critique 

is upon the demonstrable need for Liberalism 

to “shore-up” its belief in laissez-faire as a 

viable economic theory. The stream of critique 

on liberty, which is the focus of this paper, 

arises from Liberalism's championing of 

'freedom'. 

Liberalism's notion of freedom has a 

dual trajectory. There is a freedom to be left 

alone and there is a freedom to be treated 

equally without any form of discrimination. In 

relation to the former, a legal right to be left 

alone free of government control and without 

169

civic responsibility to others, potentially 

undermines traditional society and the 

cohesiveness of its institutions. Michael 

Walzer (1980) viewed this as a crisis for 

Liberalism: 

For liberalism is above all a doctrine of 

liberation. It sets individuals loose from 

religions and ethnic communities, from 

guilds, parishes, neighborhoods. It 

abolishes all sorts of controls and 

agencies of control: ecclesiastical courts, 

cultural censorship, sumptuary laws, 

restraints on mobility, group pressures, 

family bonds. It creates free men and 

women, tied together only by their 

contracts -- and ruled, when contracts 

fail, by a distant and powerful state. It 

generates a radical individualism and then 

a radical competition among self-seeking 

individuals. (pp. 97-98; see also Bates, 

1985; West, 1997/1998) 

Walzer also suggested that an 

anarchistic hedonism would result if not for 

two countervailing forces: a) the continuing 

restraint that comes through the tradition of 

family and other institutions; and, b) the 

manner in which capitalism inevitably forces 

men and women to seek protection, in the 

form of the welfare state, from the 

vicissitudes of the market and “against 

entrepreneurial risk taking” (Walzer, 1980, p. 

99). The aforementioned utilitarian influence 

on Liberalism can be noted here. Again, and 

paradoxically, the freedom to be left alone 

free from surveillance and interference that is 

accompanied by a plea for protection, 

requires “the construction of an 

organizational framework which is committed 

to bureaucratic surveillance and social 

control” (Bates, 1985, p. 24). The liberalists' 

logic of legislating for a freedom to be left 

alone, is demonstrably flawed when one is 

confronted by the actuality of free market 

capitalism and the need for the administrative 

state. Individuals' rights to be left alone may 

also serve to undermine the interests of 

others, or come at too high a cost to the 

welfare of others. In regard to 'body control', 

some feminists have argued it has 

Carr & Lapp 

“contributed to a male flight from familial and 

paternal responsibility for their offspring” 

(West, 1997/1998, p. 10). Of course, in some 

of these examples, to embrace the extreme 

alternative communitarian position would 

place severe limits on life choices. One of the 

ironies (i.e., contradictions) from the liberalist 

inspired legislative framework to protect 

individual rights is that the legal system still 

seeks to protect institutions such as marriage 

and the family unit -- albeit through a 

'reorientation' of family law that renders that 

area of law more as a branch of “private law” 

and where parenting is seen as a form of 

consumer choice and marriage is itself “a long 

term contract for labor, consortium, and 

sexual services” (West, 1997/1998, p. 11). 

The following practical application 

provides insight into how the 'physicalness' 

of traditional, paternalistic familial roles plays 

itself out in the workplace. 

170 

Case #2: Costa v Desert Palace. 

In 1994, Caesars Palace dismissed 

Catharina Costa after a verbal and 

physical altercation with a male coworker. 

Costa was dismissed having 

had a number of disciplinary infractions 

and suspensions. The male co-worker 

who had a long period of employment 

without such a disciplinary record, was 

given a 5 day suspension. Costa was 

the only female heavy equipment 

operator in the employer's warehouse 

and claimed her long disciplinary record 

was due to different treatment she 

received as a woman. Costa filed a 

gender discrimination lawsuit against 

Caesars Palace. Costa gave evidence 

that when male employees came in late 

they were given overtime in order to 

make up for the time lost and because 

“He's a man and has a family to 

support”. Costa, on the other hand, was 

denied overtime and when she was late 

by even a minute and this 'lateness' was 

punished by issuing her a formal 

reprimand. The court ruled in favor of 

Costa and, in 1998, awarded her

$364,000 in damages. The district court 

had given what is described as a “mixed 

motive instruction”, having instructed the 

jury that: 

If you find that the plaintiff's sex was a 

motivating factor in the defendant's 

treatment of the plaintiff, the plaintiff is 

entitled to your verdict, even if you find 

that the defendant's conduct was also 

motivated by a lawful reason. However, 

if you find that the defendant's treatment 

of the plaintiff was motivated by both 

gender and lawful reasons, you must 

decide whether the plaintiff is entitled to 

damages. The plaintiff is entitled to 

damages unless the defendant proves 

by a preponderance of the evidence 

that the defendant would have treated 

plaintiff similarly even if the plaintiff's 

gender had played no role in the 

employment decision. (Citation of the 

District Court by U.S Supreme Court, 

Caesars v. Costa, June 9th, 2003, pp. 

384-385) 

Caesars Palace appealed the decision 

to the Supreme Court after the Appeals court, 

in a 9-0 decision, had upheld the original 

judgment in favor of Costa, but reduced the 

damages to $100,000. It was subsequently 

argued that the case appeared to shift the 

burden of proof to the employer to show 

there was no discrimination: “The Bush 

administration has sided with Caesars Palace 

in the case. Irving Gornstein, assistant to the 

solicitor general, told the court that Congress 

did not intend for the 1991 law to radically 

change the burden of proof requirements” 

(Batt, 2003, p. 2). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 

made it unlawful for an employer to 

discriminate against an employee on the basis 

of sex. This Act was subsequently amended 

by Congress in 1991 such that, among other 

things, it provides that: 

(1) an unlawful employment practise is 

established “when the complaining party 

demonstrates that …sex… was a 

motivating factor for any employment 

practice, even though other factors also 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

motivated the practice”, … and (2) if an 

individual proves a violation under Sec 

2000e-2(m), the employer can avail 

itself of a limited affirmation defense that 

restricts the available remedies if it 

demonstrates that it would have taken 

the same action absent the 

impermissible motivating factor. (U.S 

Supreme Court, Caesars v. Costa, June 

9th, 2003, p. 381) 

In another view on the decision, Eric 

V. Hall, of Rothgerber, Johnson & Lyons LLP, 

argued that mixed motive cases such as this 

“are frequently compared to a quagmire 

because (1) they are seemingly impossible 

for an employer to escape from, and 2) the 

law is hopelessly confused” (2003a, p. 1). 

In the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the 

Supreme Court noted that the word 

“demonstrate” posed an equal burden on both 

parties and amounted to a new “evidentiary 

rule” for mixed-motive cases. The Supreme 

Court unanimously upheld the lower court's 

direction that mixed-motive cases do not 

require direct evidence, but can rely upon 

circumstantial evidence. Others noted that the 

ruling also provided employers with a limited 

affirmative defense such that if the employer 

could demonstrate (i.e., not prove) that they 

would have taken the same action 

irrespective of a discriminatory motive “a 

plaintiff cannot, for example, be given 

monetary damages, reinstatement, or a 

sought after promotion. As a result, in such 

cases, plaintiffs' victories are more form than 

substance -- they get the satisfaction of 

knowing the court or jury found that their 

employer discriminated against them, but they 

do not get any money or their job back” (Hall, 

2003b, pp. 1-2). The decision is seen as a 

great outcome for plaintiffs' lawyers, who will 

get paid by the employer being sued, even if 

the employer is able to sustain a case for an 

affirmative defense. The decision was also 

seen as making it “easier for plaintiffs to get 

their cases before a jury” (Piper Rudnick, 

June 2003, p. 1). Lawyers were quick to 

point out that this ruling applies only to “cases 

falling under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and 

171

does not apply to age discrimination claims 

under the Age Discrimination and Employment 

Act” (Ison Law Group, 2003). The court's 

unanimous rejection of the Bush 

administration argument that the court should 

only rely upon the higher burden of proof, 

namely direct evidence, has seen employer 

groups lobby the administration for a change 

in the legislation and adherence to the general 

evidentiary requirement for direct evidence. 

The masculine norms, historical sex 

stereotyping and the closure to subjective 

particularity is what Liberalism 'overlooks', 

masks or suppresses, in its notion of equality 

and its posit of the abstracted individual and 

especially when tenets of feminism are 

evidenced. 

The freedom to be treated equally 

without any form of discrimination also 

provides us with some interesting paradoxes 

and political challenges. As can be noted from 

the legal judgments presented earlier, 

Liberalisms' freedom to be treated equally, 

enshrined within the Civil Rights Act of 1991, 

is a freedom that has sadly missed its mark in 

terms of its appreciation of sexual inequality. 

While it has also missed its target in terms of 

other groups in society, it is the issue of 

sexual inequality that we wish to devote our 

attention and to its critique that comes from 

feminists. 

In respect to an appreciation of sexual 

inequality in society, the feminist Robin 

Morgan (1996) charged Liberalism as offering 

a “piece of the pie as currently and 

poisonously baked” (p. 5). At first glance this 

might seem to be a strange source for 

criticism, since much of feminist goals are 

concerned with freedom and issues 

surrounding equal treatment under the law. At 

the centre of feminist critique is the fact that 

the universalism of freedom and rights 

invokes an 'abstracted individual', or 'blankpage' 

individual, which fails to recognize the 

social milieu and history in which the 

individual relates to others. As C. Fred Alford 

(1994, p. 135) remarked, “the individual is 

always a groupie”. The abstracted individual 

Carr & Lapp 

(i.e., read: disembodied reasoner) is a 

fantasy, for from birth the individual and the 

awareness of one's grouped 'nature' are coconstructed 

(Carr, 1994; Carr & Lapp, 2006). 

The self is experienced with other(s) as a coconstruction 

and it is this experience that 

cannot be blanked out or rendered 'neutral'. 

The neutrality that Liberalism claims is 

that it insists upon each individual being 

treated similarly under the law. The gender 

bias on insisting that all are to be treated the 

same, under the law, comes from abstracting 

the 'individual' from the social experiences 

that contribute to their being. Prominent 

feminist Catharine MacKinnon underlined this 

conceptual problem when she noted: 

Socially, one tells a woman from a man 

by their difference from each other, but 

a woman is legally recognized to be 

discriminated against on the basis of 

sex only when she can first be said to 

be the same as a man. … Sex equality 

becomes a contradiction in terms, 

something of an oxymoron. (MacKinnon, 

1989, p. 216; see also Schaeffer, 

2001). 

Robin West (1997/1998), Professor of 

Law at Georgetown University, chided 

liberals and liberal feminists for “insisting on 

the shared universality of male and female 

nature” to the degree that they: 

172 

… have also felt compelled to deny or 

diminish important differences, such as 

woman's different biological role in 

reproduction and the scores of 

differentiating needs that difference in 

turn entails: women's different and 

greater vulnerability to rape, 

harassment, and sexual assault; 

women's differential embrace of 

stereotypically “feminine” rather than 

masculine ways of self-presentation; 

women's different perception of and 

reactions to sex and violence; women's 

different degree of interdependency 

and involvement with infants and small 

children; and, arguably, women's

different ways of thinking, feeling, and 

caring for others. (p. 5) 

West also noted that the liberal 

conception of equality seems to undermine 

the “logic of affirmative action” (Ibid). 

The conservative side 

The premise of 'sameness' and the 

downplaying of sexual difference are liberallegalistic 

issues not only criticized by some 

feminists, but also by conservative 

commentators. Somewhat ironically, the 

conservative critique marks out the same 

territory when it comes to recognizing the 

underlying matrix in which sexual inequality is 

embedded. Specifically, conservatives 

dismiss feminist arguments of gender bias in 

Liberalism's notion of freedom to be treated 

equally -- a notion enshrined within the Civil 

Rights Act of 1991. Yet, in this denial, the 

very basis of the feminist critique makes a 

conspicuous appearance. For example, 

Professor of Government at Harvard 

University, Harvey C. Mansfield (1995) 

argued: 

Feminism is now the greatest blight on 

our national prospect and the greatest 

threat to moral responsibility. In its 

opposition to the principle of the division 

of labor, in its desire to construct an 

undivided society never before seen in 

human history, feminism is a form of 

Marxism. But it is hardly recognizable as 

such because it begins from the right of 

equal pay for women -- and who can 

object to that? Equal pay, however, 

includes equal right to a job, thus 

disregarding the male status of protector 

and provider. Although feminism speaks 

of equality, it is in practice more 

interested in independence. For 

protection the liberated woman will turn 

away from the husband who loves her 

to the government whose very 

impersonality allows her to think she is 

free (Feminism's love of Big Government 

is neo-Marxist). Children may not be so 

dispensable as a husband -- witness 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Murphy Brown -- but they will grow up 

without a father. (p. 85, bracketed 

comments are those in the original text. 

Italics is added emphasis) 

In the case, Costa v Desert Palace, 

we see that “conservative women who do 

not follow feminism to the end are 

nevertheless caught up in its inherent 

radicalism, of which they are often 

unconscious” (Mansfield, 1995, p. 85). 

The irreducibility of sexual difference 

is clearly an issue for Liberalism. Susan 

Varney (2000) summarized part of the 

significance of this situation, when she 

argued: 

From almost its inception, liberal theory 

has been plagued by a feminist 

critique that charges it with failing to 

recognize the sexual inequality 

inherent in its own conception of 

universal rights. As has been 

repeatedly noted, liberal theory gave 

women the grounds upon which to 

demand rights for themselves, to ask 

that this “universalist” conception of 

rights apply to them as well. On the 

other hand, by asserting that women 

deserved access to these rights as 

much as men, feminists contested the 

very logic upon which this system of 

“universal rights” had been conceived 

-- namely, the concept of the “abstract 

individual”. By asking for rights on 

behalf of women, feminists 

unavoidably made sex a political 

issue. … Feminism thus put sex on the 

political table and, in so doing, 

introduced the problem of particularity 

into a political discourse seemingly 

founded on its potential eradicability. 

(p. 72) 

This issue of the ineradicability of 

sexual difference -- and as we have shown 

through the previous legal cases that have 

set the constitutive function of sexual 

difference -- is a matter that we would like to 

suggest paradoxically holds considerable 

173

significance to both feminists and Liberalism 

in rearticulating their own aims. In order to 

sustain such an argument and to reveal some 

of its broader implications, it is instructive to 

consider the work of Sigmund Freud. 

Betting on the psychodynamic 

house: Freud, feminism and sexual 

difference 

Arguably, Sigmund Freud's greatest 

discovery has been that the realm of the mind 

called the “unconscious” is a source of 

motivation and a 'place' where certain 

thoughts and desires are hidden from the 

awareness of the individual. This conception 

of the unconscious stood in stark contrast to 

his contemporaries who, in the main, 

considered the unconscious a messy 

collection of ideas, desires, mental residue 

and or impulses that were beyond analysis 

and largely inconsequential to 'normal' human 

behaviour (see for example, Hewett, 1889, pp 

32-33). Some of his contemporaries thought 

the unconscious might be some kind of 

paranormal or spiritual repository or entity. In 

an early work, Freud (1916/ 1991) wrote: 

'Unconscious' is no longer the name of 

what is latent at the moment; the 

unconscious is a particular realm of 

the mind with its own wishful 

impulses, its own mode of expression 

and its peculiar mental mechanisms 

which are not in force elsewhere. (p. 

249) 

Freud was to discover that, like the 

proverbial iceberg, much of mental activity 

responsible for human interaction lay below 

the “surface”, hidden from our conscious 

awareness. In the now familiar typography, 

Freud (1923/1984; 1933/1988a) suggested 

the mind consisted of three hypothetical 

mental provinces: a) the id -- various 

biological urges, drives or instincts; b) the ego 

-- the part of the mind that uses logic, memory 

and judgment in its endeavor to satisfy the 

demands of the id; and, c) the super-ego -- 

the province of the mind whose concern is 

Carr & Lapp 

for obeying society's 'rules of conduct', (i.e., 

morality and social norms) and reminds the 

ego of these social realities. Freud argued 

that the id operated entirely hidden from our 

conscious awareness and that also, in the 

realm of the unconscious, were aspects of 

the ego and super-ego. Freud called 

particular attention to the manner in which 

certain ideas, feelings, desires and urges 

emanating from the id were held back by the 

ego and repressed from conscious thought. 

In processes that operated at an unconscious 

level, the ego employed a variety of defence 

mechanisms, including the aforementioned 

repression, in an effort to protect the integrity 

of the psyche from what the ego recognizes 

as potentially, a reoccurrence of aspects of 

previous painful experiences or anxiety 

producing situations. These defences are 

also used by the ego, often in response to 

reminders from the super-ego about social 

realities and constraints, to delay or postpone 

desires of the id to a time and location that is 

deemed more appropriate. It was through a 

variety of techniques such as 'free 

association', the analysis of dreams, jokes, 

'accidental' behaviours, slips of the tongue, 

and the use of language that Freud believed 

he could gain access to 'contents' of the 

unconscious. 

In his description of the topography of 

the mind, Freud linked the development of 

those realms or mental agencies with stages 

of sexual development. Freud (1905/1986) 

identified five different discontinuous stages 

of sexual development that were 

psychosexual in character. These 

psychosexual stages were characteristically 

related to different parts of the body, or the 

individual's contemplation of different parts of 

the body, and these stages can be described 

as: 1) oral (-18 months); 2) anal (18 months - 

3 years); 3) phallic (3-5 years); 4) latency (5puberty); 

and, 5) genital (puberty). The 

particular stage that has greatest relevance 

to this paper is the third, the phallic stage, as 

it is firmly linked to the development of the 

super-ego. 

174

It is in the phallic stage that the For infant girls, Freud believed the 

individual comes to ponder the origin of Oedipus complex 

babies and genital differences. Freud 

(1905/1986) suggested that boys assume all 

human beings have the same male form of 

genitals and initially may deny that girls are 

different, preferring to “recognize the female 

clitoris as a true substitute for the penis” 

(Freud, 1905/1986, p. 114). Boys subsequently 

reach “the emotionally significant 

conclusion that after all the penis had at least 

been there before and had been taken away 

afterwards. This lack of a penis is regarded 

as a result of castration, and so now the child 

is faced with the task of coming to terms with 

castration in relation to himself” (Freud, 

1923/1986, p. 310). It is at this time that 

feelings related to what Freud called the 

“Oedipus complex” become significant. In the 

Greek myth of the male Oedipus, it was 

foretold by the oracle at Delphi that Oedipus 

would kill his father and marry his mother. 

Freud used the theme of this story to highlight 

the manner in which a boy enters a phase in 

which “he begins to manipulate his penis and 

simultaneously has phantasies of carrying out 

some sort of activity with it in relation to his 

mother” (Freud, 1940/1986, p. 386). At this 

same time, the father is considered to be a 

dangerous rival by the boy child. Freud 

argued that a real danger arises for the child 

in relation to these fantasies of “being in love 

with his mother. The danger is the punishment 

of being castrated, of losing his genital organ” 

(Freud, 1933/1988b, p. 119). Also at this time, 

the male child identifies with the father and 

wishes to be like him -- even the fantasy of 

taking the father's place with the mother. 

Indeed, by identifying with their fathers the 

possibility arises of a vicarious experience of 

achieving gratification with the mother. The 

male child, nonetheless simultaneously 

represses both the desire to kill the father and 

to be united with the mother. Identification 

with the father has the child introject the 

patriarch's values and ideals that come to 

constitute aspects of the super-ego. It is 

through this process of identification that the 

super-ego gains its initial script (Freud, 

1921/1985, pp. 134-140). 

29 Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

is more complicated and 

“obscure” (Freud, 1924/1986, p. 320) as the 

absence of a penis means the fear of 

castration is not a motivating issue. However, 

Freud, somewhat controversially, suggested 

the lack of a penis leads to envy of what the 

father possesses and the subsequent 

blaming of her mother “who sent her into the 

world insufficiently equipped” (Freud, 

1925/1986, p. 338). This latter disappointment 

with the mother is such that the girl “gives up 

her wish for a penis and puts in place of it a 

wish for a child; and with that purpose in view 

she takes her father as a love-object. Her 

mother becomes the object of her jealousy” 

(Freud, 1925/1986, p. 340). The castration 

fear does not arise, but it is the fantasy of 

having been castrated that brings girls into 

the Oedipal situation. It is this same thought 

that encourages a partial identification with 

the mother who is in the same position of 

lacking a penis, perhaps giving rise to 

feelings of inferiority with their male 

counterparts. The super-ego is not developed 

in the same manner as that of boys due to the 

different circumstances in which the idea of 

castration is encountered. Freud (1925/1986) 

argued that as a result, a girl's super-ego has 

developed differently: “their super-ego is 

never so inexorable, so impersonal, so 

independent of its emotional origins as we 

require it to be in men” (p. 342). As such, 

women “show less sense of justice than men 

… are less ready to submit to the great 

exigencies of life … are more often 

influenced in their judgements by feelings of 

affection or hostility” (Freud, 1925/1986, p. 

342). This is not to say, as one writer 

correctly stated, that Freud thought “women's 

moral judgement is inferior to men's” (Jacobs, 

1992, p. 55), but that men and women have 

29 

It was Jung who used the term “Electra 

complex” in an attempt to create a synonym for 

the manner in which the Oedipus complex takes 

its form in women. Freud rejected the term as 

being unhelpful and too reductionist of a more 

complex and larger psychodynamic (Freud, 

1924/1986; see also Laplanche & Pontalis, 

1967/1988, p. 152), which is why Jung's beliefs 

are not applicable for this paper. 

175

different notions of morality -- “Men focus on 

issues of justice, fairness, rules and rights, 

whereas women emphasize people's wants, 

needs, interests and aspirations” (Jacobs, 

1992, p. 55; see also Chodorow, 1978; 

Gilligan, 1982). 

Freud determined the major 

repercussions of the manner in which the 

Oedipus complex is encountered are that: 

The female sex, too, develops an 

Oedipus complex, a super-ego and a 

latency period. May we also attribute 

a phallic organization and a castration 

complex to it? The answer is in the 

affirmative; but these things cannot be 

the same as they are in boys. Here 

the feminist demand for equal rights 

for the sexes does not take us far, for 

the morphological distinction is 

bound to find expression in 

differences of psychical development. 

(Freud, 1924/1986, p. 320; emphasis 

added, see also Freud, 1925/1986) 

As if to underline this argument and 

further reinforce the issue of the different 

manner in which the super-ego develops, 

another writer surmised: 

Because girls do not fear castration as 

boys do, says Freud, girls never 

internalize father's authority in the form 

of general principles of morality, the 

origin of the superego. Consequently, 

women never learn to govern their 

actions by principles and rules to the 

same degree as men. They remain 

enemies of civilization, guiding their 

conduct by particular attachments, 

rather than universal ideals. (Alford, 

1994, p. 141) 

While “morphological distinction” finds 

expression in different psychical 

development, at the same time Freud warned 

that some assumed character differences 

between men and women are nothing more 

than “social convention”. For example, in his 

discussion of femininity, Freud (1933/1988c) 

Carr & Lapp 

specifically rejected the common assumption 

that feminine meant being “passive” while 

masculine was shorthand for being “active”. 

In Freud's words (1933/1988c, p. 149): “But 

we must beware in this of underestimating 

the influence of social customs which … 

force women into passive situations”. 

Get those stakes up higher: 

Marcuse and surplus repression 

In the discussion of the realms of the 

psyche, it was noted that the process of 

engagement with the challenges that the 

Oedipus complex presents also gives rise to 

the psychodynamics of repression and 

identification with the parent of the same sex. 

It is in the identification with the parent that 

the values and attitudes that the super-ego 

obtains much of its 'script'. Earlier, we 

described the super-ego as that province of 

the mind whose concern is for obeying 

society's 'rules of conduct' (i.e. morality and 

social norms, and reminds the ego of these 

social realities). The acquisition of these rules 

and codes principally come from the 

identification with authority figures such as 

the parent and can be crudely described as a 

process of socialization. The struggle for 

gratification and need for forms of repression 

was a struggle for the developing individual. 

The critical social theorist Herbert Marcuse 

(1955) was of the view that these same 

psychodynamic processes could be applied 

to the understanding the antagonistic 

character of society. 

Marcuse (1955) suggested that the 

societal norms and rules were not only 

reproduced within the individual in the form of 

the super-ego, but that also society 

superimposes restraint over the individual 

through other agencies, which have a system 

of ideals and rewards that become sources 

of gratification. The super-ego is the 

'conscience' that informs the ego of what is 

prohibited and thus must be repressed, but in 

absorbing the values and attitudes of the 

parent it also acts to an ideal to be achieved - 

- specifying what Freud (1933/1988a) 

originally called an ego-ideal. For Marcuse, if 

176

the ego-ideal is itself repressive, one can 

quickly appreciate the manner in which social 

action is constrained by both an ego-ideal and 

as a censor. It was the psychodynamics of 

repression understood in terms of the 

Oedipus complex that pointed Marcuse 

toward the instrumentality of the societal 

administrative apparatus, which comes to 

assume such a powerful position in the 

individual psyche. Using a male child in his 

example, Marcuse argued: 

The revolt against the primal father 

eliminated an individual person who 

could be (and was) replaced by other 

persons; but when the domination of 

the father had expanded into the 

domination of society, no such 

replacement seemed possible, and the 

guilt becomes fatal ... The father, 

restrained in the family and in his 

individual biological authority, is 

resurrected, far more powerful, in the 

administration which preserves the life 

of society, and in the laws which 

preserve the administration ... there is 

no freedom from administration and its 

laws because they appear as the 

ultimate guarantors of liberty. 

(Marcuse, 1955, pp. 91-92; See also 

Carr, 1989; Carr & Lapp, 2006) 

Marcuse ultimately traced the 

individual's sources of repression and 

compliance to the social structure and the 

prevailing economic interests in the society. 

Like Freud, Marcuse (1955) suggested that a 

certain amount of repression is necessary 

“for civilized human association” (p. 37). 

However, some institutions in society have 

enacted additional “controls” to those which 

are socially useful and necessary, which 

Marcuse (1955, p. 38) called “surplus 

repression”. Marcuse argued that the 

workplace was one institution that contained 

an ethos and social practices that placed 

additional controls over human beings. Case 3 

below, provides examples of these additional 

controls: 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Case 3. Dr Jeff Crouse v. Bishop 

Gorman High School (Pending). 

Dr Jeff Crouse a former seminarian, 

was dismissed on May 12, 2006 from his 

employment as a teacher at Bishop 

Gorman High School for violating church 

doctrine in declaring his sexuality on the 

popular blogging website MySpace.com. 

Dr Crouse posted on the website that he 

was a gay Catholic man, looking for 

“straight-acting single men … Defying 

political correctness (sorry!), please no 

bisexuals, those with HIV, or effeminate 

men”. The posting somehow came to the 

attention of the school principal who 

then sacked Dr Crouse for being in 

breach of his employment contract. 

Specifically, Crouse was sacked for 

“maintaining, by word or action, a 

position contrary to the ordinary teaching 

of the Catholic Church”. It appears 

religious organizations can hire and fire 

on matters related to upholding religious 

doctrine, whereas non-religious 

organizations fall under the Civil Rights 

Act of 1991 that prohibits discrimination 

on such grounds. In the local newspaper 

-- the Las Vegas Sun -- Richmond and 

Littlefield (May 24th, 2006) noted that: 

There are various examples of 

Catholic teachers being fired for 

violating church doctrine. A 

Milwaukee teacher is appealing her 

2004 firing for getting pregnant 

through in-vitro fertilization. A 

football coach at a Massachusetts 

school was fired for getting his 

girlfriend pregnant. In November, a 

young Brooklyn, N.Y., teacher was 

fired for getting pregnant out of 

wedlock. And in October, a 

Sacramento teacher was fired after 

officials learned she had previously 

volunteered at an abortion clinic. (p. 

2) 

A question worthy of consideration 

that arises from these arguments is: to what 

degree is the field of organization studies 

177

complicit in helping to legitimize or justify 

surplus repression? (see Carr & Lapp, 2006, 

p. 105). It is certainly the case that through 

many MBA programs and alike, there is an unreflexive 

appreciation of enacting controls 

over workers as well as trying to create 

cultures where the organization ideal to be 

aspired is both exploitative and repressive. 

These courses often feed a fantasy of 

control in as much as social relations and 

technical aspects of the enterprise are all 

viewed as 'technical issues' that are fixable 

as long as one has the right tool at one's 

disposal. By inspiring a faith in technical fixes, 

there is a tendency to abstract the 

organization from its environment and to be 

un-reflexive as to how generic 'tools' have 

embedded forms of control that are 

unnecessarily repressive for all and may be 

differentially repressive for particular groups 

in our society. 

While much of the foregoing may be 

familiar to some, in the context of this paper, 

there are a number of aspects of these 

psychodynamic processes that need to be 

emphasized. First, in Liberalism there is an 

emphasis and assumptive basis of the 

individual in society being rational and making 

choices on that basis, whereas 

psychodynamics emphasizes the 

unconscious and that it is not logical in the 

manner we normally think about logic (and is 

thus able to carry contradictions -- see Carr & 

Hancock, 2006). Second, notwithstanding the 

fact that some feminists have criticized the 

work of Freud, and psychodynamic theory 

more generally, on the basis that it is a 

paternalistic and patriarchal reading of human 

development, the firm conclusion is that the 

morphological differences between the sexes 

does lead to a different (i.e., not inferior) 

psychical development. It is for this reason 

that it is widely observed “psychoanalysis is 

founded on the irreducibility of sexual 

difference” (Varney, 2000, p. 72). 

Critical paradoxes: 

Psychodynamics, feminism and identity 

The insistence on the irreducibility of 

sexual difference places psychoanalytic 

Carr & Lapp 

theory squarely at odds with the Liberal 

notion of the abstract individual. Put simply, if 

somewhat crudely, Liberalism insists on 

treating all as though they are in some way 

essentially the same. The 'equality' of rights 

logically follows from this universalist 

assumption. Contrary to this position, 

psychoanalytic theory argues that the 

individual is neither simply a product of 

nature, nor that of nurture, but a 

… subject understood to retain the 

traces of its own difficult transition into 

a formally conceived social and 

symbolic order. … The body does not 

exist as the domain of nature but as a 

site of sensation and perceptions and, 

more specifically, the place where 

these various perceptions are 

organized into a narrative of 

experience that is replete with its own 

internal logic. And it is within this 

discursive terrain that Freud reveals 

sexual difference as the first and most 

fundamental symptom of the subject. 

(Varney, 2000, p. 73) 

The inner history of an individual is a 

history that is punctuated by experiences and 

challenges that are clearly psychosexual in 

character. Thus, as it has been expressed in 

terms of developing our identities: 

Of course, identities are dynamic -- 

they change throughout life. But, like 

trees whose development may be 

affected by different conditions of 

nature and nurture but may not re-root 

themselves in different spots or grow 

branches where none exist, people's 

identities cannot discard or disregard 

early experiences (happy or painful), 

including experiences related to their 

gender, position in siblings order and 

so forth. In this sense, then, their 

histories follow them throughout life. 

(Gabriel & Carr, 2002, p. 354). 

The legal cases we have outlined in 

this paper, bring to the foreground the 

difficulties of the law in recognizing equal 

178

ights and how these difficulties stem from 

Liberalism's conception of universal rights. 

The work of Freud and psychodynamic 

theory points the way to the irreducibility and 

ineradicability of sexual difference. Thus, the 

legal cases while being practical applications 

of these posits work in theory but 

paradoxically not in practise because all 

concern the matter of sexual difference that 

is really based on the irreducibility of sexual 

difference. In terms of identity, the 

ineradicability of sexual difference means that 

individuals have both masculine and feminine 

elements. The degree to which one is uses 

'masculine' or 'feminine' behavior is based on 

the extent the ego has absorbed and or the 

manner is treated by its super-ego, which 

leads to the creation and or sanctions of 

norms. 

These circumstances pose some 

interesting paradoxes for feminists in relation 

to articulating a view of equal rights that does 

not undermine itself by a rejection of 

Liberalism and the political support that it 

brings. In the context of describing the legal 

system's embrace of a legal standard based 

on a norm of reasonableness that is related 

to masculine and feminine norms, West 

(1997/1998) argued that such legal standards 

will be difficult in their development because: 

1. While committed to liberalism there is at 

the same time evidence that equal respect for 

sexes (i.e. read also sexual orientation) does 

not exist. Concomitantly, these issues cannot 

be heard because of liberals' unwavering 

denials of difference: “Equality -- understood 

as the equal treatment of human beings that 

are the same -- will not be sufficient to imply 

the conclusion that a “reasonable woman” 

standard should be the norm against which 

conduct is measured in the area of sexual 

harassment law…” (West, 1997/1998, p. 8) 

2. Feminists, at the same time, stand in 

solidarity of their differences to men while 

simultaneously stating their shared essential 

nature with men. As Case Study 3 illustrates, 

to eliminate differences is to create a less 

healthy, less tolerant and a poorly functioning 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

society. Equality and a universalist position do 

nothing to imply anything opposite. “The false 

conviction that it does involves nothing more 

than mistaking a shared trait -- even an 

essential one -- with a shared identity, or 

even more fundamentally mistaking a part for 

the whole (West, 1997/1998, p. 8). 

The argument by West reveals a 

paradox for feminists in relation to Liberal 

theory, at one and the same time however, 

one can also note other paradoxes that stem 

from what would seem to be the impasse 

posed by Liberalism's universalist conception 

of rights and the invoked abstracted 

individual. One such paradox that we have in 

mind is that Liberalism, in its declaration of 

universal rights, makes such a statement only 

through noting implied differences -- of which 

sexual difference is most prominent. Another 

paradox is that Liberalism's universalist 

conception of rights is that it is repressive as 

well as enabling. The denial of subjective 

particularity and sexual difference 

specifically, provides the very space in which 

groups of feminists are afforded the 

opportunity to draw the distinction between 

feminine/masculine, female/male. In this 

articulation, sexual difference is affirmed. 

Varney (2000) came to a similar conclusion 

when she argued: 

179 

The mark of sex serves the ends of 

justice in so far as it sustains a 

disjunction between the individual 

subject of the law and the Law itself, 

insofar as it sustains a distance 

wherein the debate over the legitimacy 

or illegitimacy of the law can continue to 

be debated. Sexual difference is thus 

not simply a problem, a discontent that 

liberalism should endeavor to transcend; 

on the contrary, we might want to 

consider the possibility that sexual 

difference functions as its paradoxical 

cause as well. Which is as much to say 

that the riddle of femininity, and the 

problem of sexual difference, function 

as internal critiques and thus also 

supports of a liberal political tradition. 

Sexuation is thus a shorthand for the

site wherein subjects continue to 

question, and thus rearticulate, the 

“cause” of their own freedom. (p. 76) 

Clearly, the “discontent” needs to be 

recognized “as constitutive of the liberal 

State, as an ineradicable remainder” (Varney, 

2000, p. 76) and as part of the guarantee of 

the freedom that Liberalism seeks to uphold. 

This guarantee of freedom also applies to the 

workplaces in Las Vegas as we have 

provided with the inclusion of practical 

application in the form of Cases. While 

Nevada and in some decisions, the United 

States, seeks to eradicate differences, we 

can see how organisational policy before and 

after legislative 'fixes' influences those in and 

outside of our workplaces. These 'fixes' are 

part of our superegos and perhaps even egoideals 

such that many paradoxes are found to 

impact and perhaps 'inflict' female identity 

onto men and male identity onto women. On 

the one hand liberal dictates in Las Vegas 

casinos and in other Nevada legal decisions 

mean that “what happens in Vegas should be 

happening to you”. On the other hand we can 

say Vive Las Vegas: Vive la difference. 

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Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

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183

Boje Feminism: 

Parallel Storyability of Male Vietnam Veteran and 


David M. Boje 

New Mexico State Univeristy, USA 

ABSTRACT: 

Boje feminism is an alternative to Foucault feminism. One difference is Foucault feminism is 

discursability formation, whereas Boje feminism is storyability formation of the body, its 

discipline, and the power/knowledge relationship. A second difference is where as Foucault 

Feminism is about micropolitics of power/knowledge, Boje Feminism is far wider focus on 

macropolitics, even global sociopolitics of late modern capitalism. This parallel storytelling 

develops the differentiation between collective memory groups (gender, race, socioeconomic, 

class, etc) construct out of direct experience, and what Hirsch (1999) calls 'postmemory,' such 

as the trauma children of survivors of Holocaust live with. My feminism enters into investigation 

of trauma events women endure in sweatshops is possible for me, because of its resonance 

with my own trauma as a soldier in the Vietnam War. I explore here why this is so for me. 

This article is presented in left and right column, my column and her columns. After a bit of 

standard introduction. the columns are meant to intervibrate, to resonate, to interpenetrate, one 

another, as two voices, as many voices within me and her. 

STANDARD 2 column INTRODUCTION 

As storyteller Catherine Conant put it, "David 

Boje discussing feminism? Is that a little like 

Donald Rumsfeld discussing life as a 

Quaker?" Conant continues: 

As I understand it a feminist is someone 

who believes that there should be 

political, economic and social equality for 

men and women. Even though I haven't 

seen you in more than a decade, I'm 

happy to confer upon you the title of 

feminist and all the benefits inherent, 

including still only earning $.76 for every 

dollar a man earns. But here, just when 

I'm sending you kudos for your insights 

and courage I see where you say you 

saw the Virginia Monologues...............oh 

dear, I'm sorry, your Freudian slip is 

showing and you're out of the game... -- 

Catherine Conant 

This is all about women's work in 

sweatshop. It is post-memory, because I 

have not been allowed in sweatshops, and 

Boje 

have only interviewed women about their 

experience. Still I now have a certain amount 

of sweatshop trauma. It is how I seek to 

understand the trauma in sweatshops. 

Conant worked with me to cultivate 

my personal story using certain rules (Feb 13, 

she gave me this advice): 

1) Know why I am telling you the story of 

my PTSD 

2) Know what the story means to me, so 

that I can tell it with balanced counterstories. 

3) Understand the catalytic moment of my 

transformation, where I go on a new life 

adventure because as the bottom falls out 

of my life, I discover the macropower of 

exploitation. 

4) Tell it in a way the personal respect for 

the public, so they do not want to rescue me 

the victim of war tragedy, but instead think 

reflectively of their own personal story. 

5) Find my voice in the process of preparing 

my personal story for public telling. 

6) Out of the whole ghastly horror of war 

and sweatshop collective memory and 

184

postmemory story the redemptive quality, 

the moment where I dedicated myself to 

stop sending any young man or woman to 

war. 

7) As I make myself vulnerable, and share a 

personal story that moves me, be a little 

kinder to the boy whose life was changes 

forever by Vietnam, who left as a soldier, 

and came back as a peace activist, and 

started becoming feminist. 

Sweatshop Feminism 

Why am I telling you stories of women 

in sweatshops of Vietnam, China, and 

Mexico? I have only postmemory of women's 

work in sweatshop. It is post-memory, 

because I have not been allowed in 

sweatshops, and have only interviewed 

women about their experience. Still I now 

have a certain amount of sweatshop trauma. 

It is how I seek to understand the trauma in 

According to storyability theory not every 

event in complexity or in life trauma is 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

sweatshops. 

In my twenty years of studies of 

sweatshop feminism, the woman's body is an 

effect of modernist disciplinary power, a 

strategy that oppresses the female body, and 

often child's body, especially in the garment 

and sneak industry, in a pathological 

regulation, control, and discipline that is 

sadomasochistic corporeal reality. I have a 

feminist view of sweatshops. I am 

investigating events women (and men) in 

sweatshops recount that I have never 

experienced. I do not count a factory tour, 

even if Nike or Wal-Mart granted me access, 

as a direct experience. I would have to be a 

woman, work in the factories as a woman, 

and experience the oppression and 

resistance to have it count as direct 

experience. Mine is not direct collective 

memory. Perhaps a model will help. 

storyable into experience. 

185

Reenactment Looping I argue that 

reenactment and storyability sensemaking are 

quite different. I reenact Vietnam events, but I 

don't have till now a storyable experience. 

In what I call 'reenactment looping' 

trauma victims dissociate (#1 in Figure 1) from 

the trauma-event by splitting of the self to 

compartmentalize, annihilates the self (#2), 

acts out (#3, such as reliving past events of 

trauma, triggered by resonance in the 

presence), and that repression (#4) of the 

events can leak into discourse in pregnant 

pauses, Freudian slips (as the unconscious 

struggles to break into consciousness. 

Research into Holocaust, genocide, 

war, rape, child abuse, accident, loss of 

loved ones, and other severe trauma events 

suggests that trauma is initially just 

reenactment without storyability into 

experience or memory (Bal, 1999; Hirsch, 

1999). 

Deleuze and Guattari (1987) have a 

couple of types of memory types that extend 

Halbwachs' theory. 

1. Punctual (#9) is also managerialist in its 

processes, with several center points 

connecting to social units, such as multiple 

silos extending from headquarters to 

branches in other places (Linda Mustachio 

Adorisio & I are studying this in Wells Fargo 

bank's punctual collective memory). 

2. In multilineal (#10) two or more collective 

memories co-exist in the same social unit 

(such as in bank merger or acquisition). 

3. The more complex case is more polyphonic 

collective memory (#11) where the collective 

memories are fully embodied by different 

actors (persons & their groups), and these 

interact to negotiate collective storyability, and 

the restorying, as well as antenarrating 

possibilities. 

They were not all that polyphonic about 

collective memory in Vietnam. 

Boje 

Finally, in trauma research, there is what 

Hirsch (1999) terms 'postmemory' (#12). 

Postmemory is definable as collective 

memory that was never directly experienced 

by the person having the memory. For 

example, going to work and hearing a 

founder's story, or historical saga, to which 

you never had any direct participation with 

the events. 

Or, in the case of trauma, when you 

study War trauma, if you were not in a war 

zone, you don't have experience. You can 

hear about it, but it's not the same thing. 

Events only become experience when 

one willfully stories them into experience. 

I theorize that women in sweatshops of 

Vietnam, China, Mexico and elsewhere are 

reenacting trauma events, and only in a few 

cases have they rendered them willfully into a 

story that reshapes their memory. 

Boje feminism is a theory of 

unstoryability when postmemory of trauma of 

another, becomes the experience one has 

never had, but is equally traumatic. Foucault 

feminism focuses on female and male 

oppression being the product of patriarchical 

discourse that is historically situated for many 

millennia. Las Vegas, for example is male 

obsession with technologies of female body 

nudity, in wider macropower selling gambling, 

drinking, meals, and hotel rooms. This essay 

is not about that. 

Bojean feminism is defined as an inquiry into 

wider antenarrative and narrative formations 

of power/knowledge, sex/desire and 

sadomasochistic of global socioeconomy and 

genealogy of late modern global capitalism. 

Bojean feminism differentiates itself from 

Foucault feminism (McNay, 1992: 25) is 

“formulated around the notion of discursive 

practice rather than around an 

ideology/material distinction.” 

In Marxism, ideology and class 

differences constitute the pre-existent truth. 

But in Foucault feminism it is the discursive 

186

interplay of power and knowledge that is the 

archaeological or genealogical discovery of 

discursive operations in micropower of 

organizations, be they prisons, hospitals, 

universities, state, or business. 

For Marxists, and Critical Theorists, 

oppression of the body, is economically 

driven, not a matter of patriarchical structure 

or discursive formation (with some 

exceptions such as Culture Industry work in 

2nd phase CT, and Fromm's psychoanalytic 

work). 

I can only hope that my exploration of 

Vietnam War PTSD is a way women coming 

out of sweatshop experience, can heal their 

own suffering. Conant (2007 Feb email, asks, 

“Do the stories of women in Southeast Asia 

speak to you ----- because you may have left 

much of your boyhood innocence there, or is 

there another reason?” Answer: the stories 

speak to me, because they are storyable 

about trauma, and I just reenact trauma 

without storyability. Yes, I lost boyhood 

innocence, as I watched the body bags stack 

up on the airfield, a short way from my 

barracks. 

As Consant (Feb 2007 email) reminds 

me: 

Both you and Ms. Lap do share a 

common experience, living (albeit in 

different times and circumstances) in a 

country that was torn by war, strife, 

Boje’s Story: 

I stepped off the TWA flight into the 

oven of Vietnam. That night lizards crawled 

my bed. I conned a job as company clerk in 

Saigon (Ho Chi Ming City). I did payroll, 

personnel scheduling, like 'Radar' in the 

movie, M*A*S*H. I worked my workaholic 

pace for 6 months becoming Sergeant Boje. 

I exhausted my body and mind, and 

broke down. Barracks buddies invited me out 

for a pizza. “Let's stop here, to pick up 

something. Come along!” one said. In the 

hospital room, they tackled me, bent me over, 

pulled down my pants, and a nurse shoved a 

needle, seemed a foot long, and I was out for 

several days. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

corruption and exploitation. However, 

your story predates hers and hers is of a 

world that you cannot possibly know 

except through the telling of her story 

from which you can only extract that 

which fits your need to understand your 

own story of being in Vietnam. So I 

guess you could say that your stories 

are both apples, but two very distinct 

varieties with differing flavors, sizes, 

shapes and colors. One is not more 

delicious than the other, but they are not 

the same. 

Please read the article in the style of 

Derrida's (1972) Tympan, with resonances 

and entanglements in Freudian Slips, and 

intertextual answering from the Left column 

(Vietnam War Story) and Right column 

(Sweatshop Story). 

From here on out, Please read the 

article in style of Derrida's (1972) 

Tympan, with resonances and 

entanglements in Freudian Slips, 

and intertextual answering from 

the Left column (Vietnam War 

Story) and Right column 

(Sweatshop Story). 

Nguyen Thi Lap’s Story: 

At right, I share stories that have become 

postmemory trauma for me. IThis one is about 

a Vietnamese woman, Nguyen Thi Lap: 

The interview that follows is with 

Nguyen Thi Lap. It was conducted and 

translated by Mr. Thuyen Nguyen, 

Vietnamese/ American businessperson, and 

founder of Vietnam Labor Watch. Ms. Lap is a 

worker in a House of Terror (sweatshop 

factory) called Sam Yang, located in Cu Chi 

district of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). 

As you shall see, the interview in 2001 was 

not Ms. Lap's only interview. 

187

BOJE: I have Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder 

(PTSD). I woke up more terrified than I ever 

recall. In beds around me were soldiers, with 

missing arms or legs, or bandaged heads. 

“When do I see the doctor?” I kept asking. 

None came. I tried to act sane, followed the 

sleep, keep quiet, and eat routines. After 

several days, a doctor appeared. “How are 

you feeling Sergeant Boje?” 

“I'm ready to go back to work,” I 

replied. And I was released. Back at work, I 

decided that the office needed to work fewer 

hours. Ms Cang (Vietnamese secretary) and I 

did a work slowdown. We worked for this 

Major, who was a rageaholic and super 

heavyweight lifter. He'd scream, “Cang get in 

here now!” and she would run out from her 

office, to hand him the phone ringing on his 

desk. If I was not typing, he'd thump the back 

of my head. So I typed, a million times, “Now 

is the time for all good men to come to the aid 

of their country!” 

One day, when the power was out, I 

stopped working, so did Ms. Cang. Result: I 

was taken on another ride, another shot, 

several more days of forced sleep. 

LAP: She was interviewed by ESPN in Feb 

1998, which is an event that led two months 

hence to her demotion and punishment. After a 

series of punishments, she became ill, tried to 

keep working under quite demoralizing 

conditions, and finally had no choice but to 

quit Sam Yang factory in May 1998 (numbers 

to left are from tape counter) 

0 Lap Today I want to re-tell my 

experience at the Sam Yang Company 

(Translator's Note: shoe factory for Nike 

Corporation in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). 

I started in October 1995. 

name? 

Inter-viewer Please tell us your 

Inter-viewer. Does an interviewer inter-view? How many views are inter-viewed? 

BOJE: Demand more pay, better hours. This 

time, no more company clerk job. “Choose any 

other,” said the Major's replacement, a 

Colonel. “Sir, I choose the job of Golf Pro!” 

I replied. 

Boje 

LAP: My name is Nguyen Thi Lap., I 

worked for Sam Yang company, employee 

number 11204. 

188

Me in 1969: 

David Boje - Vietnam War Vet: 

As Golf Pro, I wore a name badge 

“GOLF PROSHOP DAVID M. BOJE, NCOIC.” 

BOJE: Oh I have stories, but they dance 

around the repressed events. For example, I 

can tell you that I was a golf pro who never 

played golf. I read a book the size of phone 

book by Arnold Palmer. When generals came 

for their green fees, they saw the Golf Pro 

nameplate. They would ask, “how to correct 

by hook?” I would reply, from memory, “No 

problem sir. Just interlock your fingers like 

this. Take the club, back of the head, and 

slowly bring it into position behind the ball. Pull 

back and let her go.” That's how I knew I 

could teach. After all, what is a professor, 

but someone who instructs using someone 

else's knowledge? 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Vitnam Factory 

30 

LAP: I joined the company in October 1995. 

In March 1996, I was promoted to section 

leader of Sewing Line No: 15. At the time, 

the company only has 15 sewing line. I was 

the leader for the sewing line number 15. 

Since then, I have contributed a lot to the 

company. I was given bonuses and awards. 

175 For example, when the company 

started a program to encourage people to 

finish their quota faster, I was ranked the 

Number 1 worker for the year. I was given $7 

Million Dong (Translator Note: $530 USD) 

1150 The personnel manager Tran told me 

that if I don't want to work in different jobs, 

then I should quit But I did not want to quit 

and did not sign the paper that day. Two 

days later they keep punishing cruelly me to 

the point when I cannot take it any more. So 

I signed the paper to quit. 

1175 Do you still wants to work at that 

place? Did they force you to quit? 






the point when I cannot take it any more. So 

I signed the paper to quit. 

30 

http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/nike/vietnam.html 

189

BOJE: The Army is surreal. For example, then 

the U.S. military built and Olympic size pool, 

with champion diving boards and more lanes 

than the 405 Freeday in LA, they made a rule 

that no Vietnamese could use the pool. Of 

course, Koreans could use it, since they 

were mean. I pulled some lifeguard duty once 

in a while. And how do you tell the difference 

between a Vietnamese and a Korean, when 

they're standing there in their bathing trunks? 

Beside, if we were there to train and 

help the South Vietnamese, why keep them 

out of the pool? I hate prejudice! General 

Westmoreland came to the opening of the 

new pool. OK, this is several collective 

memories in interplay (U.S. soldiers, Koreans, 

Vietnamese). Lot of times, we just let anyone 

with a bathing suit in that pool 

My grandfather was a WWI soldier, 

my dad fought in Philippines in WWII, and then 

in the Korea War. It's in my blood. But 

Vietnam was not an honorable war. Indeed it 

was not declared a war at all, some kind of 

insurgency is what I was told. 

Let tell you absurd. In our barracks 

was a guy with a Lugar, his own jeep, and 

he got calls in the middle of night. He'd write 

something in his notebook, and off he'd go. He 

was a biker looking dude, taller and beefier 

than the rest of us. So I got asked to find you 

what he does. “Jerry, mind if I ask what it is 

you do?” “Why you wanna know?” “Just 

curious,” I says. “Well, when the guys at the 

DMZ cannot get parts for their cannons, or 

cannot get a jeep, or other part through the 

supply requisitions route, I take their order 

and fill it.” “Why?” I asked.”Lot of times they 

put a requisition for a machine guy part, or 

some fencing, and they get sent something 

else like, toilet paper.” 

Boje 

LAP: 273 When I became sick, I went to 

the clinic. The doctor said that I have fever of 

37 degree C.. 

On the Sunday the 29th while working 

overtime, I was working very hard and being 

sick at the same time, so I got a really bad 

headache. So I put my hands on my head. 

The manager then hit me in the arm. After the 

manager hits me, I could not work so I went to 

the nurse to take the rest of day off. I took 

another day off the Monday. When I came 

back on Tuesday, the personnel manager Tran 

said that section leader cannot take sick day, 

and demoted me to become a sewer. But the 

plant manager did not let me sew. Some day 

they made me cut threads, some day they made 

me do pressing (?) and continued to move me 

around from one job to another. 



219 Today I want to talk about my 

current problem with the company, how it 

treated me, how the Korean manager treated 

me. I went to work sick one day. I asked for 

a sick leave. The manager told me that as a 

section leader I cannot take sick day. I know 

my responsibility as a section leader is to get 

the section to complete the quota, but there 

were just too much over time. In Feb & Mar 

(1998), I worked 113 hours of overtime. For 

several weeks in a row, I worked over 18 

hours of overtime. In one month, I worked 

two Sundays overtime in a row.. (no day off 

for 3 weeks) 

So I filed a complaint with the union 

and asked the union resolve the conflict. 

During the time while waiting for the union's 

action, they make me do very menial work. 

190

BOJE: “So what to you do, exactly?” I asked. 

“Say they want a jeep, I go to the supply 

depot, break in, stencil the right numbers on it, 

fill it with whatever else they need, and drive 

it to the DMZ. I get a helicopter ride back.” In 

return Jerry was getting into a special cooks' 

school. Go figure. That's a story I have told 

often. Its not really a reenactment. 

Reenactment, is like when I hit the 

ground when a car backfires. Take me to a 

movie, I'm the one that jumps out of seat 

when I'm startled 

When I got out of the hospital the 2nd 

time, I wanted to be sure my brain still 

worked. So I started reading a book a day, if it 

was something like History of the Beatles. A 

philosophy book took two days. I mean all I 

had to do was pass out green fees at 8 AM 

till 8:30, and take them back in, about 3PM or 

so. So I read books. 

I noticed something. The officers ate 

different food than the rest of us. We ate 'shit 

on a shingle' (gravy with red lumps in it, over 

some kind bread). The officers ate steak. So I 

started to think. I had run personnel and most 

of the administration for a 15 companies 

organization, with about 35 full time and 85 

part-time military, and 

Over 120 Vietnam employees. 

There was even a U.S. ambassador's 

daughter that got hired. She was gorgeous, 

with blond hair, blue eyes, in her midtwenties. 

What was she doing there? Beats 

me. Diplomatic privilege I guess. Anyway, 

when she got hired to work in our office, with 

Cang and I, all of a sudden the commander, 

and the top sergeant began to spend more 

time in the office. That meant, they wanted to 

actually manage things. That meant, I had to 

give them back things I was managing. For six 

months, while I was company clerk the first 

lieutenant (a ROTC, pronounced Rot-See) 

played with the service club ladies trying, but 

never scoring. The company commander 

lifted weights in the gym. Oh get this, he did 

not like blacks. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

LAP: Let me tell you, I was a section leader 

overseeing 50 workers. Why do they have to 

punish me this way? Why don't they 

recognize my past contribution to the 

company? 

There were times they make me mop 

the floor on the second floor. Because I was a 

section leader, I am too ashamed to carry a 

bucket of water and so I asked a friend to take 

the bucket up for me 

451 While I was mopping the floor, I was 

crying. 

458 Lap starts to cry [IN THE 

INTERVIEW!] 

463 Inter-viewer Do you think the 

treatment was related to the interview 

(translator note: with ESPN)? 

479 Lap When the union asked me to 

do the interview,… right before I did the 

interview, the manager told me that since I'm 

an employee of this company I should said 

nice thing about the company, that the 

company is currently facing problems. After 

the interview, the manager (Bak) called me up 

and asked me what I told the reporter. I told 

her that I only talked about wages. She asked 

me if I told the reporter whether the company 

still beats workers. As soon as she questioned 

me, she asked me to leave. 

On April 2, 1998 ESPN's "Outside the 

Lines" ran an hour-long show on 

sweatshop abuses in Vietnam to coincide 

with their coverage of the Olympic 

Games. 

191

BOJE: Can you believe it? So he transferred 

the guy who ran the craftshop and ran it 

exceptionally well to the gym to pass out jock 

straps. Guy was an E-5 (sergeant), like me. 

What a waste. 

Restorying my experience, I can begin 

to see that when the blonde got hired, the 

place when to hell, at least for me. I remember 

walking with her when I came back from the 

hospital. “Oh Dave, we were all so worried 

about you.” I think she was sincere, who 

knows. I was not hitting on her, and she 

seemed to hold her own against those that 

were. 

The first sergeant (highest in rank), he 

had a Vietnamese girl on the side, and halfownership 

in a bar downtown. So he did not 

come around much, till his girl got pregnant 

and was in the hospital. 

I liked my job as company clerk. I was 

drafted. I had no skills. Could not even type. 

So naturally the Army made me a typist. Well 

there's more to that story. I was doing so well 

on their tests, I was almost put into officer 

school. I put down on one of them, that I 

knew math. I knew some, went to class a 

(very) few times in what passed for high 

school. But I also held the school record (still 

stands) for most absences (over 80) and 

lateness (like everyday) and still graduated. 

So here was the Army giving me 

responsibilities. Not that I need more. I was 

married, with a daughter born six months into 

the tour. I talked to the sergeant about 

pregnancy of my wife and his mistress. I think 

that is why the shit hit the fan. Or maybe it 

was officers wanting to show off to the 

blonde. Or was it just that I burned out. It 

depends how you story it, doesn't it? 

I did not stop being creative when I 

went from company clerk to Golf Pro. I build a 

driving range, by swapping green fees for 

some netting. 

Boje 

LAP: 

.530 After the interview, I was asked to 

lead another sewing line in a different plant. 

But the people the company staffed the line 

were not experienced sewers and they were 

trainees. 

LAP: I told the manager that without 

experienced sewers, it's going to be hard to get 

the quota done. The manager told me that it 

would take time for people to gain experience. 

I told the manager that it would be hard for 

me to complete my quota with only trainees. 

The manager assured me that she understood 

the situation. 

618 So it's hard for me to understand where I 

did not do a good job, I don't know how I 

could not anything wrong as a section leader. 

I know that the company was watching me. 

They have people followed me around. The 

next person who supervised that same line, 

the one with trainees and the worst sewers 

did the same amount as I did. The line was 

staffed with only 40 sewers not 50, and most 

of the sewers are not experienced. They were 

from other sections: pressing, gluing and were 

definitely not sewers. 

NOTE ABOUT THE INTERVIEW: Ms. 

Lap's story reconstructed by me and by 

others, and her own personal experience 

in story, after having left Nike's 

employment, being the victim not only of 

the House of Terror, but the terrorizing 

media, investigative journalist, 

documentary film/TV producers, and by a 

gaggle or academic and on-academic 

activists --- gives my own postmemory 

construction more weight. 

192

BOJE: In fact, you ever watch that movie 

“Good Morning Vietnam!” I knew that guy, in 

exchange for greenfees (so he could sleep 

in, instead of line up), I got him to cover my 

golf tournaments and advertise the driving 

range on his radio show. He invited me to 

parties that the officers held. 

Get this! They send a bomber to 

Hawaii, to load up lava rocks, palm leaves, 

and pigs. They draft the Hawaiian sergeants 

assigned around Saigon to dig a fire pit, get 

the lava rocks nice and hot, wrap pigs, and 

various vegetables in burlap, cover it over 

with palm leaves, and viola, party time. 

I should say something nice about the 

Army. They paid for my education. I decided 

to go to college when I got stateside. America 

felt guilt for killing so many young men and 

women. So it was a great GI set of benefits. 

Just as I got my BA, they funded MBA fully. 

The year I got all but finished with that, they 

started funding the Ph.D. Still took out 40K in 

loans, but what the heck. Thanks to the Army 

I was to first one in my family tree who went 

to college, let alone graduate, and first one to 

get a Ph.D., as well. 

I learned I could lead. 

When I reflect on my own Vitenam 

trauma I am still am unable to story much of it 

willfully. I reenact it. I have seen other men 

reenact their Vietnam trauma. I was teaching 

a class in organization behavior at UCLA, 

about 1980. I was doing an experiential 

exercise on storying and assertiveness. I ask 

students to think of an experience that has a 

subjective level of discomfort, that was about 

mid-level (not mild, not the worst). A young 

man did so, and wrote down his experience 

in a short paragraph (which I said I would not 

read). Everyone did the same. Out of 

nowhere, I see desks flying, hurled across 

the classroom, smashing into the wall. "What 

is going on?" 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

BACK TO THE LAP INTERVIEW 






the point when I cannot take it any more. 

LAP: So I signed the paper to quit. 



1230 I just want my job as a sewer. I don't 

want them to punish me by making do menial 

works, switching me to different jobs. My 

hand were getting swollen from repairing the 

shoes and their punishment. So I asked the 

union to resolve the problem. 

1254 [Lap is crying] 

1268 (while crying) It's not like I did not 

work hard for the company. It's not like I 

just work and get my monthly paycheck. I 

have accomplished a lot as an employee there. 

I started in October and was promoted to 

section leader in March. I spent many days 

working overtime. 

1315 On Sunday I was sick. On Monday I 

took the day off. Even though I was not well, 

I went back to work on Tuesday because I am 

afraid of losing my job. As soon as I entered 

the plant, the manager asked me “why I took 

the day off?”. I told the manager that I was 

sick. He yelled at me and cursed at me, and 

said that he does not need me as a section 

leader. Then he made me sitting down to 

sew. 

193

BOJE: I asked as I escorted the chair-hurler 

from the room, into the hallway, where we 

could be along. He says, "I was thinking of an 

event in Vietnam, when I was in the foxhole, 

and our position was being overrun." I told 

him, "OK take a few deep breaths. Calm it 

down. 

I asked for a story of something midrange. 

It's a class exercise not the battlefield." 

Now years latter Bal's theory of trauma types 

as reenactment, and Hirsh's concept of 

postmemory, gives me insight. The chairhurler 

was doing reenactment, and not doing 

storytelling. He had not yet been able to story 

his trauma. 

The Vietnamese conscripted soldiers. 

It was not like the draft. More like, you got 

pulled off your bicycle, if you looked old 

enough to fight. I saw them training 

sometimes. Hit the recruits in the back and on 

their bare legs with long metal rods. There 

was a lot of desperation in that. In my 

bootcamp, we got kicked around some, but 

metal rods, no way. 

LAP: 1590 

The workers are mainly concerned with 

wages. We want to have the new contract to 

be based on floating US dollar rate and not on 

a fixed rate. In the previous contract, the 

wages was pegged to the US dollar on fixed 

rate and the dollar went up and we lost a lot 

of money. That contract was signed in 1997. 

1629 In 1997, the company made every 

worker signed the contract individually and 

we were told to sign the contract or sign a 

letter or resignation. After many workers 

signed the contract, we realized what 

happened and went on a strike. The contract 

was eventually approved by the union but it 

was not done under fair conditions, it was 

done under a threatening condition. 

Ms. Lap worked in Ho Chi Minh City, the new name for Saigon, where I also worked, but not in 

the same decade. Our work is separated by several alterity differences: 

1. Temporally, our time in the same city is separated by 30 years 

2. Our gender gap is insurmountable. 

3. She is Vietnamese and I come form the invading country, now a sweatshop-contracting 

country 

4. I am much older, maybe almost twice her age 

5. I live in economic privilege, but this was not always the case 

BOJE: OK, I've told you a few stories, and 

some reenactments. I know why I am telling 

you the story. I think that storying is different 

than discursability. In storying there is willful 

reshaping of memory. I know what the story 

means to me, and I told some counterstories, 

to be appreciative. 

Boje 

MARX’S HOUSE OF TERROR TRAUMA 

The second trauma is from the acts of random 

violence and humiliation. Marx (1867) 

describes how in the UK, the solution to 

poverty was imagined to be rounding up all 

the poor, and putting them into workhouses 

called 'Houses of Terror' which Marx says is 

the factory, the 'sweating' shop (or 

sweatshop) that he wrote about. 

194

BOJE: When I got stateside, I served a few 

months at Fort Dix (NJ), then took an early out 

and enrolled in Burlington County College. 

With an early out, you get out four months 

early to attend college, under the GI bill. I got 

some money for books, and the tuition was 

paid. I worked weekends, breaks, and 

summers, but got through. I was initially just 

into business to take over my dad's multiple 

corporations. But by the time I was ready to 

graduate with a bachelor's he had lost them 

all, one worth well over a million. So I went 

on to get master and Ph.D. 

I understand that the catalytic moment 

was waking up in that hospital and figuring 

out, you know what, the enemy is not the 

Vietnamese people. The greatest prejudice 

was in the general staff. The once's like the 

Good Morning Vietnam guy, and the 

protestors at home, keeping young men out of 

the death pit, they had it right. Somehow I 

became not only activist but feminist. 

The feminist transition would take 

decades. I was ready to be a peace activist 

immediately. Yes, the bottom fell out, but I had 

resources. I could pick up the pieces, and get 

on with it. And I now saw that the 

macropower issues of exploitation were 

where the resistance needs to be placed. 

I've reflected on my personal story. 

Don't rescue me. I want to work this through, 

come out of the repression and dissociation. I 

want to find my voice as activist and writer. 

I'm ready for the public telling. You bet. 

War is a ghastly horror. Vietnam was 

not the war to end all wars. I hit the streets to 

protest the Afghanistan, the Iraq war, and I 

hear we're headed for Iran. The whole 

ghastly horror just keeps repeating itself. 

I found something important in the 

peace movement. The rage of war is not the 

way to win peace. After getting flipped off 

enough times, I let it get to me, and had to take 

a break. A peaceful heart is needed in the 

peace movement. Sounds simple. Try it. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

MARX HOUSE OF TERROR:The random acts 

of violence that the workers experience in the 

1990s and that still seems to continue is 

random acts of physical abuse (most famous 

is women slapped about the face with a Nike 

sneaker by their supervisor), sexual abuse 

(rape is quite frequent), verbal abuse (names 

derogatory to women are quite common 

practice). These acts of violence in the House 

of Terror, the sweatshop are a form of 

trauma. Again, Marx has no direct experience 

of House of Terror trauma, he is engaging 

postmemory. 

It turns out very few workers 

experiencing these two traumas can tell their 

story, can compose story, while they are still 

embedded in performativity and the 'House of 

Terror' trauma. The reason for this is stated 

in a book by Mieke Bal, Jonathan Crewe, and 

Leo Pspitzer (1999) called Acts of Memory: 

Cultural Recall in the Present. The 

assemblage of articles is mainly about 

Holocaust trauma, its unstoryability into 

memory. Until trauma is storyable, the 

person reenacts the trauma, but has not 

mastered it in story to be able to make sense 

of it, to willfully control it, and to shape it 

into their collective memory (collective in that 

it is from the group experience). 

195

BOJE: Redemptive quality. It's no accident 

that I look at macro issues of global 

sweatshop oppression. 

When Ms. Luc's story came my way 

in 1996. It was like a strange attractor in 

complexity theory. I was hooked. She was 

Vietnamese. She probably worked in the 

barracks or supply buildings I was in. I began 

a war on sweatshops. Took me a decade 

before I got the point. Don't make war to gain 

peace. As feminist I want to do something to 

help. But the problems are global. I focus on 

deconstructing the ads, the rhetoric, the 

stories told by corporations. 

To keep myself peaceful, I make 

myself vulnerable, when I tell my personal 

tales. I share a personal story that moves me. 

When it doesn't move me anymore, I stop 

telling it. Actually, I story partly, and reenact 

bits partly, trying to investigate, tease out the 

repression. That's why I prefer impromptu, 

improvisation, here and there, so I can see 

what shows up. I dig out the repression and 

dissociation a bit at a time. It's amazing to me, 

that each time there is more, and maybe its 

just endless. 

1996, I was still wearing Nike shoes. 

Great style, real comfortable. I begant 

teaching a critical management class to 

MBAs. Decided to start investigating stories I 

was hearing about Vietnam. I was amazed at 

the militaristic way the Nike contract factories 

owned by the Taiwanese and Koreans were 

being run. I thought about this, perhaps the 

U.S. military in Vietnam trained most of the 

ones using that military technique, but now on 

young women. 

When I stared the research there 

were lots of stories about child labor, women 

slapped, lots of stories about piles of lady 

fingers, from running machines all day 

without rest or safety gear, and getting them 

stitched off. 

Boje 

MARX HOUSE OF TERROR: If this is true 

of Holocaust, rape, child abuse, and other 

extreme trauma victims it could also be the 

situation faced by sweatshop workers. 

There are two implications. First, 

when corporate sponsored monitors such as 

Accounting firms or the Fair Labor 

Association (FLA) send in a monitor to 

interview women workers (I saw women 

because garment and shoe production is 85% 

women's work) --- those women are not yet 

able to disengage, attain some distance, and 

tell their story. They can only reenact the 

trauma, not story it. In the recall of trauma, 

instead of storying, there are two results. One 

is repression, to drive out the trauma from 

consciousness (it is called ellipsis, the 

omission of important elements in narrating 

experience). Second is dissociation, which 

"doubles the strand of the narrative series of 

events by splitting of a sideline" (Bal, 1999: 

ix; see also Bal, 1985). 

Dissociation is also called paralepsis 

(disrupting the folow of narrative that shapes 

memory of experience). In dissociation, its as 

if one stories a pseudo story that splits off as 

a side line or cover story and the trauma is 

put into a separate part of the brain, where 

when it is recalled it is only reenacted, and 

remains not yet storyable. That means in 

repression the reenactment is dramatic in a 

Freudian slip (or pregnant pause or gaffe), and 

in dissociation the trauma is not healed, since 

it reenacts by is not storyable by the person. 

196

BOJE:All that marching to and from meals, all 

that military rule. Seemed like a worthy 

project for a Vietnam veteran to engage. 

Living in New Mexico, I recalled the heat of 

the sun in Vietnam. 

In Vietnam, I got a day off. So I put on 

some shorts, and grabbed a few beers and 

sat outside. Big mistake. I had major burns, 

and the skin was peeled to the flexh. I could 

not imagine anyone being so inhumane as to 

sun-dry employees in the Vietnam sun. 

I started investigations, recruited 

colleagues to write articles, sought out 

activists around the world. I wanted to see 

what could be done. 

When I talked about the global 

sweatshop epidemic, students in 1996 

through 1998 did not care much. A few did. 

For most, it was about Asian women, or 

women in Mexico, who were from the 

villages. Shop at NikeTown and Wal-Mart, 

what did sweatshop exploitation matter to 

most college students? Not much. Students 

would carp, “I have a right to shop at Wal- 

Mart!” Sure shop away. 

That changed with Kukdong. New 

Mexico State is close to Mexico. 42% of our 

students are Hispanic. Others have grown up 

with Hispanic females, and they did not like 

what they ere hearing about Kukdong. Most 

did not care. But, a sizeable portion did care. 

As I got into it, I decided to go to see firsthand, 

to stop playing in second-hand, 

postmemory work. I wanted first-hand 

experience of sweatshops. I wanted to see 

first hand if women were being treated with 

such disrespect. 

Believe me I know that there's a lot 

worse in store for women than sweatshops. 

But, there was something about helping Asian 

women, if I could, lend a helping hand, then 

that was what I wanted to do. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

LAP: What is heroic about Lap is coming 

through her trauma reenactment to be able to 

story it, to will it into a shape that does not 

torture her. She is still crying about the 

events, but she is able to sort up which events 

to focus upon, which to emphasize. 

This is what makes Ms Nguyen Thi 

Lap's storytelling so remarkable. She has 

attained enough distance to deal with 

repression and dissociation. She is telling a 

sympathetic Vietnamese-American business 

person her story. He flew to Vietnam, and did 

his own investigation. It impacted me. 

Nguyen Thi Lap had her first 15 

minutes of Tamara stardom. On October 17, 

1996, the CBS News 48 Hours reporter, 

Roberta Baskins was on site to give Nguyen 

Thi Lap her first interview. For Ms. Lap was 

a team leader that day, and one who was 

slapped by her Korean supervisor, Madame 

Baeck. 

The scene speaks directly to the issue 

of violence trauma in the House of Terror, the 

factory. The story was reauthored March 29, 

1997 in a Vietnam Labor Watch Report , a 16day 

fact finding tour of Vietnam factories, 

that included a study of the Sam Yang factory 

by Vietnamese-American businessman, 

Thuyen Nguyen. An apparel industry logocorporation 

flew former Ambassador Andrew 

Young to this factory in Vietnam, several 

others in Indonesia, and China to assure the 

first space spectators that the AA industry 

was under control and such incidents were 

exceptional or just misrepresented by an 

errant media (Young, 1997). 

197

BOJE: There came a point where I became 

as interested in the plight of all women in 

sweatshops, as I was in the Vietnam 

sweatshops. 

I think I broke through my own 

reenactment of Vietnam post-traumatic stress 

disorder, in 2001. It seems to be a time of 

intense Nike writing activity. I decided to 

actually go to a sweatshop, to interview 

women directly. I traveled with my wife 

Grace Ann and good friend Miguel Alcantara- 

Carrillo to Mexico to interview women 

workers (Boje,Rosile,& Alcantara-Carrillo, 

2001). 

Kukdong is one of 300 Korean owned 

maquiladora factories. Working women who 

were brutalized on January 12th, 2001 in the 

Kukdong Gauntlet were kept away from the 

media for about 15 days. 

A nightmare I keep reliving called the 

gauntlet. A gauntlet is two parallel lines of 

men swinging clubs and shields, through 

whih the panicked women must run to 

achieve their exit from the factory. The 

gauntlet was organized and administered on 

the evening of January 12th. As the women 

negotiated and tried to set up their own 

independent union (SITEKIM, finally named 

SITEMEX) they were confronted with the 

violence and force of not only the Police in riot 

gear, but a goon squad of FROC-CROC state 

union men. 

Writing now, in 2007 I am using the 

concepts of postmemory, collective memory, 

ellipsis, paralipsis, and living story that I did 

not have in 2001. I was just wrestling in 2001 

with antenarrative. After 2001, I wrote few 

pieces about Nike, Reebok, and the other 

sweatshop contracting corporations. 

However, I have begun to write of it again. I 

stopped writing about women in sweatshops 

because it was just too dark, depressing, 

hitting too close to home. Now I am writing 

differently. I think this is because I am not, as 

much, filtering the writing through Vietnam 

reenactment. But I am not sure of this. 

Boje 

LAP CHRONOLOGY: 

Table 2: Time Line for Lap Nguyen and 

Nike and all the interviewers: What is the 

Answerability here? 

For complete time line of events See Nike In 

The News; For items relevant to Nike's Stock 

Prices, see Nike stock stories. See year by 

year Nike chronology. 

1995 - October - Nguyen Thi Lap starts 

working for Sam Yang (Korean owned) 

sneaker factory in Ku Chi, Vietnam. Her 

employee number is 11204. March, 1996 she 

was promoted to section (team) leader of 

sewing line number 15. 

1996 - March 31 - The headline story in The 

Vietnam Worker newspaper on March 31, 

1996 proclaimed, "Foreign Technician Strikes 

15 Vietnamese Workers." The same 

newspaper, on April 1, 1996, proclaimed: At 

Sam Yang Company, Cu Chi District, Ho Chi 

Minh City , Korean Technical Employee 

Strikes Many Vietnamese Female Workers. It 

went on to say that immediately after the 

incident took place, 970 workers on strike to 

protest the mistreatment of their fellow 

workers (See Vietnam Labor Watch Report). 

That incident occurred on March 8, 

International Women's Day - when most 

companies in Vietnam give women workers 

flowers. 

1996 - October 17 - CBS News 48 Hours 

transcript, October 17, 1996. CBS News. (c) 

MCMXCVI, CBS, Inc. Transcript of Roberta 

Baskins on site visit to Nike in Vietnam This 

was the first interview with Nguyen Thi Lap 

a team leader in Nike's Sam Yang (Korean 

owned) sneaker factory in Ku Chi, Vietnam. 

198

BOJE: There is a new area I am exploring 

called 'cover story.' A cover story is a kind of 

paralipsis, but instead of fitted to a trauma 

victim of violence, I am retrofitting it to the 

corporation. It is a spin-off storyline, one told 

to cover over some scandal, to spin it in a 

way of damage control. I find my own career 

quite alarming. I once was a corporate 

advocate, defending the free enterprise 

system against all critics. I recall doing this 

throughout college, until I became concerned 

with oppression. Bob Dennehy remembers 

the textbook we wrote, how full it was of 

concern over oppression, the cover of the 

book had a huge pyramid, crushing down on 

workers (Boje, & Dennehy, 1991). it was 

during that time, I began to questing the cover 

story of corporations, looking at 

greenwashing, and phallogocentrism, and 

taking feminism very seriously. It was in 1996 

with my move to New Mexico State 

University, that I began to hear stories about 

how Vietnamese women were treated in 

sweatshops contracting to Nike and to 

Disney. It got me into a spiral, a swirl of 

currents crisscrossing between my Vietnam 

experience, and the experience of women in 

Vietnam. It expanded into concern for women 

in sweatshops in UK during Marx's time, then 

into Mexico, where I could see and hear for 

myself, whether I had been embellishing my 

storytelling about corporations. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

LAP: 

ο Nguyen Thi Lap's Her basic wage, 

even as a sewing team leader, still doesn't 

amount to the minimum wage, $42 a month 

for working six days a week. Lap puts in 

more overtime than the annual Vietnam legal 

limit of 200 hours. 

ο Lap " and 14 other team leaders were 

singled out and punished by their Korean 

supervisor, Madame Baeck, seen here sitting 

at a table with the Nike shoe she used to hit 

the women. It was in retaliation for some 

poor sewing. " Two were later sent to the 

hospital (Nguyen, Vietnam Labor Watch 

Report March 29, 1997). Madame Baeck was 

convicted, but was allowed to leave the 

country after the incident, despite conviction 

(source). 

1997, March 29 Vietnam Labor Watch 

Report is released that includes study of the 

Sam Yang factory. 

1997, March and April, former 

Ambassador Andrew Young makes a whistle 

stop tour of 12 Nike factories, in China, 

Indonesia, and Vietnam. One of the factories 

toured, was Sam Yang, and one of the photos 

in Young's album, is the women who were 

slapped, which would include Lap (See Good 

Works International Report, note photo link 

is being mysteriously diverted). 

1998 - April 2, ESPN's "Outside the Lines" 

ran an hour-long show on Nike and Reebok 

sweatshop abuses in Vietnam (Sweatshop 

Watch). This was based on ESPN's visit to 

Vietnam factories in February, 1998 (See 

Globe Project, Vietnam). 

199

BOJE: 

Boje is Anti-Corporate I told you this is 

what deans and colleagues say about me. In 

my new rendition of cover story theory I put it 

this way. Corporations experience trauma 

(quite the mild form) when immersed in 

scandal. They formulate cover story, which is 

in part the strategy story (logo, motto, plot, 

mission, vision, & founding story). That is 

where the larger-than-life monumentalism 

occurs. The CEO, the dead founders become 

larger-than-life, forming what we call the 

ghosts of dead leaders (Boje & Rhodes, 2005 

a, b). The dead CEOs and a few lives one 

constitute for the employees, and sometimes 

the customers, a postmemory. But, there is a 

parceling out of what is nat storyable, not 

speakable, all the goings on in the contract 

world of sweatshop capitalism. I don't mean 

to sound anti-corporate. I just retain the 

trauma of my own welfare experience, my 

time in the Army in Vietnam, being dismissed 

by UCLA (untenured is the word), which is 

not a corporation, but universities are being 

corporatized. Add to this list being beheaded 

as President of International academy of 

Business Disciplines (not a corporation, but 

its all they talk about). I need to mourn all of 

this before I can overcome my anticorporateness. 

Why get anti-corporate over stories of 

women sweatshop workers? i think it fits 

with a pattern of trying to support the 

corporate cover story, trying to celebrate 

larger-than-life entrepreneurs (easy to do my 

dad is one). If I don't deal with my anticorporate 

feelings I won't heal my experience 

of sweatshops, and what organizations do 

as well to me, and keep doing to workers. I 

know I should care more about the trauma 

corporations experience. I am told that there 

are most good-hearted people in them, even 

at Nike, Disney, and Wal-Mart that just 

contract to sweatshops, but try to make the 

conditions bearable. feminism? 

Boje 

LAP: 

ο Thi Lieu was a 22-year-old worker in 

Reebok's Powyen (Pou Chen?) factory. Lieu 

was fired after the ESPN report aired in April, 

1998, then rehired after ESPN protests to 

Reebok. 

ο In Spring 2000 (before August), Thi 

Lieu was let go along with 3000 other 

employees, "When their contracts expired so 

they could be replaced by minimum wage 

workers, a common practice. 

ο In February, 1998, ESPN interviewed 

Nguyen Thi Lap, a senior worker with an 

exemplary history at Nike's Samyang plant in 

Ku Chi "When I went to the interview" says 

Lap (in 2000 ESPN Interview aired in 

December), " the Korean manager kept 

suggesting to me that as an employee of the 

company I always had to speak well for the 

company." 

ο In February and March, 1998 Lap 

worked 113 hours of overtime. 

ο Lap was demoted several times after 

the April, 1998 interviews with ESPN aired. 

When she fell ill, she says she was denied 

medical leave, eventually forced to quit her 

job, and then diagnosed with tuberculosis. 

Lap is currently unemployed. 

1998 - May 12 - Knight spoke May 

12th,1998 to the National Press Club 

Luncheon. 

200

BOJE: I wonder if they know about the 

trauma of performativity, or the accumulated 

effects of acts of violence. 

Some days, the more I self-reflect, the 

more anti-corporate I become. Yet, where am 

I? In the Business College. Where do I present 

and publish? Audiences who want to know 

how to run corporations. And dare I write 

about feminism. 

NEXT STORY: Mexico Sweatshops 

The Short Version of the Kukdong 

Story - The Kuk Dong story is about how 

mostly young women workers struggled 

against a national union called FROC-CROC, 

Korean maquiladora owners and managers, 

and Nike and Reebok corporate PR teams so 

they might exercise collective bargaining rights 

guaranteed to them in corporate, FLA, and 

WRC codes of conduct as well as by Mexican 

law. 

From January 9 to 11 the young 

women took over the factory and locked 

themselves inside. They tried to talk to the 

Korean managers inside the factory, but some 

brick-laying workmen entered and secured the 

escape of the Korean managers, shortly after 

the factory takeover had begun. Family 

members and friends of the women holding 

the factory, like it was the Alamo, brought 

them food and blankets. They also brought 

the children to be with their working and now 

protesting mothers. On January 12th, 

Melquiades Morales Flores, the governor of 

the state of Puebla, sent 200 Mexican police 

dressed in full riot gear. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

LAP: 

ο One month after the ESPN report 

aired, A CA class action suit was filed, and 

the Ernst and Young audit was front page 

news, Phil Knight, CEO of Nike announced 

major reforms. 

ο Phil Knight said: "One columnist said, 

'Nike represents not only everything that's 

wrong with sports, but everything that's 

wrong with the world.' So I figured that I'd 

just come out and let you journalists have a 

look at the great Satan up close and personal" 

(May, 1998). 

2000 - Thuyen Nguyen's interview with 

Nguyen Thi Lap (a second copy is on the 

Clean Clothes Campaign Web site, and what 

happened to Lap). Thuyen Nguyen is a 

Vietnamese-American business man who has 

traveled to Vietnam to verify working 

conditions first hand. Thuyen issued the 

Vietnam Labor Watch Report on March 29, 

1997, after he returned from 16-day Fact- 

Finding Tour of Vietnam Factories in 

Vietnam. 

2000- Chairman Phil Knight withdrew a $30 

million contribution to the University of 

Oregon, which is Knight's alma matter. It is 

one of 45 universities that have joined 

Worker's Right Consortium (WRC), a 

student-backed anti-sweatshop group (See 

New York Times, "Sweatshop King: Nike 

Exec Reneges On $30 Million Pledge" by 

Steven Greenhouse, April 25, 2000). See also 

Knight, P. H. 2000, 'Statement from Nike 

Founder & CEO Philip H. Knight Regarding 

the University of Oregon', Nike's web site , 

Portland. 

201

BOJE: The police force was led by Renee 

Sánchez Juárez, FROC-CROC secretarygeneral 

for the state of Puebla. The riot police 

were led by hired FROC-CROC construction 

workers, and this group did brutally attack 

300, mostly female workers, beating those 

they could catch, with clubs, and sending 15 

to the hospital. In our interviews with two 

workers and a local labor lawyer who were 

there, we found out that at least two of the 

women were pregnant, and two lost their 

babies as a result of the violent and cruel 

attack. 

I assembled the material into a time 

line. David Tobey and I in 2007 are working 

up a piece for the Journal of Management 

Spirituality and Religion. I will tell you the 

timeline and then say what I see different in 

2007 as compared to 2001 in my 

postmemory. 

Boje 

LAP: 

2000- December - ESPN's Monthly Outside 

the Lines 10th Anniversary show which aired 

in December, 2000. This was their 10th 

Anniversary show. (See Globe Project, 

Vietnam). 

2001- Nike blames the story of Nguyen Lap 

(whose name they reverse) on Tim Connor, 

noting the Vietnam court ruled in Nike's, not 

Lap's favor (See Nike Biz). 

Table 3: More Stories of House of Terror 

ο ·In 1996, a supervisor at the Korean 

Sam Yang Co. factory, a Nike sub-contractor, 

was convicted for hitting 15 Vietnamese 

women team leaders over the head with the 

upper sole of a Nike shoe (Nguyen, VLW 

Report, 1997b). On September 16, 1996, Phil 

Knight in his stockholder's speech rewrote the 

incident by saying one woman was struck on 

the arm by her supervisor (Nike Web 

documents, 1998). 

ο ·In 1996 CBS News filmed a 48 Hours 

segment on the 15 workers who were beaten 

with a Nike upper sole. The women also 

accused their factory bosses of sexual 

harassment (CBS News 48 Hours, 1996). 

ο ·A supervisor at the Taiwanese 

factory Pou Chen Corp. found himself before 

a Vietnamese tribunal at the end of March for 

forcing 56 women workers to run 4km around 

the factory for not wearing regulation work 

shoes. Twelve of the women workers had to 

be taken to hospital (ICFTU, 1997). 

202

CONCLUSION 

I juxtaposed my story of Vietnam with 

Ms. Lap's story of Vietnam sweatshops, with 

Karl Marx's story of 19th century 

sweatshops, and my interviews with two 

women who worked in a Mexico sweatshop. 

I found some parallels, and mostly lots of 

differences. I think the exploration of 

postmemory feminism gives me compassion 

for how workers are treated in sweatshops. I 

am sure that for many readers, they prefer 

the stories told about sweatshops by 

überathletes, getting megabucks to tell much 

more Pollyanna stories, or just deflect the 

spotlight of scandal onto their adventures on 

the golf course, the soccer field, or in the 

paint of the basketball court. Still I do feel 

answerable, ethically, to explore these 

stories. I also benefit, I admit, but 

understanding my own trauma. 

In sum, experience is mediated by the 

act of story that reshapes personal event 

reenactment into personal memory, and as 

group member, into collective memory, into 

history. Story and discourse mediate 

collective memory, taking it out of the sphere 

of reenactment, repression, and dissociation 

into willed story. I invented two concepts to 

explain this. First is antenarrative (a pre-story 

and a bet that a story can happen that is 

transformational) [see Boje, 2001d]. 

Antenarrative is the bet, in this application, 

that reenactment of trauma can be prestoried, 

and then storied, to become a willed 

reshaping, that shapes collective memory. 

The second is what I call living story (Boje, 

2006a). Living story is the story that shapes 

our life. A reenactment of trauma shapes a 

life, a living story either gets it into willful 

shape, or the story lived shapes the person. 

Both are possible. In other words, stories are 

more than textuality, they are living. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

LAP: 

ο ·On International Day, March 8, 1997, 

56 women at the Nike factory, Pouchen, were 

forced to run around the factory grounds: 12 

of them fainted and were taken to the hospital 

by their friends. This was particularly painful 

to the Vietnamese because it occurred on 

International Women's Day, an important 

holiday when Vietnam honors women 

(http://www.boycottnike.com). 

ο ·Forty-five women were forced by 

their supervisors to kneel down with their 

hands up in the air for 25 minutes 

(http://www.boycottnike.com). 

ο ·In the case of Ms Taska, her 

supervisor gave her nine cuts with a knife 

because she planned to participate in a strike 

for better safety conditions. 

ο ·On November 26, 1996, 100 workers 

at the Pouchen factory, a Nike site in Dong 

Nai, were forced to stand in the sun for half 

an hour for spilling a tray of fruit on an altar 

which three Taiwanese supervisors were 

using. One employee (Nguyen Minh Tri) 

walked out after 18 minutes, and was then 

formally fired. Mr Nguyen Minh Tri was 

reinstated after intervention by local labor 

federation officials. Mr Tri, however, has 

declined to work for Pouchen (http://www. 

boycottnike. com). 

ο ·In Vietnamese, phoi nang means sundrying. 

Employees deemed in need of a bit of 

discipline are forced to stand in the tropical 

sun, which packs a wallop unfamiliar to those 

from more temperate climates (Manning, 

1997). 

203

BOJE: My contribution in this essay is 

performativity trauma, terror trauma, and the 

hypothesis that in the middle of trauma, and 

until it stops being reenactment, the person 

being interviewed by the monitor auditors, 

reporters, activists, or researchers simply 

can not story, not yet, perhaps, not ever. 

A Tamara Journal Reviewer asked: 

“Now you have written this article, 

these story columns. You have storied 

some of the trauma. Stepping outside 

the theory and under your skin, what is 

the reflexive effect on you? How did it 

feel when you were writing this? And 

how do you feel now that it is written? 

We see the process and the result and 

feel it colliding with our own stories, 

slipping under and around them, pushing 

on them, sometimes coaxing our stories 

and sometimes shoving like a 

playground bully. We get our feelings 

and your analysis - that you now 

understand your own trauma better, but 

I want to know about the influence of 

the storying process on you, on your 

heart, on your feelings. To me, it is the 

only thing that feels missing from the 

piece.” 

To me the columns vibrate into one 

another. And so do the traumas. Lap got 

under my skin and so did the Vietnam events. 

It has taken 30 years to be able to story just 

the surface aspects of the Vietnam events. 

Each time I speak or write the Vietnam 

stories, I move bit by bit from reenactment to 

storyability. Not everything is storyable, and 

certainly not all at once. It takes time to get 

perspective, to step outside the theory. 

Boje 

Time Line for Kukdong Scandal Turned 

Media Spectacle 

ο March 2000 Kuk Dong, owned by 

Hyu Su Byun of Korea, began to manufacture 

for Nike and since December 2000 for 

Reebok. 

ο March 2000, there were 

approximately 1,800 workers at Kuk Dong 

producing one million sweatshirts for Nike 

and 40,000 for Reebok 

ο As labor conditions worsened at 

Kukdong International, the number of 

workers dwindled from 1,800 to fewer than 

900 by January 2001 when the strike and 

factory take-over by the workers began 

ο March 6-12, 2000, Martin 

Austermuhle of Penn State University 

accompanies PriceWaterhouseCoopers 

(PWC) monitor on an inspection of three 

Nike factories in Puebla, including the Korean 

managed and owned, Kuk Dong factory. A 

brief report is posted on the NikeBiz web 

site. The longer report (Kepne, 2000) lists 

several violations and documents that Nike 

knew through PWC what was going on in 

Puebla. 

ο Dec 13 2000 The Kukdong general 

manager confirmed that a supervisor had 

struck a worker with what he described as a 

“small hammer” on December 13, 2000, and 

that that the company had not disciplined the 

supervisor at that time (See WRC Report # 2, 

June 2001). 

ο Dec 15, 2000 - Workers refused to eat 

factory food to protest its poor quality; then 

five worker-representatives are written up by 

management. 

204

BOJE: For me there is these interesting 

difference between narrative and story. IN 

narrative, the aim is to get at some kind of 

form, some kind of abstraction, and these are 

said to be universal. But in story, as I see it, 

there is a reflexivity process taking place. And 

it is at that moment that story is most 

different from narrative. For me when I am 

able to story, I can move out of reenactment 

of trauma, and get a grip on story. I can turn 

events into experience, and here and there, 

wisdom tries to creep in. When I story, I 

master the events. When I reenact, the events 

master me. 

In this way, I think you are spot on, 

the story is bidding me, coaxing me, egging me 

on, to get to some deeper reflexive level of 

awareness and understanding. 

I can only get there by seeing my 

story emerge in relation to so many other 

stories I am encountering. In this way the 

stories of my times in Vietnam and Lap’s 

times in sweatshops, and Marx’s time in UK 

sweatshops, are informing one another, and I 

am being coaxed into some new relationship 

with my own living story. 

And sometimes, living story is like 

that playground bully, pushing me to a point 

where I either reenact or withdraw. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

TIME LINE CONTINUES: 

ο Jan 3, 2001 - five worker-supervisors 

were fired: The five fired workerrepresentatives 

are: Marco Santiago Perez 

Mesa, Marcela Muñoz Tepepa, Josefin 

Hernandez Ponce, Mario Nicanor Sefina, and 

Eduardo Sanchez Velasquez (Labor Bulletin, 

2001; Alcalde, 2001). This dismissal was a 

result of the workers' refusal to eat the 

factory food on December 15, 2000. Only one 

of the five worker-supervisors signed a letter 

of resignation. 20-30 other workers were 

forced to sign letters of resignation. 

ο Jan 23, 2001 the Fair Labor 

Association (FLA) announced that it had 

approved seven major brand-name apparel 

and sports shoe companies to participate in 

its monitoring program, that included Nike 

and Reebok. Those companies now (August, 

2001) include: Nike, Reebok (for footwear 

only), Adidas-Salomon AG, GEAR For 

Sports, Levi Strauss & Co., Liz Claiborne, & 

Patagonia, Phillips-Van Heusen, Eddie Bauer, 

Gear for Sports, and Polo Ralph Lauren. 

ο Jan 30, 2001 a Verité observer 

reported seeing 30 unarmed factory security 

personnel in civilian clothing patrolling work 

areas and production lines. 30 armed factory 

security guards were stationed at the factory 

gates. 

205

BOJE: It is interesting that you ask about the 

impact on storying on my heart, on my 

feelings. I feel sad about Vietnam, about 

sweatshops. I feel that here is this woman 

named Lap, who is totally courageous, 

standing up against a major corporation and 

its supply chain, and all the prejudices that 

cut across race and gender. And standing up 

to it, she is beaten down, humiliated. 

I feel somehow complicit in the 

process of Lap’s humiliation. I feel complicit 

as a researcher. The times when ESPN and the 

Vietnamese businessman, and every academic, 

including me, are writing about Lap, we are 

either adding to her misery, drawing attention 

to her misery, or both. 

So I feel there is this thread running 

between the theory, the empirical work, the 

interviewing --- and what is happing step by 

step to Lap. And it is why Kukdong is also 

important to story about. Did you know that 

when Sept 11 2001 happened to the U.S., 

Nike took that moment to back out of the 

SITEMEX worker;s union the young women 

at Kukdong had started? 

Here I am in Mexico, and if I interview 

a worker still employed by Kukdong, then 

she will certainly be punished once the 

managers find out. She will be abused, most 

likely fired. And it is the research that is 

complicit in that process. We only 

interviewed the workers who had already left 

Kukdong employment. 

Boje 

JUST A BIT MORE TIMELINE: 

ο Mar 2001, the factory employed only 

600 workers, 585 in production and 85% are 

women, between the ages of 16 and 23 

(Verité, 2001). A significant portion had lied 

about their age, and were less than 16. 

However, all records of employees less than 

18 years of age were no longer in the files by 

the time the monitors did their inspection 

ο Mar 26- Mar 31 2001 - Boje, Rosile & 

Alcantra-Carrillo go to Atlixco, Mexico to 

Kukdong factory (780 workers there; we 

interviewed only ones who had left) 

ο Sept 11 - 2001 Terrorism 

ο Sept 21st - SITEMEX workers' union 

was officially recognized 

ο Oct 17, 2001 Vada Manager of Nike 

Corporation sent Dr. Boje a letter informing 

him that Nike would not be renewing orders 

at the Kukdong factory for the time being. 

ο July 7 2001 - Rosile, Best, & Boje 

(2001) do their presentation in Heather Hopfl 

session in the theatre track at EGOS in Lyon 

France. 

A professor jumps up. He is angry. 

Why do you try to make me feel guilty? 

Research should not be about emotions. 

I started to explain. You have the 

power to change all this. You only have to 

become informed, to dig a bit deeper than the 

advertising hype. 

206

BOJE LEFT COLUMN: I went back to New 

Mexico State, to my university. I organized 

some students to start up a United Students 

Against Sweatshops club. We went to our 

bookstore, where sweatshirts are sold, to see 

where they were made, and under shat 

conditions. 

So my feelings about Lap, about 

Kukdong, about Marx’s work on sweatshop, 

and about myself, all mingled together. And 

my living story took a turn. I moved from 

writing about it, to doing something about it 

where I work and live. 

I was shocked by the response. I was 

shocked that many students could are less 

who makes their clothes, and even if severely 

abuse will not change their purchasing 

practices. I was also amazed that when we 

went to the bookstore and to the buyers, 

these women cried when I told them stories of 

Lap and of the Kukdong women, and what 

had happened to them. All of a sudden, they 

were concerned. They wanted to help. “What 

can we do they asked?” 

I told them, ‘Keep buying the 

products. These women need the jobs. But 

demand that the factories pay a living wage, 

respect women’s bodies, stop the abusive 

language.” Use your purchasing power as 

leverage to improve conditions. And they 

started doing just that. 

I hope that answers the reviewer’s questions. 

References 

Bal, Mieke; Crewe, Jonathan; & Spitzer, Leo. 

1999. Acts of Memroy: Cultural Recall in 

the Present. London/Hanover: University 

Press of New England. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

RIGHT COLUMN: 

Let me remind you this is a presentation in 

Lyon France on theatre, on dramaturgy. And 

there is a lot of theatre going on. There is 

font-stage spectacle, and behind the scenes 

there are plays of power. 

I realized that as I told living stories, 

that they were not his stories. I realized that 

this man was being very unsettled by stories I 

was sharing. Why? I think it may be that I 

was being in-the-moment, reenacting some 

trauma, and telling a story that had some 

distance from it. So now I must ammend my 

theory. It seems the trauma still lingers, and is 

part of the performance, and so is the story. 

And my living story is still being worked out. 

This returns me to the question posed 

at the outset. Is a story that is not distant 

from its events, from its pain, is that a story 

that one should tell? 

I hope this answers the professor in 

Lyon concerns about me telling sweatshop 

stories. 

Boje, D. M. 1998f Nike, Greek Goddess of 

Victory or Cruelty? Women's Stories of 

Asian Factory Life Journal of 

Organizational Change Management. 

Vol. 11(6): 461-480. 

207

Boje 

Boje, D. M. 2001a. Athletic Apparel Industry 

Tamara. Feb 

21http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/AA/a 

thletic_apparel_industry_tamara.htm 

Boje, D. M. 2001b Planning lecture Notes: Intro 

to working women's stories. 

http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/503/plannin 

g_lecture_notes.htm 

Boje, D. M. 2001c Open Letter to Nike: 

Transcript of Ms. Nuguyen Lap's story. 

http://www.web.net/~msn/3nike14.htm 

Boje, D. M. 2001d narrative Methods ofr 

Organization and Communication 

Research. London: Sage. 

Boje, D. M. 2006a. Living Story: From Wilda to 

Disney. Handbook of Narrative Inquiry. 

Edited by Jean Clandinin (London: Sage). 

(11,000 words). Click Here. 

Boje, D. M. 2008. The Storytelling 

Organization. London: Sage (Figure 1 is 

printed in the book). 

Boje, D. M.; Rosile, G.; Alcantara-Carrillo, M. 

2001. The Kukdong Story: When the 

Foxes Guard the Hen House. March 25 

web document 

http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/AA/kuk 

_dong_story.htm 

Boje, D. M. & C. Rhodes. 2005. The 

Leadership of Ronald McDonald: Double 

Narration and Stylistic Lines of 

Transformation. Leadership Quarterly 

journal Vol 17 (1): 94-103. see prepublication 

draft at 

http://peaceaware.com/McD/papers/Ron 

ald_McDonald_LQ_2005.pdf 

Boje, D. M. & Carl Rhodes. 2005. The 

Leadership of Ronald McDonald: Double 

Narration and Stylistic Lines of 

Transformation. Accepted for publication 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Davie Boje is Endowed 

Bank of America Professor, editor of 

Tamara Journal. His main focus is 

in Leadership Quarterly journal on April 

9, 2005 - see pre-publication draft at 

http://peaceaware.com/McD/papers/Ron 

ald_McDonald_LQ_2005.pdf 

Halbwachs, M. 1950/1980. Collective Memory. 

NY: Harper & Row. It was translated 

from the French, by Francis J. Ditter, Jr. 

& Vida Yazdi Ditter, from a 1950 text, La 

Memoire Collective (Presses 

Universitaires de France. 

Hirsch, Marianne. 1999. Projected memory: 

Holocaust photogrpahs in personal and 

public fantasy. pp. 3-23 in Bal, Mieke; 

Crewe, Jonathan; & Spitzer, Leo (Eds). 

1999. Acts of Memroy: Cultural Recall in 

the Present. London/Hanover: University 

Press of New England. 

Lyotard 1979/1984 The Postmodern Condition. 

1979 in French, 1984 in English 

translation. 

Marx, Karl (1867). Capital: A Critique of 

Political Economy. Vol. 1. The Process of 

Capitalist Production. Trans. S. Moore 

and E. Averling. F. Engles (ed.). NY: 

International Publishers. First published 

1867, English 1967. 

McNay, Lois. 1992. Foucault Feminism. 

Boston: Mass: Northeastern University 

Press. 

Rosile, G.; Best, S.; & Boje, D. M. (2001). 

Corporate Theatrics and Carnivalesque 

Resistance. Heather Hopfl & George 

Schreyögg's Session II of track 

“Organizational Theatre: Jesters and 

Carnivalesque Resistance.” July 7th 

EGOS (European Group of Organization 

Scholars) conference in Lyon France. 

Paper at 

http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/confere 

nces/EGOS_2001_Rosile_Best_Boje.htm 

208 

storytelling in the postmodern world. He 

has published over 100 articles on story 

and postmodern studies.

Musings on Feminism, Surrealism, and Synthesis 

Lisa A. Zanetti 

Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs 

University of Missouri-Columbia 

ABSTRACT 

This article explores Surrealism as portrayed quite differently by the male and female artists of 

the movement. The article further explores the dialectical concept of synthesis as a 

representation of “simultaneous states” and envisions feminism as a synthesis in the current 

historical context. 

Keywords: feminism, surrealism, dialectic, synthesis 

INTRODUCTION 31 

Some years ago I explored, with 

Adrian Carr, the similarities between critical 

theory and surrealism (Carr & Zanetti, 2000). 

In this article, we suggested that surrealism 

could be seen as a form of critical theory, 

contributing an important negationestrangement 

effect, stepping outside oneself 

or one's customarily-held perspective to 

imagine and accept the antithesis: seeing the 

new in the old as well as the old in the new 

(see also Zanetti, 2003). This estrangementeffect 

is at the heart of dialectical thinking and 

dynamics. Dialectical thinking is destructive, 

but this destruction re-emerges as a positive 

act. Marcuse writes in the preface to the 

1960 edition of Reason and Revolution that 

the function of dialectical thought 

... is to break down the self-assurance 

and self-contentment of common 

sense, to undermine the sinister 

confidence in the power and language 

of facts, to demonstrate that 

unfreedom is so much at the core of 

things that the development of their 

internal contradictions leads 

necessarily to qualitative change: the 

31 A version of this paper was originally presented at the 

“Anti-Essentialism Conference,” Florida Atlantic 

University, Ft. Lauderdale USA, 2007, and I thank Hugh 

Miller and the conference participants for their helpful 

comments. I would also like to thank several anonymous 

reviewers for their insightful observations that have 

helped me refine some of the concepts presented here. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

explosion and catastrophe of the 

established state of affairs (Marcuse, 

1960, p. ix). 

Estrangement produces emotional 

disturbance, turmoil, and discomfort in the 

psyche of the viewer (see Zanetti & Carr, 

1997, 1998, 1999). It runs counter to 

prevailing attitudes and modes of thought. But 

this estrangement creates the conditions for 

overcoming the social amnesia, for seeing the 

world anew in the form of the synthesis. 

Jameson writes evocatively: 

209 

There is a breathlessness about this 

shift from the normal object-oriented 

activity of the mind to such a dialectical 

self-consciousness - something of the 

sickening shudder we feel in an 

elevator's fall or in the sudden dip of an 

airliner. That recalls us to our bodies 

much as this [dialectical transformation] 

recalls us to our mental positions as 

thinkers and observers. The shock is 

indeed as basic, and constitutive of the 

dialectic as such: without this 

transformational moment, without this 

initial conscious transcendence of an 

older, more naive position, there can be 

no question of any genuinely dialectical 

coming to consciousness. 

But precisely because dialectical 

thinking depends so closely on the 

habitual everyday mode of thought

which it is called on to transcend, it can 

take a number of different and 

apparently contradictory forms. So it is 

that when common sense predominates 

and characterizes our normal everyday 

mental atmosphere, dialectical thinking 

presents itself as the perversely 

hairsplitting, as the overelaborate and 

the oversubtle, reminding us that the 

simple is in reality only a simplification, 

and that the self-evident draws its force 

from hosts of buried presuppositions 

(Jameson, 1971, p. 308, emphasis 

added). 

A feminist review of surrealism 

In the years since the publication of 

the surrealism article, I've had cause and 

opportunity for continued rumination over the 

thesis. In retrospect, I don't believe we went 

far enough in our exploration of the 

relationship between surrealism and critical 

theory, for while the movement did provide an 

important intellectual foundation for twentiethcentury 

developments in art, literature, and 

philosophy, the most prominent Surrealists 

were still prisoners of their historical context 

vis-à-vis their view of, and relationship with, 

both females and the feminine. 

Reviewing Surrealist work with from a 

feminist ontology brings the work into an 

entirely different (and horrifying) perspective. 

Surrealism employed an “aesthetic of 

dismemberment” (Lyford, 2000) to illustrate 

the fragmentation of the world order, an 

aesthetic Lyford suggests was forged in the 

Parisian military hospital of Val-de-Grâce, 

where both Louis Aragon and Andre Breton 

met and served as physicians in training in 

1917. Val-de-Grâce was a cutting-edge 

teaching hospital but also housed a museum 

that hosted and displayed a visual collection 

of the carnage of war: human bones and 

preserved body parts, medical and surgical 

equipment, prostheses, wax casts of injuries, 

and an assortment of drawings, paintings, 

and sculptures of the carnage of war. The 

French government opened the collection to 

public display beginning in 1916 in an attempt 

Zanetti 

to generate support for the war (honoring the 

brave men) and to highlight the ways in 

which French science and technology were 

treating the most severely wounded soldiers. 

It is certain that Aragon and Breton viewed 

the materials and exhibits. Lyford suggests 

this aestheticization of human suffering, 

portrayed primarily in terms of shattered and 

dismembered male bodies, as used by the 

government to promote national 

reconstruction, was not surprisingly picked 

up and employed by the Surrealists 

themselves as critique: 

[S]urrealism's emphasis on 

dismemberment suggests a proposal to 

recast the state's rhetoric of 

reconstruction in language that 

reasserted the carnal horror of the war 

(the kind of destruction that Salvador 

Dali's melting, invaded forms or Man 

Ray's cropped and headless figures 

might conjure forth) instead of framing 

trauma as a necessary element in 

France's social and industrial evolution 

(Lyford, 2000, p. 52). 

A number of scholars (I am not alone 

in this view) have critiqued Surrealism as 

hostile (or, at least, unenlightened) regarding 

women. Almost from the beginning, as in the 

1934 pamphlet entitled “Qu'est-ce que le 

Surrealisme?”, disturbing images of the 

female form prevailed. On the cover of this 

noted and notable pamphlet was printed 

Magritte's work entitled Le Viol (The Rape), a 

depiction of a woman's head in which her 

face has been replaced by her torso: her 

eyes are now her breasts, her nose has 

become her navel, and her mouth is depicted 

by her pubis (Greely, 1992). The ostensible 

purpose of this selection was indeed to 

shock and repulse, as Breton was 

announcing a revolutionary program. 

Surrealism was intended to disrupt 

conventional bourgeois morality and reveal its 

hypocrisy; free love and unconventional 

sexual arrangements were a part of this 

revolution (Gubar, 1987). The work can be 

interpreted as a commentary on the sexual 

silencing of women within the confines of a 

210

stifling social order, and Kuspit (1988) argues 

that the Surrealists represented a transitional 

phase between authoritarianism and antiauthoritarianism 

. Still, I would argue that the 

psychoanalytic undercurrents and 

associations cannot be ignored: the male as 

voyeur; the image of woman speaking only 

through her genitals; an excessively long 

neck that suggests a puppeteer's hand 

animating the otherwise mute and lifeless 

figure. Aesthetic purpose, as Greely and 

Gubar suggest, does not automatically 

legitimize degradation. 

Markus (2000) notes the Surrealist 

fascination with the praying mantis, a 

powerful metaphor and archetypal symbol of 

the devouring (castrating) female. As I have 

discussed in other work (see Zanetti 2002, 

2003, 2007), the female mantis is notorious 

for devouring her male partner after mating 

(although there is some evidence that this 

ritual is most likely to occur when the 

creatures are in captivity). Markus notes: 

Andre Breton and Paul Eluard cultivated 

mantes in their homes, studied them 

closely, and invited others to observe 

the spectacle of their macabre sexual 

rites . . . . The Surrealists' attraction to 

the mantis is underscored by the two 

most prominent motifs in their art, 

metamorphosis and vagina dentata. Both 

are 

represented frequently through the 

image of the mantis (p. 33). 

Sex and death seem to be inextricably 

linked for the Surrealists, especially Bataille, 

who explored this theme extensively. Images 

of devouring females with prominent teeth 

can be seen in Picasso, especially in his 

works Nude on a White Background (1927), 

Bust of a Woman with Self Portrait (1929), 

Large Nude in a Red Armchair (1929), 

Seated Bather (1930), and The Kiss (1931). 32 

The dismembered female form occurs 

32 Interestingly, these works were produced in the years 

that Picasso was most closely associated with the 

Surrealists (Markus, 2000). 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

repeatedly throughout Surrealist art. One of 

the most disturbing series, to me, is that of 

Hans Bellmer's revolting headless and 

disfigured dolls, which generally appear to be 

female forms. Man Ray's photographs are 

arresting but also fetishistic: see, for 

example, Restored Venus, 1936, a female 

torso - headless, limbless - in bondage; Juliet, 

Nude in a Blond Wig ca.1950-51, with her 

harsh red lips and dominatrix wig, even as 

she is nude and vulnerable; Henry Miller and 

Masked Nude, 1945, where the author 

appears as himself but the woman's face is 

obscured; and his “Electricity” photos, where 

only the woman's nude torso is visible. 33 

Female surrealists, as far as is 

known, did not use the mantis to represent 

woman, although they, too, employed 

techniques and themes of violence, 

dismemberment and destruction. Lucy 

Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, better 

known by their deliberately gender-neutral 

names of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, 

pushed the boundaries of gender and 

androgyny in ways that were disturbing - 

sometimes even dismembered and 

fragmented (see Claude Cahun and Moore, 

Untitled, 1928) - but not dismissive or 

misogynistic. For one thing, their faces 

remain: bold, assertive, androgynous 

(especially in the case of Cahun) and 

challenging. 

I am particularly captivated by the 

work of the female Surrealist Leonora 

Carrington, whose paintings are on display at 

the Dallas Museum of Art as I write this, and 

whose art I find psychoanalytically interesting 

as some of it reminds me of the blazing, 

shimmering work often created by persons 

with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. 34 The 

daughter of a wealthy British textile 

manufacturer, she rebelled against her social 

class in striking ways, running off with Max 

Ernst in 1937 (he was still married), surviving 

33 I do, however, love Man Ray's “Kiki” photos, which are 

transgressive in a fun and playful manner. 

34 Indeed, Carrington was at one time institutionalized for 

a mental breakdown and medicated with the drug 

cardiazol (Chadwick, 1986). 

211

the war and eventually settling in Mexico with 

the exiled Hungarian photographer Emerico 

Weisz. Hers is the art of self-exploration, 

utilizing symbols of alchemical transformation 

and the wisdom of the feminine. She employs 

the figure of the hyena to represent the 

merging of male and female. And perhaps 

because she has led such a long life (she is 

still living), we have an extraordinary 

opportunity to watch the development of her 

work as the representation of a woman's life 

journey. 

It is also intriguing to read Carrington's 

descriptions of her time spent with the 

Surrealist masters. In an interview entitled 

“Leonora and Me,” British journalist Joanna 

Moorhead (2007) writes of her discovery that 

she is related to the artist, and of her journey 

to meet and interview her famous relative. 

The first statement that caught my attention 

was that Moorhead's family referred to 

Carrington as the somewhat eccentric cousin 

who ran off to be “an artist's model.” The 

assumption, we note, is not that Carrington 

could have been an artist, but only an artist's 

model (with the suggestion of loose morals 

that the phrase evokes). Moorhead had no 

idea of the vast body of work produced by 

her distant cousin; nor was she aware that 

Carrington had an international reputation as 

an exceptional artist and writer. 

When Moorhead finally travels to 

Mexico to meet her famous cousin, she asks 

for Carrington's recollections of some of her 

most famous (and notorious) colleagues. 

About Ernst, for example, Moorhead writes: 

In 1936, the first surrealist exhibition 

opened in London - for Leonora, 

something of an epiphany. "I 

[Carrington] fell in love with Max 

[Ernst]'s paintings before I fell in love 

with Max," she says. She met Ernst at a 

dinner party. "Our family weren't 

cultured or intellectual - we were the 

good old bourgeoisie, after all," she 

says. "From Max I had my education: I 

learned about art and literature. He 

taught me everything." 

Zanetti 

Carrington was somewhat less 

profuse in her admiration of others in the 

Surrealist circle. Moorhead continues: 

Picasso is just one of the artists she 

[Carrington] came to know. "A typical 

Spaniard - he thought all women were 

in love with him," she remembers. And 

were they? "Well, I certainly wasn't. 

Though I liked his art." And then there 

was Salvador Dalí: "I met him by 

chance one day in André Breton's 

shop. He certainly wasn't extraordinary 

then: he looked like everyone else. It 

was only when he went to America 

that he started looking extraordinary." 

Dalí liked her - "a most important woman 

artist," he called her. She didn't much 

like Man Ray, "though I liked his 

girlfriend Ady Fidelin. What she saw in 

him, I'll never know - it certainly wasn't 

his looks." The couple knew Joan Miró - 

"He gave me some money one day and 

told me to get him some cigarettes. I 

gave it back and said if he wanted 

cigarettes, he could bloody well get 

them himself. I wasn't daunted by any 

of them" (Moorhead, 2007). 

Finally, Moorhead writes of 

Carrington's importance as an artist: 

212 

Back in England, I talk to Matthew Gale, 

a curator at Tate Modern, about 

Leonora's significance as an artist, and 

detect an embarrassment that the Tate 

owns only two of her works, both pen 

and ink drawings. "In many ways, 

Britain has acted in the same way as 

your family," he says. "She has been 

neglected: apart from the collector 

Edward James, who bought many of 

her paintings, and an exhibition at the 

Serpentine in the 1980s, she's had very 

little exposure here. But all the time, 

she's been building up a massive 

international reputation, so suddenly 

we're scrabbling around to catch up, to 

put her in her rightful place in her native 

country."

Her importance, he says, lies partly in 

that she - along with artists such as 

Leonor Fini and Remedios Varo - 

opened up a new, and more female, 

strand of surrealism: in Mexico, Leonora 

and Varo dabbled in alchemy and the 

occult, and the work of both was 

rooted for a time in the magical and 

domestic elements of women's lives. 

"One of the extraordinary aspects of 

Leonora's work is how she draws on 

so many different inspirations, from the 

Celtic legends she learned from her 

nanny, through the constraints of her 

upper-class upbringing, to the 

surrealism of Paris in the 1930s - and 

then to the magic of Mexico," Gale says. 

"Her work is evocative of so many 

things, and it's enormously complex: 

she hasn't had a massive output 

because her technique is so meticulous 

and the work so detailed. She certainly 

wasn't a Picasso who could churn out 

several pictures a day; her work would 

take many months, even years." 

When I tell Leonora about my 

conversation with Gale, she is thrilled. I 

hear the mischievous note in her voice 

that once so infuriated her father, and 

delighted Max Ernst. "So, they think they 

should have more of my work, do 

they?" she says. "Good! That's made 

my day!" (Moorhead, 2007). 

Feminism and essentialism 

Discussions regarding essent-ialism 

have surfaced in many fields of inquiry. 

Essentialism, in its most stripped down 

meaning, refers to the belief that people 

and/or phenomena have an underlying and 

unchanging “essence,” similar to Plato's ideal 

forms. The term essentialism is commonly 

used in three main ways. First, it refers to the 

use of biological, physiological and, 

increasingly, genetic, causes as explanations 

for human social behavior. In this case little, if 

any, explanatory weight is given to 

psychological, sociological or cultural 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

explanations. An example would be to argue 

that women are more emotional than men and 

that this is inevitably due to hormonal 

differences. The intention is to use biology to 

argue that a particular social difference 

and/or behavior is both unalterable and 

unavoidable. 

A second use of the term essentialism 

is when generalized statements make no 

reference to cross-cultural differences or 

previous historical variation (also sometimes 

known as universalism). An example would 

be to state that men are more visual then 

women, in all cultures and at all times. Against 

this a sociologist or anthropologist may argue 

that the way we use our senses, and which 

ones we prioritize, is something that varies 

between cultures and throughout history. 

Third, the term essentialism refers to 

the use of unified concepts. This means that 

when we talk of the experiences, for 

example, of the disabled, the mentally ill, or 

(often) the experiences of women, we are 

lumping all individualized experiences together 

to provide a generalized (and generalizable) 

description of highly individualized conditions. 

Essentialism is often posited against 

anti-essentialism, following our Western 

“principle of non-contradiction” which dictates 

that contradictions (“a” and “not-a”) cannot 

logically exist simultaneously. Therefore, 

when we encounter contradictions, we 

typically are tempted - indeed, often we are 

instructed - to resolve them at any cost. 

Typically, the evocation of anti-essentialism is 

attributed to the group of scholars loosely 

referred to as postmodernists (Baudrillard, 

Lyotard, Derrida, and Foucault, among others) 

who trace their intellectual genealogy back to 

Nietzsche and Heidegger. 

Dialectic and non-essentialism 

I suggest that this characterization 

omits an important intellectual option in failing 

to address the contributions of critical theory, 

which, through the use of dialectic, provides 

a distinctive approach to logic and patterns of 

213

thought that provides an alternative to the 

principle of non-contradiction, and, by 

extension, to the opposition of essentialism 

and anti-essentialism. In response, I would 

like to consider the possibility of what I call 

“non-essentialist” thinking, characterized by 

the dialectical logic of critical theory. 

Dialectic has a long history as a form 

of philosophical debate which developed from 

Socratic dialogue. It is the major form of 

debate in Plato's "Dialogues" where the 

protagonist provisionally accepts an 

opponent's view in order to explore 

contradictory consequences. Aristotle 

identified dialectic as a form of argument 

which started from unsubstantiated opinion 

and which therefore could not result in the 

verifiable conclusions of logical forms of 

argument. For the Stoics, and later for 

medieval thinkers, the term simply referred to 

a form of argument. Hegel gave new meaning 

to the term, seeing the dialectic as a process 

of reconciliation of opposites (thesis and 

antithesis, leading to synthesis). For Hegel, 

the dialectic was the driving force behind 

historical change and an expression of a 

Universal Mind or Spirit. 

However, not every framework 

presenting two sides of a question or 

situation is dialectical. Dialectic incorporates a 

"substantive" contradiction, rather than simply 

a formal-quantitative one. Second, simplistic 

reduction of the familiar thesis-antithesissynthesis 

relationship has given rise to the 

perception that the synthesis is analogous to 

compromise, a kind of middle ground halfway 

between the two original starting points 

(Horkheimer spoke contemptuously of the 

tendency to represent dialectic as a "lifeless 

diagram"). 35 Mediation takes place in and 

through the extremes (the thesis and 

antithesis); it is not a simple give-and-take 

along a continuum. The synthesis becomes a 

new “working reality” and may, in turn, 

become a thesis (which then engenders its 

own antithesis). The contradiction is not 

“resolved” but instead is absorbed and 

transformed: the frame of reference which 

35 Horkheimer, in Arato & Gephardt, 1982/1993. p. 414. 

Zanetti 

made the poles opposites in the first case is 

transcended (Arato and Gephardt, 

1982/1993). Thus, what might appear to be 

opposites in one construction (force and 

consent, for example) might no longer be 

opposites in a different context. 

A third common misunderstanding 

refers to the nature of contradiction 

represented by the dialectic. Traditional (or 

formal) logic dictates that two contradictory 

elements can never be true together (see, for 

example, Popper, 1963), but traditional logic, 

because it focuses on empirical (mostly 

quantitative) representations of reality, 

necessarily builds on arbitrarily constructed 

foundations. At some point, the logic is 

abstracted from reality (formalized). In critical 

theory, however, form cannot be separated 

from content. It must continually reflect the 

whole of reality, not just a simplification of it. 

Adorno's goal was to formulate a 

post-Hegelian dialectic which does not 

culminate in a final synthesis or conceptual 

unity, but which provides a reflective 

openness that infinitely postpones the 

moment of closure. What is problematic, for 

Adorno, is the tendency of modern reason to 

culminate in self-enclosure or selfsufficiency, 

elevating human subjects to a 

position of mastery or domination in and over 

the world. Adorno's dialectic is negative in the 

sense of nonaffirmation: with the claims of 

linear teleology and systematic unity cast 

aside, human reason is no longer an 

instrument of domination but instead assists in 

the emancipation of social phenomena from 

conceptual restraints (Dallmayr, 1997). 

Non-essentialism, ambivalence, and 

simultaneous states 

Despite our brain-marination in the 

flavor of Western logic, we are, in fact, 

surrounded by examples and experiences of 

non-essentialism. Keats used the evocative 

phrase “negative capability” to characterize 

the key attribute of a great poet. In this state, 

“man [sic] is capable of being in uncertainties, 

Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable 

214

eaching after fact & reason” (Keats, 1970, 

p.43). Negative capability indicates the 

capacity to live with ambiguity and paradox, 

to hold or contain - not just react to - the 

pressure to act from one's own ego impulses 

or act out, to identify with the moods and 

modes of suffering of another. It was 

necessary, Keats believed, for the poet to be, 

above all, open to impressions, sensations or 

whatever, which means that the “camelion” 

(sic) poet is forever changing his/her ideas. 

Although it may to some extent come naturally 

to us, negative capability must also be 

learned: “This is a difficult intellectual stance 

to maintain even in the best of circumstances. 

To an active, seeking mind, the existence of 

mysteries poses a challenge. When those 

mysteries begin to touch a man directly, when 

they become, as Keats would call them a 

'burden,' the mind grows increasingly less 

capable of ignoring them” (Ryan, 1976: 157). 

Ambivalence involves expression of 

both sides of a dualism, in contrast to 

compromise, which seeks a middle ground 

and therefore may lose the essence of both 

(all) sides. In political science, the term 

ambivalence is often used to suggest value 

conflict. Hochschild (1981) finds that “given 

the opportunity, people do not make simple 

statements; they shade, modulate, deny, 

retract, or just grind to a halt in frustration.” 

Hochschild is clear that not all value conflicts 

result in ambivalence. For example, an 

individual might sort the importance of 

different norms among different domains. In 

Hochschild's work, individuals experience 

ambivalence when they aren't able to resolve 

the conflict; however, she does not separate 

out similarly conflictual states. Ambivalence is 

manifested in helplessness, anger, 

inconsistency, or confusion. Feldman and 

Zaller (1992) also view ambivalence as a 

manifestation of value conflict. In their study 

using open-ended questions, they find that 

social welfare liberals tend to be more 

ambivalent regarding social welfare, and they 

suggest that this is due to their difficulty in 

reconciling their pro-welfare view with 

individualism, and limited government, which 

are highly valued in American politics. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

Ambivalence is a type of conflict in 

both of these works, but neither of these 

works addresses intensity, or personal 

importance. For example, a person could be 

conflicted about whether there should be a 

flag burning amendment, but feel that they 

want more information before they make up 

their mind. Another might feel conflicted, but 

also not care as it has little impact on their life. 

A third might care deeply about the issue but 

also feel conflicted- perhaps they strongly 

believe that freedom of expression should be 

protected, but also believe that flag burning 

hurts national pride, which they value highly. 

When asked about flag burning, all three 

individuals might appear ambivalent under this 

first definition. 

To complicate things further, in political 

science there has been a tendency to use the 

term ambivalence in the context not of 

individual citizens and their individual 

attitudes, but in the context of public opinion. It 

is common to read impressionistic reports of 

public opinion polls in the media, or to hear 

talking heads debate the ”ambivalence” of the 

public - when the data being discussed show 

disagreement in aggregate public opinion 

about some policy. But just because 49% of 

the public believes that policy should go in 

one direction, and 51% disagrees, does not 

indicate that individuals are ambivalent. 

Psychologists define ambivalence 

more narrowly. Cacioppo and Berntson 

(1994) argue that ambivalence is a state of 

simultaneous high positive and high negative 

evaluation of an attitude object. Importantly, 

they argue that positive and negative 

evaluations are not necessarily coupled as 

the traditional bipolar scale implies. People can 

hold a very positive evaluation and little in the 

way of negative feelings towards the same 

attitude object, as the bipolar scale implies, or 

they could hold low negative and low positive 

feelings, or even high negative and high 

positive feelings simultaneously. This last 

state is their version of ambivalence. Bassili 

(1998) also measures ambivalence by asking 

respondents about positive and negative 

feelings separately, and measure the amount 

215

of conflict. He finds that the higher the conflict 

(or potential ambivalence), the slower they 

are to express their opinions. 

Some political science views of 

ambivalence are closer to the definitions 

found in psychology. McGraw et. al. (2003) 

include subjective and objective measures of 

ambivalence and uncertainty in a study of online 

and memory-based candidate evaluation. 

Their objective measure of ambivalence is 

calculated by dividing the subject's average 

intensity of reactions to characteristics 

(positive and negative) by the similarity of 

reactions, while their subjective measure is a 

simple agree/disagree with the statement “I 

have both positive and negative feelings 

about [candidate].” Interestingly, they find that 

the subjective experience of ambivalence is 

related to a memory based judgment strategy, 

meaning that these participants were more 

likely to rely on information that was readily 

accessible (as opposed to their on-line tally). 

They also find that the subjective measure of 

ambivalence is directly related to candidate 

evaluation for participants low in political 

sophistication, but not for participants high in 

political sophistication. In contrast, the 

objective measures of ambivalence are 

moderately related to candidate evaluation for 

more sophisticated participates, and are 

unrelated for less sophisticated participants. 

Alvarez and Brehm (2002) define 

ambivalence as strong internalized conflict. In 

their book, they characterize it as when: 

Coincident predispositions induce wider 

response variability [and when] 

information widens response variability. 

Ambivalence results when respondents' 

expectations or values are 

irreconcilable... (p. 58). 

In their operationalization, Alvarez and 

Brehm portray ambivalence as a condition 

experienced by the respondent at the moment 

of the interviewer's question, which reveals 

itself because of characteristics of prior 

information about the respondent's choices, in 

the form of their value-orientations and state 

Zanetti 

of informedness, and detected via an 

inferential statistical approach. 

There are important distinctions in the 

ways these authors are using the term 

ambivalence. Some view it as a general state 

of confusion, and others restrict it to only 

those instances of high evaluative conflict. 

Depending on which definition is used, 

ambivalence is either common or rare in public 

opinion. Another important distinction is 

between the subjective experience of feeling 

ambivalent, and ambivalence as a property of 

an attitude, as measured by combining 

separately measured positive and negative 

evaluations. 

Sociologically speaking, in an 

ambivalent stance, the clear positions of the 

oppositions are retained (Meyerson, 2001). 

However, I suggest that ambivalence does 

not necessarily involve conflict, but can 

represent the ability to be non-essentialist - 

that is, to maintain both “a” and “non-a” 

simultaneously - a condition I am calling 

“simultaneous states.” 

So how does this relate back to 

feminism? Much of the scholarly discussion 

and disagreement among feminist theorists 

can be characterized as a debate between 

essentialists (women are different from men) 

and anti-essentialists (there may be 

differences, but they are largely socially 

constructed). I am, in some respects, an 

essentialist. I accept, for example, that there 

are significant biological differences between 

the brains of most women and those of most 

men, and that those differences may cause 

men and women, as groups, to approach and 

interact with the world quite differently. In the 

recently-published book The Female Brain 

(2006), for example, Brizendine provides 

some very convincing arguments for the 

physiological equivalent of “Men are from 

Mars, Women are from Venus”: that men and 

women are fundamentally different. 

But I also accept that male and female, 

as sex categorizations, are not dichotomous 

distinctions, as compellingly illustrated in the 

216

Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 novel Middlesex. 

Despite external appearances and the 

presence of either/or categorizations on 

bureaucratic forms, inter-sexed individuals 

(hermaphrodites) are far more commonplace 

than we are led to believe. 36 In many plant 

and animal species, hermaphroditism is 

commonplace, or even a normal part of the 

life cycle. Generally, hermaphroditism occurs 

in the invertebrates, although it occurs in a 

fair number of fish, and to a lesser degree in 

other vertebrates. On very rare occasions, 

such a hermaphrodite can even impregnate 

itself, but this will result in complications, such 

as the offspring having identical DNA to its 

parent. 

Sequential hermaphrodites are 

organisms born as one sex which later 

change into the other sex, and can only 

function as one sex at one time. A few 

species in this group can sex change multiple 

times, but they can only function as one sex 

at a time. 37 One example, Clownfish, are 

colorful reef fish found living with anemones. 

Generally one anemone contains a “harem” 

consisting of a large female, a smaller 

reproductive male, and even smaller nonreproductive 

males. If the female is removed, 

the reproductive male will sex change into a 

female, and the largest of the nonreproductive 

males will mature and become 

reproductive. 

Protogyny describes a situation in 

which the organism starts as a female, and 

changes sex to a male later in life. Wrasses 

are reef fish that are all protogynous, but 

have two different life strategies: some 

species all start out as females, and when 

they get large enough they will change sex to 

males. Other species start out as females or 

36 True hermaphroditism requires the presence of both 

ovarian (female) and testicular (male) reproductive 

tissue and is relatively rare and poorly understood. 

Pseudo-hermaphroditism is more common. 

37 Unlike humans, these animals' DNA does not 

determine their sex, allowing full functional sex 

change without modifying the DNA. Protandry 

describes when the organism starts as a male, and 

changes sex to a female later in life. 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

males (initial phase), and either may shift to 

become a supermale (terminal phase male). 

The females and the initial phase males have 

similar colorations. The supermale is larger 

and usually brightly colored, and there is only 

one in a given area of the reef. This 

supermale dominates the other wrasses of 

the species, and “pair spawns” (one male 

with one female) repeatedly. The initial phase 

males will group spawn, with many males 

and females participating. When the 

supermale dies the largest wrasse in the area 

(male or female) changes into the new 

supermale. 

A simultaneous hermaphrodite (or 

synchronous hermaphrodite) is an adult 

organism that has both male and female 

sexual organs at the same time. Usually, selffertilization 

does not occur. For example, 

Hamlets (a species of fish) do not practice 

self-fertilization, but when they find a mate, 

the pair takes turns between which one acts 

as the male and which acts as the female 

through multiple matings, usually over the 

course of several nights. Earthworms are 

also synchronous hermaphrodites. Although 

they possess ovaries and testes, they have a 

protective mechanism against self fertilization 

and can only function as a single sex at one 

time. 

Banana slugs are still another example 

of synchronous hermaphrodite. Mating with a 

partner is most desirable, as the genetic 

material of the offspring is varied, but if 

mating with a partner is not possible, selffertilization 

will occur. The male sexual organ 

of an adult banana slug is quite large in 

proportion to its size, as well as compared to 

the female organ. If a banana slug has lost its 

male sexual organ, it can still self-fertilize, 

making its hermaphroditic quality an invaluable 

adaptation. 

The term hermaphrodite is also used in 

botany to describe a flower that has both 

staminate (male, pollen-producing) and 

carpelate (female, seed-producing) parts that 

are self fertile or self pollenizing. 

Hermaphrodism in plants is more complex 

217

than in animals because plants can have 

hermaphroditic flowers as described, or 

unisexual flowers with both male and female 

types developing on the same individual-a 

closer analogy to animal hermaphrodism. 

The point of the above discussion is 

that the sexes of “male” and “female, ”which 

we conventionally categorize as essentialist, 

discrete conditions, can and do exist quite 

widely as simultaneous states. We see a 

similar condition when we look at certain 

illnesses. Bipolar disorder, also known as 

manic depression or manic-depressive 

illness, is a mental illness in which one's 

moods can swing wildly from euphoria to 

deepest depression. In the manic phase, 

sufferers typically experience a range of 

symptoms, including increased energy, racing 

thoughts and rapid speech, impaired 

judgment, reckless behavior, a sense of 

exhilaration, irritability and hostility, and 

changes in perception, which can extend to 

hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. A 

somewhat milder form of mania, generally 

referred to as hypomania, is particularly 

seductive and difficult to recognize. Then 

there is the inevitable depression. Bipolar 

depressions tend to be different from unipolar 

depressions, and often in the absence of a 

full-blown mania it is the atypical depression 

that finally identifies the disorder. 

But the experience of bipolar disorder 

is not limited to the two poles of mania and 

depression, separated by periods of stability. 

It is also possible to be both manic and 

depressed at the same time, a turbulent 

condition with the disarmingly diffident 

classification of “mixed state” or “mixed 

episode.” The DSM-IV alludes to mixed states 

where full-blown mania and major depression 

collide in a raging sound and fury, but there 

are also more subtle manifestations. Clinicians 

commonly refer to these under-the-DSM radar 

mixed states as dysphoric hypomania or 

agitated depression, often using the terms 

interchangeably. Some describe the former 

as "an energized depression." In any case, 

the point is that both conditions - mania and 

depression, “a” and “not-a” - exist 

Zanetti 

simultaneously. In my experience, it is the 

physical (physiological) manifestation of 

Jameson's intellectual description earlier in 

this article: the “sickening shudder” of 

synthesis. 

Feminism as synthesis 

I want to suggest that, as it relates to 

any number of fields of scholarly study, 

feminism has served important dialectical 

functions. On the one hand, feminist 

interpretations have served as the antithesis 

to many patriarchal, prevailing explanations of 

the world. On the other hand (and owing a 

great debt to Judith Butler), I suggest that, for 

the time being, feminism may also be a 

contemporary synthesis. 

Over the past several years I have 

been musing about the exact nature of 

synthesis. What is it, really? What happens in 

the “black box” between thesis and 

antithesis? How does that Hegelian shift take 

place - how does the slave come to 

understand that s/he is actually overlord of 

the master? 

It seems to me that some degree 

ambivalence must be present in the synthesis 

- and expression of both sides of the dualism. 

Furthermore, it seems that a condition of 

“simultaneous states” must also take place - 

that in the process of thesis resolving with 

antithesis, we must be able to “be both” and 

hold contradictions long enough for the 

organic process of synthesis to occur (see 

also Zanetti, 2003). 

Judith Butler's brilliant book Undoing 

Gender (2004) gives us much to think about 

along these lines. In the chapter entitled “The 

End of Sexual Difference?” Butler, a Hegelian 

scholar and feminist theorist, reviews the 

questions posed by various theorists 

regarding this question. For Luce Irigaray and 

Drucilla Cornell, the question is how to come 

to terms with otherness. For Anne Fausto- 

Sterling, the question is one of multiple 

genders and/or degrees of hermaphroditism, 

as discussed earlier in this article. Rosi 

Braidotti considers the question one of 

218

metamorphosis and transformation, using 

bodily activism to find a way through pain and 

limitation. 

In the following chapter, Butler 

addresses the question of social 

transformation, and it was in reading this 

chapter that I found myself thinking of 

feminism as contemporary synthesis. She 

writes: 

That feminism has always thought 

about questions of life and death means 

that feminism has always, to some 

extent and in some way, been 

philosophical. That it asks how we 

organize life, how we accord it value, 

how we safeguard it against violence, 

how we compel the world, and its 

institutions, to inhabit new values, 

means that its philosophical pursuits are 

in some sense at one with the aim of 

social transformation (p. 205). 

I particularly like this assessment 

because of its focus on the nexus of sex and 

life, rather than sex and death as seen in 

Freudian psychoanalytic theory and the work 

of the male Surrealists. I have long maintained 

that, as a woman who has borne and reared 

children, my associations with sex are 

generative rather than nihilistic and the 

connection between sex and death makes no 

sense to me. Furthermore, these associations 

do not change simply because I will no longer 

bear children. I do not suggest that these 

associations are biologically bound; rather, 

they seem more a product of the patriarchal, 

bourgeois social-cultural framework. 

Feminism, I would argue, represents 

the synthesis in this historical moment. On the 

one hand, it is important to maintain a 

framework of sexual difference because it 

reminds us that patriarchal domination is a 

continuing cultural and political reality. Until 

that situation changes, it will always be 

different for a woman to enter into 

transgressive gender norms (while 

acknowledging that men have their issues 

with gender norms, as well). In exploring 

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

butch-femme distinctions, theorists and 

activists noted new understandings 

emerging; butch and femme were not just 

replications of heterosexual roles but 

something distinct. Butler continues: “I would 

hope that we would all remain committed to 

the ideal that no one should be forcibly 

compelled to occupy a gender norm that is 

undergone, experientially, as an unlivable 

violation” (p. 213). 

References 

Adorno, T. Negative Dialectics. 1990 

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Alvarez, M. and Brehm, J. 2002. Hard 

Choices, Easy Answers. Princeton: Princeton 

University Press. 

Arato, A. and Gebhart E. 1982/1993. 

The Essential Frankfurt School Reader. 

Continuum International Publishing Group. 

Argyris, C. and Schön, D. 1974. 

Theory in Practice. Jossey-Bass. 

Bassili, John N. 1995. “On the 

psychological reality of party identification: 

Evidence from the accessibility of voting 

intentions and of partisan feelings.” Political 

Behavior 17(4):339-58. 

Brizendine, L. 2006. The Female 

Brain. Morgan Road Books. 

Butler, J. 2004. Undoing Gender. 

Routledge. 

Cacioppo, J. T. and Berntson, G. 1994. 

“Relationship Between Attitudes and 

Evaluative Space: A Critical Review, with 

Emphasis on Separability of Positive and 

Negative Substrates.” Psychological Bulletin, 

115, 401-423. 

Carr, A. and Zanetti, L. 2000. “The 

Emergence of Surrealism and its Vital 

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Studies.” Human Relations, vol. 53, no. 7, pp. 

891-921. 

219

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ABSTRAKT Press. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lisa A. Zanetti is Associate Professor at the Harry S Truman 

220

Vol 6 Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

School of Public Affairs, University of Change Management, and Administrative 

Missouri-Columbia USA. Her research Theory and Praxis. She is contributor and co- 

interests include critical theory, ethics and author of two books, Government is Us 

moral theory, organization dynamics, and (1998, Sage), and Transformational Public 

political theory. She has been published in Service: Portraits of Theory in Practice 

numerous journals including American Review (2005, M.E. Sharpe). She is currently at work 

of Public Administration, Administration & on a book about empathy. . 

Society, American Behavioral Scientist, 

Human Relations, Journal of Organization 

221

Creating a Community of Critically Reflexive Feminist 

Scholars 

Matthew Eriksen*, Wanda V. Chaves*, Angela Hope**, & Sanjiv S. Dugal*** 

*Department of Management 

John H. Sykes College of Business 

University of Tampa 

401 W. Kennedy Blvd. 

Tampa, Florida, U.S. 

**Saint Mary’s University 

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. 

***Department of Management 

College of Business Administration 

University of Rhode Island 

Kingston, Rhode Island, U.S. 

ABSTRACT: 

In this paper, the authors explain and display their process for becoming more critically 

reflexive scholars (Cunliffe, 2003). This is accomplished through creating a community of 

critically reflexive scholars. Within this community of inquiry (Eriksen, 2001), participants 

attempt to go beyond a simple awareness of their ontological and epistemological assumptions 

and to reflex upon their individual uniqueness as a human being who is engaged in scholarship. 

In other words, each participant jointly attempts to understand his or her self as a scholar. 

Specifically, in this article, the authors critically reflex upon their selves within the context of their 

roles as feminist scholars. The process of inquiry consists of ongoing four stages: giving an 

account of one's self with respect to a particular area of scholarship, reading everyone else's 

account, and responding to reading each others account, and finally sharing these responses 

with one another. Through this process, the authors not only became more critically reflexive 

scholars but were also personally transformed and obtained a deeper understanding of 

feminism. 

Prologue 

Key words: self-reflexivity, self-awareness, dialogue, inquiry, feminism 

Based on my initial reflections on 

Sc'Moi's conference theme of feminism and 

what to write about for the conference, I 

found myself reflecting upon the question I 

am often asked by those who become 

aware of my work with female cadets at the 

U.S. Coast Guard Academy on their livedexperience 

as female cadets and our 

efforts to change the Coast Guard Academy 

to improve female cadets' leadership 

development and day-to-day lives at the 

Eriksen, Chaves, Hope, & Dugal 

Academy. The question that is most often 

raised is “why?” “Why do I engage is such 

research?” 

I most often answer with something to 

the effect that it is because I had been 

engaged with racial diversity issues at the 

University of Rhode Island while a graduate 

student there, and I planned on continuing 

this work at the Coast Guard Academy but 

quickly found out race was not something 

that was openly discussed at the Academy, 

at least outside of Admissions. Also, the 

222

multicultural organizations at the Academy 

function primarily as social clubs - this is not 

meant to trivialize their purpose because this 

is a very important need they fulfill. But they 

do not engage in the activist role that 

multicultural organizations do on most 

college campuses. 

Although not very relevant to the day-today 

embodied experience of female cadets, 

there was some discussion of gender at the 

Academy (this has improved somewhat 

because of the cadets' and my work and 

few other committed staff members). But 

the discussions mostly focused on the 

percentage of cadets that were women. 

The Administrators at the Coast Guard 

Academy focused on the fact that women 

made up more than twice the percentage of 

cadets as they as did at the other U.S. 

military academies. This of course was 

used to mitigate conversations concerning 

the actual lived-experience of female 

cadets. Based on some of the female 

cadets' personal leadership conundrums (a 

semester-long project based on the cadet's 

personal leadership conundrum (Eriksen, 

2007) that they explored in my leadership 

course, I became aware of and interested in 

lived experience of female cadets' at the 

Academy and in the operational Coast 

Guard. This was the impetus for my 

ongoing work with female cadets and 

officers. 

But what I have come to realize is that 

this explanation does not really answer the 

question in a meaningful way. In other 

words, it does not help me understand 

myself, why I engage in this type of 

teaching, research and change initiative, 

where I am positioned with respect to 

feminism and what it means to my research 

approach and day-to-day life. I shared 

these musing with my colleague Wanda, and 

through our discussion, we realized that 

each of us has a unique understanding of 

and relationship to “feminism” that has to do 

with our experiences, who we are and 

what social space(s) we occupy, or into 

which we are interpellated (Althusser, 1971 

Vol 6 Double Issue 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

& Dugal. et. al, 2003.) - we can separate 

these three things for means of discussion 

but they cannot be understood outside one 

another. Also, we realized that there are 

material, cognitive and emotional 

consequences, both “positive” and 

“negative,” for us to engage in “feminist” 

scholarship and to being labeled a [pro-] 

feminist. We came to the conclusion that to 

explore these issues would be valuable to 

us as individual scholars and to Sc'Moi as a 

community. 

Wanda and I have asked Sanjiv and 

Angela to join with us in giving an account of 

ourselves (Butler, 2005) with respect to 

feminism. After we have done this 

individually, we will share our accounts 

among us, and then we will express how 

this sharing affects our understanding of 

self, feminism, and our position relative to 

feminism. Thus, this paper is a personal and 

collective exploration and account of 

ourselves with respect to feminism as body 

of knowledge and a category into which we 

might be hailed and the consequences of 

this is to our lived experience. We believe 

the personal, subjective, narrative nature of 

this exploration, is more meaningful in 

understanding our position with respect to 

feminism and of feminism than to simply 

categorizing ourselves within a particular 

feminist camp. Also, it reveals the 

complexity, flux, contingency and personal 

nature of our understanding of and position 

with respect to feminism. Also, we hope to 

provoke other academics and professionals 

see and feel the limitations and 

consequences of most “academic” 

discussions, research, and knowledge on 

feminism. 

In our paper, each of us will describe 

our self as we are typically hailed (e.g., 

Matthew as a pro-feminist) in relationship to 

our role as [pro]feminist researcher, how 

we came to the topic as an area of interest, 

how we understand the topic of feminism, 

the experience and consequences - positive 

and negative and personal and professional, 

how we orient ourselves within or in relation 

223

to the field of feminism, to us from our 

engagement in feminist research or practice 

and of being hailed a [pro]feminist. 

--Matthew 

The Requisite Academic Framing 

It is our desire to understand our selves 

with respect to the topic of feminism, so we 

can grapple with how we are part of our 

scholarship, not something separate of it. 

We realize the world we research is not 

separate of our experience of it. Our 

conceptions of our selves influence how 

we conduct our scholarship and research 

and the conclusions that we draw from this 

research. Who we are determines how we 

perceive and conceive when engaging in 

research. Our understanding of our selves 

facilitates our action, for purposes of this 

article our action as feminist scholars. 

In this paper, we present our process of 

attempting to become more critically 

reflexive scholars (Cunliffe, 2003). We do 

not focus on our assumptions about the 

nature of knowledge and being, even 

though we believe a researcher's 

knowledge and understanding of these 

assumptions is critical to him or her 

conducting meaningful research (Alvesson 

& Sköldberg, 2003). The implication of 

possessing certain epistemological and 

ontological assumptions has been 

addressed by many other scholars (Burrell 

and Morgan, 1979, Cunliffe, 2003). Instead, 

we focus on “the complex, interactional and 

emergent nature of our social experience 

(Cunliffe, 2003, 984).” In other words, as 

researchers, we are much more complex 

than simply our ontological and 

epistemological assumptions, and these 

other parts of us are worthy of and 

essential to our exploration in becoming 

more critically reflexive scholars. Thus, in 

this paper, our accounts of our selves are 

based in our practical everyday 

understandings of ourselves, which may be 

more or less “academic” in nature. 


We explore our selves through creating 

a community of inquiry (Eriksen, 2001, 

Dewey, 1908). As we explore and develop 

our selves, we also explore and develop our 

understanding of feminism. Feminism is not 

something that exists “out there” separate of 

us, but rather it is an idea that is created and 

sustained between us, moves through us, 

and affects how we understand our selves 

and our scholarship perspective. In other 

words, who a researcher is cannot be 

separated from her or his research. Our 

understanding of our selves can not be 

separated from our understanding of reality, 

or in this case our understanding of 

feminism. Like Deleuze and Guattari, we 

conceive of the self not as being but as 

becoming. “[B]ecoming is not the becoming 

of some being. There is becoming, from 

which we perceive a relatively stable point 

of being (Colebrook, 2005, 52).” 

In this paper, we will explain the nature 

of our engagement, our community of 

inquiry. Then we will present the content of 

this process - our writings. Finally, we will 

present some conclusions we drew from 

engaging in our process. 

The Nature of our Community of 

Inquiry 

For purposes of this paper, the process 

of inquiry consists of ongoing four stages: 

giving an account of one's self with respect 

to feminism, reading everyone else's 

account, and responding to reading each 

others account, and finally sharing these 

responses with one another. Beyond the 

context of this paper, it was the first round 

of this ongoing four-stage process in which 

we continue to be engaged. 

First, we gave an account of ourselves 

(Bulter, 2005), we presented our self to 

each other. These accounts can be 

conceived of as photographic images that 

presents our selves at a particular moment 

in time (Flusser, 2000, Dugal, Eriksen, & 

Robbins, 2007) - “a relatively stable point of 

being (Colebrook, 2005, 52).” It is a 

224

snapshot from which we move into 

continually emerging understandings of our 

selves and feminism. In other words, we 

attempt to create a picture of our self to 

share with each other; we fix in time and 

space our process of becoming. In giving 

an account of our selves, we are trying 

(re)present something that has no 

materiality; we are tying to (re)present a 

conception that emerges from within us and 

is determined by the social influences. 

Rather than being an account of an 

objective permanent self, our account is an 

exploration and creation of our self within 

the matrix of social institutions (Butler, 

2005). These accounts are delimited by 

how we imagine our audience - who we 

want to be in their eyes, who we imagine 

them to be, how we imagine they will 

respond to our narrative, and what that 

reaction means to us. “[W]e seek to present 

an aspect of ourselves that is acceptable to 

both ourselves and the eventual viewer 

(Dugal, et al., 2007).” These conceptions of 

self may be accepted, supported, rejected, 

rewarded, punished, etc. through each 

other's response. The response may 

strengthen, weaken, or alter our presented 

account of our self. 

Second, we each share our account 

and read and experience each other's 

account. Through our reading of each 

other's account, we deepen our 

understanding of our selves. It is through 

the difference(s) in the selves that we 

present to each other (Dugal & Eriksen, 

2004) that we begin to understand our 

selves in new ways. The four of us are 

different in many ways such as sex, age, 

race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and 

geography, and experience. Some of us 

have never actually met in person and thus, 

only know each other through our texts. 

Difference signifies, speaks, and carries a 

message (Hall, 1997). 

Third, we respond to each other's 

account. Of course, these responses are 

another presentation of our selves and our 


understanding of feminism. We deepen our 

understanding of ourselves and feminism 

through this dialogue with others (Bakhtin, 

1935/1981). It is through our recognition of 

our differences that we begin to understand 

our self and to imagine new possibilities for 

our self. As we reflect on, write about, and 

present our selves, we are actively 

constructing our selves in the telling. Finally, 

we share our responses with one another. 

Accounts of Self 

Angela: 

Three different organizations have had 

an enormous impact on me growing up and 

they still continue to impact me greatly. They 

have shaped who I am in many ways, and 

they have (with my help of course) turned 

me into a raging and radical feminist. These 

organizations are the family, the Catholic 

Church, and the U.S. military. 

My father is a village born Greek. 

Although he has always supported me in 

everything I do, he is a product of his 

culture. For him, women's primary purpose 

is to cook, clean, and have children or to put 

it another way serve the patriarchal 

institution. For my Dad, sure I can rule the 

world if I want, but I still have to come home 

and cook for my husband and care for my 

children. I was raised Catholic and went to 

parochial schools as a child. I grew up 

never missing mass on Sunday. If I did, I 

had to go to confession because it was a 

sin to miss mass. When I was seventeen, I 

enlisted in the army and seven years later, I 

am still in the service. As far as these latter 

two organizations are concerned, I contend 

they are the bastions for patriarchy--the 

match which lights the oil. Both the Catholic 

Church and the military remain the only two 

organizations which can legally bar women 

from certain roles in the United States. 

These organizations often make me feel like I 

am in a lion's den; however, I also call them 

home. 

My feminist journey has been a beautiful 

one so far. Before I entered graduate 

225

studies, I would have said that I was 

someone who used the phrase: “Well, I am 

not a feminist, but…” Then I took a leap of 

faith and signed up for the course “Feminist 

Theology” with Dr. Shelly Rambo at Boston 

University School of Theology in January of 

2005. Taking this course was the best thing 

I have ever done in my life. It marks my 

transformation from a patriarchal woman 

into a woman self-defining. I did not ease 

myself into the literature and the dialogues 

of this course; I took the jump off the cliff. I 

remember one particular day very clearly. It 

was at the end of the course, when we 

each had to present a liturgy of some sort 

that could be in the form of a poem, dance, 

song, or ceremony. When it was my turn to 

present, I showed a video clip which I had 

made of women in the military. In the end, I 

broke down and sobbed. I did not anticipate 

this at all. I shared with everyone in the 

class that I felt as though the stool which I 

had been sitting on for the past twenty plus 

years was taken out from under me. This 

challenging experience was filled with 

passion, emotions, depression, joy, and 

love. I took the jump instead of walking 

down slowly because I saw freedom and 

life at the very bottom of the cliff. At the 

bottom of the cliff, I saw my gorgon rage 

calling to me-I saw Medusa, Eve, Mary 

Magdala. I saw Goddess. My feminist 

journey was and continues to be an 

embodied, spiritual endeavor, and healing 

my feminine wound is a never-ending 

process. 

Part of being a feminist I have found 

means taking the good with the bad. The 

range of schools that follow my beliefs and 

ideologies are regrettably few and far 

between. For example, when I began 

searching for PhD programs in Management 

in the United States, I emailed numerous 

professors asking if they would be willing to 

supervise my work. I stated upfront that I 

was interested in critical, qualitative, and 

feminist approaches. The responses I did 

get were not too promising. One particular 

professor shared with me that finding 

business programs open to feminist and 


critical research would be extremely 

difficult. Furthermore, the only reason she 

survived as long as she did was because 

she was able to secure tenure. I guess I 

was not surprised. In any case, I would not 

trade any second of the bad for normalcy 

and conformity because to do that would be 

to constrict my will and suffocate my soulmy 

own divine feminine. I would rather be 

persecuted and marginalized than become 

co-opted. Instead, I read and I ensure that I 

am in community with other like-minded 

persons in order to armor and maintain my 

passion. 

One of my friends says: “A true feminist 

is radical.” Being a radical feminist for me 

requires keeping my flame alive but also 

requires tendering the flame. This does not 

mean to suppress it, but it means that I have 

to dodge and weave. I have to have 

maneuverability in order to subvert and 

infiltrate patriarchal pollution. As a radical 

feminist, I believe that patriarchy or 

heteronormativity is evil. These systems 

perpetuate racism, classism, sexism, 

heterosexism, ageism, fascism--all the 

classic isms. Being a feminist means for me 

understanding and taking into consideration 

the intersection of gender, race, class, and 

sexual orientation-not just gender. 

Methodology 

I would say there are three different 

methodologies for doing feminism. The first 

is to not to walk the tight rope but instead to 

be a thorn in people's sides. The second 

methodology requires being more 

cooperative and more “reasonable.” It 

involves trying to work to bring about 

change from within. The third consists of 

men who are apart of the system but work 

for the underdog so to speak. I tend to 

utilize the first method the most, but it is 

always situation dependent. Finally, my 

approach to feminism involves finding the 

middle path between essentialist leanings 

and social constructivism. I recognize the 

dangers of extreme essentialism and 

extreme social constructivism as 

226

viewpoints. The next part of my feminist 

journey will involve finding a way to 

articulate this middle path and place it into 

meaningful praxis in the day-to-day. 

Matthew: 

Since my work with the female cadets is 

viewed as an effort towards establishing 

gender equality at the Academy, I am most 

often hailed a “pro-feminist.” While working 

for social equality is definitely one of my 

desires, it is not the only reason for my 

engagement in the directed studies with 

female cadets. Thus, this title is does 

capture the complexity of my motivations to 

engage in my work with the female cadets. 

On a general level, I have always been 

fascinated with social equality and social 

justice movements. This came from reading 

about people like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, 

Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela. I have an 

interest in understanding the livedexperience 

of 'Others'. Not just to 

understand their experience, but through 

dialogue with 'Others', to construct an 

understanding of my self (Bahktin, 1981); 

actually, I think these two understandings 

cannot be separated. Through dialogue 

with the female cadets, I have come to 

know my self. For example, I have come to 

know my sexism and my social privilege as 

a [white] male. Engaging in dialogue with 

the female cadets and officers made me 

begin to watch my self in my daily 

interactions at the Academy. For example, 

one morning I was working out in the gym at 

the Academy. After the workout, I went to 

get a towel for my shower and for two male 

officers that were finishing up their 

workout. As I was handing the towels to 

these two officers, I exclaimed “here you go 

ladies.” As the words were coming out of 

my mouth, I realized I was playfully insulting 

these officers by referring to them as 

women. I was being sexist. 

Some other reasons for my engagement 

with the female cadets in these directed 

studies were that it would help my 

performance evaluation and academic 


career because teaching the directed was 

going beyond my required teaching load, I 

would be able to generate some research 

out of it, and it made me feel good about 

myself since I was engaging in behavior that 

was attempting “to make the world a better 

place.” As a side note, I was always 

upfront with the cadets about what I thought 

would gain from our interactions. This was 

as much for my self, as it was for them. 

By doing this, I was able to suppress 

any feelings of “using” them. 

The “costs” emanated from the 

suspicion of some of the military officers of 

my intentions and that their behavior or the 

culture of the Academy might be exposed 

through cadets' and my work. Although true 

for more male officers, it was also true for a 

number of female officers. If the sexist 

culture was articulated and acknowledged, 

these officers would have to admit to 

themselves what they knew it existed, at 

least subconsciously and struggle with 

what it meant to their self conception. This 

affected my day-to-day interactions with 

certain officers and led to a lack of support 

for me obtaining a tenure-track position at 

the Academy and personal criticisms and 

attacks. Because of this, I had to be 

meticulous in my interactions with the female 

cadets and my behavior in general. I was 

worried that officers would attempt to 

sexualize the nature of my interactions with 

the female cadets and use this against me 

and to attack the legitimacy of our work. For 

example, I had to make sure that when our 

conversation was of a sensitive nature, that 

I would ask the cadets if they wanted me to 

close the door and to make sure the shade 

over the window on my door was up so that 

people could see into my office. I had to be 

transparent. 

My suspicions were justified. In 

conversations with a number of male 

officers, they did sexualize my interactions 

with cadets. I had to make sure that I did not 

let any desires of wanting to fit in at the 

Academy influence me to engage in such 

discourse. Of course, the reality was that I 

227

could never truly fit in. I did not go to the 

Academy, and I was not in the military. I 

was and would always be an outsider. But 

being an outsider allowed me to see certain 

things and engage in certain endeavors that 

an officer could not without greater 

pressure from his or her fellow officers to 

cease and desist. 

As it turns out, my suspicions of these 

officers were justified, as were their's of 

me. As an outsider, I did not operate by 

their guideline of, “What happens on the ship 

stays on the ship.” The cadets and I 

exposed aspects of the sexist culture and 

many of the behaviors that were enacted 

within that culture. Although, we did so in a 

format that I thought would be constructive, 

there were both negative and positive 

consequences to our actions. 

Unfortunately, individual and organizational 

growth and truth do not happen without pain 

and suffering. 

As I was receiving much praise for my 

work and feeling good about my self, there 

is one incident of my engagement in our 

change effort that has recently hit me like a 

brick in the head and made me realize the 

consequences of breaking someone's trust, 

for what I believed to be a higher purpose, 

and that any organizational change effort is 

ultimately played out in the day-to-day lives 

of individual members of the organization. 

During my last year at the Academy, a 

female officer had confided in me how she 

had been sexually harassed. A number of 

months later, trying to help him understand 

the present sexist culture and climate at the 

Academy, in the hope that he might be able 

to persuade someone at headquarters to 

seriously address and take actions to 

improve the lives of females at the 

Academy, I mentioned these incidents to a 

commander that was working at 

headquarters in Washington DC. About six 

months after that, with a government 

investigation pending of the Coast Guard 

Academy and a ongoing Coast Guard 

investigation of the Academy because of 


the court martial of a male cadet on sexual 

assault charges and other sexual 

harassment issues at the Academy, based 

on the information I had provided him, the 

commander confronted a lieutenant 

commander that worked with him at 

headquarters that he knew that had been at 

Academy when the above incidents 

occurred. He asked the lieutenant 

commander if he knew anything about the 

incidents and mentioned it was best that if 

something had happened that it be brought 

to the surface now rather than it being 

uncovered as part of the upcoming 

government investigation. The lieutenant 

commander admitted to witnessing at least 

one of the sexual harassment incidents and 

then reported his knowledge to the Coast 

Guard Admiral who was leading the 

investigative team of the Academy. Within a 

few days of this, the female officer was 

contacted by the Coast Guard investigative 

committee about the charges. 

The female officer called me a few days 

after that and asked me if I had reported the 

incident. I said yes and explained to her 

how it had all unfolded. She was and still is 

very upset with me. I had violated her trust. 

I had taken away her agency. 

At first, I rationalized that although I had 

violated her trust, it was for the best. 

Actions would finally be taken to improve the 

sexist culture and climate of the Academy. 

My actions would lead to an improvement of 

the day-to-day experience of female cadets, 

so the means justified the actions. And 

besides that, she had a legal responsibility 

as an officer of the Coast Guard to report 

such incidents. I also rationalized that she 

had a moral obligation to other females in the 

Coast Guard to report such an incident. It is 

known that sexual harasser don't just stop 

harassing. 

But even after these rationalizations, I 

still felt horrible about my self. I could not 

justify away her feelings that she 

expressed and that I had violated her trust. 

But it was not until further reflection and 

228

discussion with my wife, a retired female 

Army officer, and a male friend of mine who 

was a minority working at the Academy, 

that I understood and accepted that I had 

also taken away her agency and that she 

would inevitably suffer some negative 

experiences because of her having to 

report the incidents. The Coast Guard 

would not be able to protect her from 

suffering retribution - whether it wanted to 

or not. 

I now know/admit that my actions were 

paternalistic in their outcome, if not it intent. I 

also know I do not fit the definition of a profeminist 

- “…a school of thought developed 

by men that supports the feminist analysis 

of patriarchy as a system that privileges 

men over women, and also men over other 

men.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy# 

Pro-feminism_and_patriarchy, January 18, 

2007).” My actions were paternalistic; they 

were part of the underlying problem. Rather 

than violating her trust, I should have put 

more effort towards expressing my 

thoughts as to why I believed that it was 

important for her to report such an incident. 

But I should have left that decision to her. I 

thought that I knew what was best for her 

than she did for herself. I took her agency 

away. If she did not want to report what 

had happened to her, I was determined to 

find some oblique way to do it. I wanted 

justice to be done. 

Most often, not only “good” comes from 

speaking the truth, especially for the victim 

of sexual harassment. In a hegemonic 

masculine system/culture such as the 

Academy, even if its official regulations do 

not permit sexual harassment, the system 

does not adequately protect the victims of 

sexual harassment after the perpetrator has 

been justly prosecuted. 

This experience has been very painful in 

that I had to face my self, and who I saw 

was not to my liking. I had betrayed the 

trust of a friend and took her agency away. 

I probably lost her as a friend. 


Thus, my understanding of my 

relationship to feminism is constantly 

changing based on my actions as they 

unfold through time and space. After this 

incident, I don't feel like doing any more 

gender research. I feel as if I can't tell when 

I am doing “good” or “bad,” whether I am 

doing something based on my self-interest 

or to help others. I am emotionally drained 

from over the years fighting with the 

institutions that I have been a part, especially 

after my certainty about doing “good” has 

been shaken. 

I was not a scientist objectively 

researching the topic of feminism. I 

researched the topic for personal reasons, 

some of which I am probably still not aware. 

I subjectively inquired into gender issues at 

the academy. What I realize now is that my 

research activities and engagement with 

feminism scholarship and the female cadets 

have profoundly affected who I am and how 

I understand my self. My self 

affected/determined my feminist scholarship 

and my engagement in feminist scholarship 

has profoundly affected my sense of self 

Wanda: 

My conversations with Matthew on the 

feminism theme for the Sc'Moi's conference 

encouraged me to reflect on my own 

motivations for working within the fields of 

diversity, cross-cultural management, and 

leadership in both university and 

professional environments. My work as a 

university professor and consultant in the 

corporate world has been deeply influenced 

by my rich and complex experiences 

growing up as a female on a small island 

with a traditional Hispanic environment and 

culture and as the daughter of a very 

independent, professional, and intelligent 

woman in this milieu. 

Because of my mother's strong 

influence, I learned to question from an early 

age the traditional expectations that are 

placed on women in many Latin countries 

and to desire to do and see much more than 

I could ever see within the borders of our 

229

small island. Because of her courage, I had 

the opportunity to move to the United States 

for high school and go on to obtain a Ph.D., 

travel to many countries around the world, 

work across a wide variety of industries, 

and teach at the university level, all by the 

age of 28. Through all of this and through 

my interactions with similar others, I have 

gained a profound appreciation for and 

strong commitment to helping people from 

diverse backgrounds and walks of life who 

have a very strong potential but are limited 

by the environments in which they live 

and/or work. This focus is at the heart of 

my passion and my work. 

As a child, I was surrounded by many 

women who were intelligent and talented, 

but who were unable to pursue their own 

goals and dreams due to strong cultural and 

social norms and pressures. I watched 

them focus all their time and energy on 

helping others (i.e. their husbands, children, 

and other extended family members) 

achieve their goals as they neglected their 

own desires and dreams day after day 

while they tried to convince themselves that 

they were truly happy. I was constantly 

told by my grandmother and other older 

women in my family and community that I 

needed to learn how to cook, iron, and gain 

some weight, if I wanted to find a man who 

would want me for a wife and love me. I 

experienced many moments of anger and 

frustration, even at my young age, as I 

repeatedly heard comments like this and 

observed the double standards that 

prevailed and were allowed to continue by 

the women in our culture. I often felt like I 

did not belong. I kept dreaming of all the 

things I wanted to do with my life and all the 

places I would go in the world. I wanted to 

attend a high school in the U.S. with a real 

football team!, study French and Italian, take 

art and dance classes, meet and help 

people from around the world, and become 

a teacher, maybe even a university 

professor! All this, I shared with my 

amazing mother who dreamed right along 

with me and who told me that everything I 

wanted to do and see was possible. 


When I was 15, my mother decided that 

she needed to move my sister and I to the 

U.S. To this day, I still thank my mother for 

doing so. I would not be the person and 

woman I am today if my mother had not had 

the courage to leave everything behind to 

move us to the U.S. That short two and a 

half hour flight ended up opening the world 

and countless possibilities up for me. 

Even once I had moved to the U.S., 

however, prior to my earning my Ph.D., I 

encountered others who were trying to be 

“helpful” in helping me to set realistic 

expectations for myself. I once had the 

chair of one of the departments in which I 

took courses for my Ph.D. tell me that I 

needed to be prepared for how tough life 

would be since I was “too pretty, a woman, 

Hispanic, and so young looking”. A few 

years later, I also had a well meaning 

manager advise me that I should hire an 

image consultant to make me look ten years 

older if I wanted to succeed in the 

professional world. I sadly wondered how 

many other people had been held back by 

these two individuals and by the many 

others who are like them out there. At the 

time, I was outraged and angered. But then I 

decided to turn my anger into action, and I 

made it my goal to educate and inspire 

others to help people to grow and live up to 

their potential. 

I guess I would call my approach a quiet 

revolution. I have never chosen to engage 

the feminist literature directly. The reasons 

for my decision are two-fold. Firstly, having 

experienced the complex dynamics of being 

a woman as well as Hispanic, I wanted to 

help others from many different 

backgrounds not focus solely on gender; 

therefore, I chose to focus on diversity more 

broadly. And secondly, I had watched many 

women over the years lose credibility and 

their voice after being labeled a 'feminist'. I 

did not want to take that risk and hinder the 

impact that I wanted to make. I wanted to 

make a statement and a difference via the 

way I lived my life. And I wanted to help 

others from all backgrounds, not just 

230

women, who are held back by their culture, 

societal expectations, or their own beliefs 

and fears. This continues to be one of my 

main purposes in life… to help individuals to 

see that the world is out there waiting and 

to not allow “well meaning” others to define 

how much they are capable of achieving. I 

do so in my work as a mentor with students 

and with leaders in the business world who 

are in a position to recognize and develop 

the potential in others and help them to grow 

and succeed. 

Today, my grandmother calls and says 

to me “I guess it is too late. You will never 

get married at your age”. Little does she 

know, that internally I laugh inside, 

unaffected, thirty something years later, as I 

plan my next university course or 

professional project and pack for my next 

exciting trip to India, Israel, or Turkey. 

Sanjiv: 

The Lion Hearted: Samson and Sanjiv 

I was reading the myth of Samson 

(Grossman, David, 2006) and found how his 

betrayal by all the women in his life, from his 

mother to Delilah, is inherently a framing of a 

moral journey that transpires upon his body; 

the site of his felt experience, where he 

finally brings the house down on himself. 

As I narrate my “I” in terms of Samson, I 

re-enact the self I'm trying to describe. I act 

out, in real time and space, the story of 

Samson and within this set of norms, I selfcraft 

the story of Sanjiv and his Other 

(Dugal & Eriksen). 

I re-enact my story with the Other every 

time. It is the performative and non-narrative 

act that is essential to the narrative itself. 

The concept of 'girlfriend' was new to 

me, just as the concept of 'gentleman' was a 

bit of an anachronism over here. I found 

myself operating in a situation where the 

signs and symbols were unknown to me 

and I was at a loss in the mating game. 

And here may be found something of an 


answer to the question I posed earlier-How 

ought I treat you, the Other, when I re-enact, 

again and again, precisely the same feelings 

I have ever experienced from the start? Or 

in other words, why do we compulsively 

repeat experiences, re-creating in the 

course of our lives, the relationships and 

situations that arouse those feelings? Is it 

because it is precisely here at the very 

center of our framing that we feel the most 

'self' as we 'really are,' in other words, as 

we were at the origin of our lives, at the 

very beginning? 

In 1980, I arrived in New England from 

the old country's commonwealth territory, 

the jewel in its crown, British-Colonial 

India. I was recently divorced and my wife 

and had left the 'administrative system' that 

I'd belonged to: a Brown Sahib in the shoes 

of the white English Man, Ralph Lauren 

style. It was all that I knew. 

As I narrate my “I,” I form myself in 

relation to a set of codes, prescriptions or 

norms and, I do so in ways that reveal selfconstitution 

to be a kind of poiesis. Martin 

Heidegger refers to poiesis as a 'bringingforth', 

using this term in its widest sense. He 

explained poiesis as the blooming of the 

blossom, the coming-out of a butterfly from a 

cocoon, the plummeting of a waterfall when 

the snow begins to melt. The last two 

analogies underline Heidegger's example of 

a threshold occasion: a moment of ecstasis 

when something moves away from its 

standing as one thing to become another. 

In other words, my relationship with the 

Other is brought forth within the context of 

a set of norms that precede and exceed me. 

There is no making of oneself (poiesis) 

outside of a mode of subjectivation and, 

hence, no self-making outside of the norms 

that orchestrate the possible forms that a 

subject may take. 

To understand my experience of 

betrayal by Woman, it became compelling 

to go back to the beginning…with the death 

of my mother, so early in my life that her 

231

memory is a non- happening. 

My purpose in writing in such a fashion 

is to expose those limits and in this way to 

engage in an aesthetics of the self that 

maintains a critical relation to the existing 

norms operating upon me. According to 

Foucault (UP, 28) this requires us to act 

upon ourselves, to monitor, test, improve, 

and transform ourselves. 

Our Response to Each Other 

From Wanda: 

My Response, Reactions to You… 

To Angela: 

I must start by saying you inspire me. 

Reading your account of self made me 

question and reflect on my own path and 

experiences in my life. Have I not been 

courageous enough to step out and voice 

my thoughts and anger more openly? Have I 

been hiding behind the “diversity” word 

instead of more honestly admitting to myself 

and others how I often feel as a woman? 

Could I be making more of an impact on 

others if I were to wrestle with and clarify 

some of my feelings and focus more on the 

experience of women specifically, versus 

that of the broader group? Could I live an 

even more fulfilling life, personally and 

professionally? 

Questions I have for you: 

Do you express yourself as openly with 

others in the military as you have in your 

account of self? In many ways, the male 

dominated business world is much like the 

military, and many women, including myself, 

struggle with expressing, as you so 

beautifully state it, their “own divine 

feminine” and instead conform and 

“constrict (their) will and suffocate (their) 

soul(s)” in order to survive and be 

accepted. What advice would you give 

them? 

Were you purposely not addressing how 

you felt prior to taking the Feminist 


Theology course in graduate school 

because of your position in the military and 

your wish to succeed? Was this a 

conscious decision on your part? 

How exactly do you “subvert and 

infiltrate patriarchal pollution”? And how do 

you maintain the” maneuverability” to do so? 

We share very similar backgrounds in 

terms of our Catholic background and the 

parallels between the Greek and Hispanic 

cultures so I highly relate to your account 

and value learning about your experiences 

and your journey. You have given me much 

to think about and have encouraged me to 

honestly and openly revisit some tough 

questions I have asked myself only privately 

in the past. 

To Sanjiv: 

Your account of self, and its title, is 

poetic and beautifully written. But you 

discuss your experiences and feelings 

primarily in the third person from a removed 

position, in an impersonal, academic way. 

Why is this? 

My questions for you: 

Are you saying that, as Samson, you 

have been betrayed by all the women in 

your life? 

What has caused you to not understand 

the concept of “girlfriend” or “gentleman”? Is 

it yourself that you are referring to when you 

write of this lack of understanding? 

What exactly have you done or are you 

doing “to act upon (yourself), to monitor, 

test, improve, and transform (yourself)”? 

Are you personally at a threshold “ moment 

of ecstasies” in your life? Or are you simply 

writing about the “coming-out of a butterfly 

from a cocoon” occasions for the purpose of 

analyzing such occasions? 

Why do you do this work? What has 

been your own personal journey that has 

brought you here? 

232

To Matthew: 

I appreciate the honesty and level of 

insight that you share in your account of 

self. I was impressed by your ability to be 

vulnerable in sharing your journey, 

particularly the difficult parts of it, with us. 

After reading through your account 

several times, I find myself still struggling 

with the question “What would I have done 

in a similar situation”? As a woman, I am 

outraged by the thought of not being given a 

choice, of having, as you say, my “agency” 

away. I would want to be shown the high 

level of respect that I deserve to make my 

own decision about how to handle the 

difficult situations in my life. It is my right to 

decide how I want to proceed or not 

proceed. 

However, as an outsider, I ask myself 

“Where do we draw the line?” If we are a 

witness to injustices of any kind, should we 

stay quiet and allow them to continue? Is it 

not our responsibility to bring these 

injustices to light and to put a stop to them? 

I agree that the best approach would 

have been to speak directly with her and to 

encourage her to step forward and report 

the incident, for her own sake as well as for 

all women, and others, in the military and 

elsewhere who have dealt with similar 

harassment. 

But what if she did not want to step 

forward? Should we stay quiet and respect 

her wishes, although it would allow many 

others to be exposed to the same potential 

abuse? Where do we draw the line? Could 

there have been another way to bring the 

situation to light without violating her trust 

and confidentiality? 

I see this as a critical question to 

personally address. Where do I draw the 

line between what would be best for me, as 

one woman (either as the insider or as the 

outside witness) and what would be best 

for all women (or for that matter, all 


individuals who are not treated fairly or 

justly)? 

I also wonder: 

Have your experiences at the Academy 

changed how you interact with the women in 

your personal and professional life? 

From Angela: 

Sanjiv: Two statements caught my 

attention loud and clear in your piece. The 

part when you talk about the poesies (which 

I had to look up on dictionary.com at first). 

This is a good way for me to make sense of 

how I became transformed after taking 

feminist theology at BU. I changed from the 

caterpillar into the butterfly because I 

transformed myself in the sense that I was 

able to acknowledge and even embrace my 

own misogyny, racism, heterosexism etc. 

Everyday I make a concerted effort to 

unlearn and uncreate the social norms 

which perpetuate social injustice. I accepted 

my own complicity and evil-making…then I 

took Action. I think this is essential to 

transformation. To give an example… I 

identify as a heterosexual. I took a Queer 

theology class to learn more about my own 

heterosexism and try to un-heterosexize 

myself. It was an amazing experience that 

allowed me to become aware of my own 

privilege. 

The second was when you make the 

statement: “I find that I am caught up in a 

struggle with norms. But could it also be true 

that I would not be in this struggle with 

norms if it were not for a desire to offer 

recognition to you? How do we understand 

this desire?” This statement and these 

questions were very though provoking for 

me in relation to my understanding of the 

Subject and the Other and where I fit in 

when dealing with practical feminism. 

Normativity is nihilistic, constricting, and 

antithetical to that which is (pro)creative and 

life-giving. By using the term (pro)creative, I 

am not alluding to an evolutionary 

understanding of the word but I am referring 

to anything which brings forth creativity, 

233

imagination, life, zest, love. Anyone who 

struggles with normativity or another name 

for this which I will use from here onheternormativity-is 

actualizing their will to 

power. Heteronormatvity pertains to 

systems and structures which denounce 

fluidity, alternatives to reason and rationality, 

and Others' bodies-specifically the 

movement of them in space and time. I use 

the concept “will to power” in the sense of 

how Nietzsche uses it. He argues that the 

will to power inherent in “man” is also his 

desire to dominate (nihilism) and to attain his 

highest value. It is a drive to reject nihilism 

or that which happens when the highest 

value starts to loose its value. Despite the 

fact that he was a raging misogynist, 

something can be taken from this. The 

Subject and the Other are both striving to 

reach their “highest values”-whatever that 

term means. Heteronormativity benefits the 

Subject in this regard…or does it really? Is 

this a phallacy? Is the Subject truly 

actualizing his will to power when he 

internalizes and subscribes to the whitemale 

system? I ask you what does it mean 

to reach our highest values whether as a 

white male or a nonwhite male or a (nonwhite) 

woman? 

The Subject and the Other are caught in 

a complicated pretzel of power relations. 

When I met Matthew, right away, we both 

said no to normalcy and we transcended 

the norms. Still, we are constantly engaging 

these norms and saying no to them. This is 

our will to power. This struggle and 

constant saying NO is constantly changing 

and evolving because it involves finding 

new and different ways to say NO. As a 

theologian, I wonder if it is possible to 

redeem systems and institutions so that 

there can be a time when we do not have to 

say NO? Or is this inherent struggle 

necessary in order to have hope and a zest 

for life. Without a struggle…our will to 

power becomes a mute point. Do we write 

to each other about these things just to feel 

like we are alive? 

The inherent struggle with 


heteronormativity is predicated upon our 

will-our drive to become “infinite” in the way 

Iriguray uses the term “infinite” in Divine 

Women. In my experience I have come to 

the realization that my desire to recognize 

the Other-and the Other for me is the 

translesbigay person or the African 

American woman or the working class Arab 

male--comes from a desire to know myself 

and to seek the “highest value” of myself. I 

realize this: I am the African American 

woman, the FTM, the Arab male. They are 

me. We are interconnected in ways that are 

impossible to explain through reason and 

rationality. The theological writings of 

feminist theologians and theologians who 

write on the topic of nonviolence such as 

Marjorie Suchocki, Walter Wink, and Yoder 

have informed my understanding of 

humanity as interrelated. To make this more 

aesthetic-I imagine a puzzle in which each 

piece makes up the whole…. The puzzle is 

made up of pieces that fit perfectly with 

Other pieces because it is part of the same 

picture. 

Matthew: To you I say I wish I had been 

born your sister. You are more amazing 

than you give yourself credit for. About 

your problem with your friend..: The man 

who sexually harassed her took her agency 

away. The system which favors predators 

over women regardless of whether you 

said anything or not took her agency away. 

Yes you may have made it harder for her to 

reclaim this agency but her grave was dug 

long before you came along. This is coming 

from me-a survivor of military sexual trauma. 

I also say to you: Accept your complicity 

and your own evil-making. It is in us all. 

Embrace it. Embrace the brokenness you are 

feeling now so that you can let it go. At the 

same time, know that you have made such a 

difference in the lives of many young 

women….a difference that not even other 

women can evoke from women. I am as 

sexist as you are and as patriarchal as you 

are. You and I both say NO to the system all 

the time but sometimes it is not possible 

because it is also part of who we are. Don't 

234

hate that part of yourself. If you had not 

come in my life, I would not be on the path I 

am now on. I never would have found 

Heather and Albert and Jean Mills. I have 

been steered in a direction through your 

entrance into my life. I am grateful for this. 

If we take a seesaw, I am quite sure that 

your sexist behaviors and evil doings 

cannot bring down the other side. 

If you are burnt out from working 

on gender issues, then don't do it anymore. 

Or better yet…focus on them with your 

beautiful girls. However, in another sense, 

you will always be working on gender 

issues by the “little things” you do and say 

or don't say on a day to day basis. Ok I will 

stop my preaching now. 

Your narrative made me think of 

how different it is for me as the Other 

working on issues on behalf of the Other 

than for you as the Subject working on 

issues for the Other. It reminds me of a 

conversation I once had with a dear friend. 

He raised the point of how it is one thing for 

a woman to work on women's issues. In a 

sense, this is self-motivated. It is another 

when a man is working for the 

advancement of women. This is in my 

words seeking our highest value. It is not a 

selfish motivation because it simultaneously 

involves seeking the highest value of Other. 

The profeminist thing… 

It is interesting how people “name” you. 

What would you call yourself? Do you agree 

with this assessment? Is pro-feminism 

another name for men who are feminist 

inclined? I have mixed reactions with the 

term. The idea of a feminist is someone 

who believes in the rights in women…to call 

yourself a feminist implies you are including 

yourself in a group. It is not necessarily for 

the rights of women but for the rights of 

feminists. So okay I can understand and 

appreciate that. However, it is a very 

abstracted and disembodied term as well as 

theory-based. This is where my disconnect 

is because words are remarkably powerful 


and political. In my experience, I would not 

call myself a feminist for fear of 

persecution…the first few times I uttered the 

word in social gatherings…it was very 

difficult. Now naming myself a feminist has 

been very powerful for me. While it is good 

not to get too stuck in the “words”, the word 

feminist and BEING one are powerful. I 

guess I might be projecting my experience 

onto those who call themselves 

profeminists. Why can't they just call 

themselves feminists? I know you say you 

would not name yourself as a profeminist 

…as people hail you. I wonder if why you 

don't has anything to do with what I have 

said. I am curious what you're thoughts are. 

Wanda: I am happy to be dialoging with 

you. I am excited to meet you in person. 

Your account makes me think of my own 

personal experiences in a male dominated 

world. I too have been made to feel 

inadequate or not white-male enough in 

many of my jobs and experiences. Now I 

just take the insults as compliments. I 

appreciate your quiet revolution. Your quiet 

approach makes me reflect and contemplate 

my approach. As I mentioned my approach 

is more of a loud revolution. Matthew has 

referred to me as on fire before. Perhaps it 

is a phase and maybe when I join the 

academic world I will alter my methods and 

approach. Secretly I hope not…and I hope 

to find a way to call myself a feminist 

openly….I want to be out of the closet 

completely. 

I guess I may see myself as 

someone who keeps feminists motivated 

within the academic world and probably 

perceived as a “crazy” woman by nonfeminists. 

Outside of academia, in the dayto-day, 

I think I can be good at engaging 

people to discover non-sexist lifestyles. 

There is still much for me to figure out and 

experience. 

I am actually going to attend a PhD 

program in Management that is outside the 

US precisely because in the US I will not be 

encouraged to do research using post- 

235

positivist methods and feminist methods for 

the most part. I am doing this because I 

need to rebuild my soul. My time in the 

military and even at Boston University 

School of Theology have been filled with 

constant struggles and headaches. I want 

to be in a place where I can be appreciated 

for my alternative viewpoints and 

understandings. 

When you mention how you laugh 

to yourself when your grandmother looks 

down on you because you are not 

married…this gives me strength. My friend 

who is also a theology student with me has 

this particular quote on her website: 

“. . . deep and irreplaceable knowledge 

of my capacity for joy comes to 

demand from all of my life that it be 

lived within the knowledge that such 

satisfaction is possible, and does not 

have to be called marriage, nor god, 

nor an afterlife.” 

~ Audre Lorde 

Does this speak to you at all? 

From Sanjiv: 

Dear Angela, 

I read your text and found it powerful 

because it resonates with my experience. I 

found Wanda and Matthew's text equally 

powerful. I have yet to present my text that 

represents my image of myself in movement 

(see Deleuze). My previous email to you 

was clearly partriarchical towards you, 

even when the literature one is citing and 

the site one is carving is jumping into the 

feminist debate. 

I want to problematize our relationship 

so that we can talk about it some more, 

indeed, so that we can talk about it in a 

never-ending kind of way… 

A couple of things I need to clarify, 

particularly because we barely know each 


other. 

(1) I'm positioned in my writing along the 

works of Deleuze and others of his ilk. Thus, 

I'm in the habit of generating text in the same 

way that you did, that is, by presenting 

moving images. So, it is a question of 

generating bypresentingmoving images. 

Personally, though, I've never used celluloid 

as my medium. Nonetheless,both Eriksen 

and I understand the 'moving image' part of 

ourselves. (Please see our presentation to 

the Research Methods Division of the 

Academy of Management in Lyon, France in 

2005) 

Eriksen's image as Dad is in movement; 

and what's more, 

he gets to write the script and, I get the 

front row seat. 

We're all an audience unto each other, in 

this way. And, it's a win-win situation. 

Actor and Audience are One. This 

translates into “looking at you looking at me 

looking at you.” This was the cornerstone of 

Eriksen's dissertation and subsequently, the 

fishbowl. 

So, without the use of celluloid you've 

generated an image of: 

“It marks my transformation from a 

patriarchal woman into a woman selfdefining.” 

And, you embellish this image by: 

“I took the jump off the cliff. I remember 

one particular day very clearly.” 

And, you do this by presenting (in one 

swift and bold movement) 

the moving image of your present/past 

trajectory: 

“My feminist journey was and continues 

to be an embodied, spiritual endeavor, and 

healing my feminine wound is a neverending 

process.” 

(2) In general, I've taken an ethical 

stance of transparency in my writing where 

the goal is always to show where one is 

236

'coming from.' Consequently, my sharing is 

done in a fishbowl consisting of people who 

I perceive as professional friends. Our 

exchange, which may be seen as an 

'episode fragment' in a larger design, is: 

of you and me, by you and me and, of 

you and me. 

'Looking at oneself looking at oneself' 

requires being wary of the tendency of 

'over-interpretation'and narcissism. I see 

your statement as caring-ness when you 

eloquently say: “The next part of my feminist 

journey will involve finding a way to 

articulate this middle path and place it into 

meaningful praxis in the day-to-day.” 

Finally, I hope you will excuse my 

patriarchal nature of my response. But then, 

we're getting there, so long as we are true 

to creating value and not just scoring points. 

Sanjiv: 

Ps: I have yet to respond to Wanda and 

Matthew's and write my own 

autobiographical journey. I have been very 

sick with cold and I've lost my voice 

because of dryness in the bitter cold. But by 

tomorrow I will be all caught up. 

From Matthew: 

Thank you everyone for sharing. 

Reading everyone's writing was quite 

illuminating. Below are the ideas that moved 

through my head as I read and contemplated 

your writings. 

I could see a part of my self through 

reading everyone's writing. What struck me 

was the similarity and uniqueness of each 

of our narratives. The accounts of 

ourselves are a form of self-expression that 

represents each of us. An aspect of each 

of our narratives is concerned with being an 

outsider and of wanting to change the world 

within which we live. All our narratives are 

purposeful, as I feel we all want our lives to 

be. I felt that at least part of that purpose 

comes from trying to help people “like us.” I 

use “like us” in a broad sense to capture 

individuals that share a similar defining 


experience of being the Other. Each of 

these experiences is different in its 

manifestation, but each of us has been 

profoundly impacted by being an outsider at 

some point in our lives, and for whatever 

reason, this experience has become a 

defining experience in our lives and has 

greatly influenced our professional work. 

Our profession has become part of our selfexpression. 

I believe because of this our 

work is authentic; it is who we are: the good 

and bad, the pretty and the ugly, and best 

and the worst. We bring our selves to the 

table. 

From Angela's writing about being a 

self-defining woman, it made me wonder 

whether this is actually possible. I imagine 

self-determination as a quest and constant 

struggle with Others to define our self. 

Since we are social creations, I believe that 

we can never fully escape the power of 

Others' influence on our self understanding. 

It seems that in our quests to be authentic, 

we are all in a struggle for self-determination 

in the wake of some powerful social Other 

that is always trying to wash over us, to 

define us, and who has been successful at 

doing so at times throughout our lives. Yet 

we continually struggle to keep from 

drowning in the interpellations of these 

social Others, discourses or ideologies - 

whatever one wants to call them. It is 

through interacting with each other and 

others like us that we find the strength to 

keep swimming and at times, merely treading 

water. What is so difficult is that we can 

never fully escape the power of these 

social Others because we live within these 

ideologies through our relationships with 

those that enact them. This influence is 

strong, powerful, and pervasive, and we 

struggle to grasp its influence on us and 

then to fight it off in an attempt to define who 

we want to be within the chaotic flux of our 

lived experience and actually be this person 

in our day-to-day lives. 

The difference in our narratives helps 

me understand myself, as well as each one 

of you. Reading our narratives as a group 

237

creates additional meaning to reading each 

of them individually. It is through our 

differences that meaning is created: 

man/woman, American/Puerto Rican/Indian, 

different families, ethnicities, and cultural 

influences, etc. 

In Sanjiv and Angela, I see the influence 

of your academic studies in your narratives 

and the employment of metaphor. Angela 

expresses her emotions and utilizes 

metaphor in describing her transformation 

when she became conscious in her Feminist 

Theology course. Wanda gives a personal 

chronological narrative. Angela and Wanda 

talk of the fight for self-determination against 

the force of paternalistic institutions. 

Sanjiv's writing seems to be, and my writing 

now that I look back at it, a struggle to make 

sense of him self and his reality in general 

and within a particular context - America for 

Sanjiv and the military for me. 

I see how our relationships with people 

influence us: Sanjiv with his wife, Angela 

with her father, Wanda with her mother, and 

me with a female officer. Both Wanda and 

Angela were influenced by individuals 

enacting patriarchal cultures. But for 

Angela it was through men like her father, 

and Wanda through women like her 

grandmother and other women in her local 

community. We do not make sense of our 

selves based on theories alone but rather 

primarily through our lived experience with 

Others. Thus, our understanding of our 

selves is not so much an academic exercise 

but the consequence of our embodied 

experiences. 

I realize that each of our positions with 

respect to feminism is unique, contingent, 

and in constant formation. We are not 

scientists doing objective research but 

embodied individuals expressing our selves 

through our scholarship. 

Conclusion 

Through engaging in our community of 

critically reflexive feminist scholars, it 


became clear to us that our engagement in 

[feminist] scholarship is not about finding 

some Truth that exist outside of us, but 

rather is about creating a particular truth 

between us. A truth that is dependent upon 

who we are and how we understand the 

topic that we are researching. The scholar 

is part of his or her scholarship, not 

something separate of it. Because of this, 

who the scholar is always affects his or her 

scholarship and research and its 

conclusion, and he or she is always 

changed by engaging in scholarship. 

Within this process, as we explored and 

developed our selves, we also explored and 

developed our understanding of feminism. In 

creating an account of our self, we each 

deliberately wrestled with the fundamental 

question of why we engage in feminist 

scholarship by taking an honest look at our 

past, often painful and uncomfortable, 

experiences that have led us to our present 

feminist scholarship. Sharing our accounts 

with each other then allowed us to make 

further strides in our self understanding and 

development through reflecting on each 

other's paths and experiences and 

considering how they mirror or diverge from 

on our own. This enlarged the arena of 

possibilities for gaining deeper insights far 

beyond the insights we could have gained 

by engaging in the self-reflection in solitude. 

In sharing and responding to our accounts, 

we considered each other's, and then 

consequently our own, courage, fears, and 

alternative, expanded paths for our work 

and personal growth moving forward. 

The benefit of our reflexivity within our 

community of inquiry is that it has allowed us 

to understand our subjectivity beyond our 

epistemological and ontological assumption. 

It made us realize our humanity as 

researchers and its effect on our research. 

Our research is not a scientific endeavor for 

Truth but rather a personal pursuit of 

meaning and self understanding and 

development. Also, our process points to 

the limitations of our research. This does 

not discredit the meaningfulness of our 

238


research, but rather puts it in perspective. 

56(8), 983-1003. 

By giving an account of our selves, 

reading each other's account, responding to 

each other's account and sharing these 

responses, we consciously grappled with 

how we conceive of our selves. This 

created a shared space, a community, 

within which to imagine new possibilities of 

becoming and topics an approach to our 

feminist scholarship. Of course, these 

presentations of our selves are not the 

complete self that exists at a particular 

moment in time. Some parts we have 

consciously chosen not to expose, others 

lay hidden below our consciousness and 

others have yet to emerge. We engage with 

and honor each others humanity. Through 

this process, we have become more 

critically reflexive scholars and have been 

transformed by one another. 

References 

Althusser, L. 1971. Lenin and Philosophy 

and Other Essays. London: New 

Left Books 

Alvesson, M & Sköldberg, K. 2000. 

Reflexive methodology: New vistas 

for qualitative research towards a 

reflexive methodology. London: 

Sage. 

Bakhtin, M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination, 

Austin, TX: University of Texas. First 

published in 1935. 

Bulter, J. 2005. Giving an Account of 

Oneself, Fordham University Press. 

Burrell, G. & Morgan, G. 1979. Sociological 

paradigms and organizational 

analysis. Aldershot: Gower. 

Colebrook, C. 2005. Gilles Deleuze. 


Cunliffe, A.L. 2003. “Reflexive inquiry in 

organizational research: Questions 

and possibilities.” Human Relations, 

Dewey J. (1908). How we think. Boston: D. 

C. Heath and Company. 

Dugal, S. & Eriksen, M. 2004. 

“Understanding and Transcending 

Team Member Differences: A Felt- 

Experience Exercise.” Journal of 

Management Education, 28 (4), 492- 

508. 

Dugal. S., Eriksen, M., Mallon, K., & Roy, M.H. 

2003. “Campus bitch & white trash: 

Pardoning the injury of language acts 

in participatory contexts.” Tamara: 

Journal of Critical Postmodern 

Organization Science. 2 (3), 36-41. 

Dugal. S., Eriksen, M., & Matthews, R. 2007. 

“Researching gender and feminism: 

Evoking differential images for 

exploring shared affect and 

emergent expression across 

identities and memory.” Second 

International Conference Co- 

Sponsored by ISEOR and Research 

Methods Division of the Academy of 

Management (USA), University Jean 

Moulin Lyon 3 (France), Lyon, March 

26-28, 2007. 

Eriksen, M. (2001). The electronic fishbowl 

as a community of inquiry: 

Management passion in the XXIst 

century. (Doctoral dissertation, 

University of Rhode Island, 1990). 

(UMI No. 3025539) (UMI No. 

9315947). 

Eriksen, M. 2007. “Personal Leadership 

Conundrum.” Journal of 

Management Education, 31 (2). 

Flusser V. (2000). Towards a Philosophy of 

Photography. (Anthony Matthews, 

Trans.). London: Reaktion Books. 

Hall, S. (1997). The spectacle of the “other.” 

In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation: 

Cultural representationsand 

239


signifying practices (pp. 223-290). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 


through which she will teach creativity 

Matthew Eriksen worked for four years with 

female cadets to change the gendered 

workshops internationally. 

culture of the Coast Guard Academy Angela Hope is a PhD Candidate at St. 

towards greater equality for female cadets Mary's Sobey School of Business. Her 

and officers. He teaches leadership research interests are in the intersection of 

and organizational behavior. His major area theological metanarratives/ Rationalities with 

of writing and research are leadership organizational theories and be- 

development, gender and leadership, havior; crafting a dialogue between feminist/ 

diversity, organizational change, and process theological discourses and critical 

pedagogy. Matthew consults in the areas management thought; and organization 

of executive leadership develop-ment, (epistemic) violence. 

organizationalchange, and executive 

coaching. 

Wanda V. Chaves, Ph.D. teaches 

leadership, organizational behavior, crosscultural 

management, and HR. She has 

worked in the field of Organization 

Development for the past ten years with 

clients such as Walt Disney World; Boeing 

Commercial Airlines; Deutsche Bank Private 

Banking Latin America; Pricewaterhouse 

Coopers, Tel-Aviv, Israel; and EuroCredit 

Bank, St. Petersburg, Russia. Her latest 

adventure is the start of her own 

organization called The CREO Institute 

Sanjiv S. Dugal teaches Design and Change 

and Cross-Cultural Management at the 

University of Rhode Island. His writings 

address management issues concerning 

self-reflexivity and disclosing feltexperiences 

in critical thinking and research. 

He teaches a rhetorical device to set up a 

community of practice in an electronic 

fishbowl. Thereby, his writings also address 

issues of transparency, the virtual and the 

real. 

240

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Tamara Journal Attn: David Boje 

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Vol 6 Double Issue 6.3 & 6.4 2007 ISSN 1532-5555 

What is TAMARA? 

As a tag for the journal - TAMARA, is the 

“stories we chase from room to room in the 

mansion of organization science.” In the play 

TAMARA a dozen characters unfold their 

stories before a walking, sometimes running, 

audience. The spectators are expected to 

choose which characters to follow from room 

to room. The play by John Krizanc was first 

performed in Canada in 1981. The audience 

fragments into small groups that chase 

characters from one room to the next, from 

one floor to the next, even going into 

bedrooms, kitchens, and other chambers to 

chase and co-create the stories that interest 

them the most. If there are a dozen stages 

and a dozen storytellers, the number of story 

lines an audience could trace as it chases the 

wandering discourses of Tamara is 12 

factorial (479,001,600). Each character in 

Krizanc’s play changes their mask from 

scene to scene, making it more impossible to 

make sense of the plot. And the spectators 

become “informers” and “spies” and therefore 

part of the multiple pathway stories 

networked across the interconnected stages 

of this play. One theme of the play is fascism 

and how the ethics of each individual, 

especially the audience, is complicit in the 

plot. No one is an innocent by-stander in 

Tamara. We pay tribute to Krizanc’s (1989) 

play and note its more critical theory and 

postmodern implications. 

Web-site: http://tamarajournal.com 

241

Trandisciplinarity and Organizational change - Christophe ASSENS

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