Presentation Fields of research Members of the centre Publications Teaching Fellows Guests Ongoing research Mass media Online resources News update

 

Olivier Cousin

Les cadres à l'épreuve du travail

• Olivier Cousin,
  Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, octobre 2008
  
  
  
  
  
  How managers deal with work
  What is the meaning of work today? What does it consist of and how is it carried out on an everyday basis? Why does it convey such a complex and confused image since, at one and the same time, we all dream of having a job and if possible, a good job, while we are constantly complaining and criticizing it? Work is a strange subject which is always described in the singular. In reality, our daily and routine experience reveals its multiple aspects which are very difficult to put together as a whole.
  In order to describe this, the author decided to get a job for 18 months in a major metallurgical firm and to observe work situations, to participate in discussions both at work and informally and to question the managers about their activities, about what they do and do not manage to do, what they would like to do and what they have to do. This immersion in work is an attempt to reconstitute the extent of its positive aspects and its ambivalence, dismissing both the enchanted visions of work which stress its self-fulfillment and desire to conquer and the hyper-critical interpretations which see this managerial rhetoric as mere manipulation and alienation. Work is a set of tasks which are characterized by their relative independence and their lack of hierarchical ranking. It can be both hard and interesting, a source of fulfillment of the individual and a source of immense frustration when it is not recognized. It very rarely corresponds to what the organization of labour advertises, forecasts and prescribes.

News