N° 46 - Décembre 1996

TRIAL BY FACT

THE IMPACT OF UNCERTAINTY IN MATTERS OF REGULATIONS ON STRATEGIES FOR DISPOSING OF SPECIAL WASTES: THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY'S EXAMPLE

Jean-Philippe Bonardi and Magali Delmas

Regulations for dangerous wastes are intended to limit the risks of pollution by reducing the production of such wastes and increasing the capacity for treating them. In the 1980s, there were predictions that the means for treating wastes would be insufficient; but nowadays, there is an overcapacity. What impact do regulations really have on transactions between chemists and waste disposal operators?

LEARNING COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY IN THE HOSPITAL: AN EXPERIENCE TO SHARE

Xavier Berbain

A service headed by someone who dreams of improving the organization An ad hoc collection of soft- and hardware designed out a concern for the quality of patient service A multitude of actors on whom the success or failure of the transplant depends All this is a familiar mixture. How do computer technology and the service's organization come into interaction? How do actors switch from learning to innovating? To see into all this more clearly, let's go back to the field

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

Jean-Louis Peaucelle

In issue n Ú 41, F. Pavé highlighted the significant lag between the conviction of computer industrialists about the quite positive gains stemming from their technology and the perception of economists and sociologists when they try to measure the actual effects. The debate goes on Despite the improved means of analysis, the question still remains: does computer technology do more than cover its costs?

OVERLOOKED REALITIES

PROSPECTS IN THE SEED INDUSTRY: WHEN LINGUISTICS TRACKS WHAT IS LEFT UNSAID

Vincent Mangematin and Marie-Sylvie Poli

According to a current saying, knowledge increases when it is shared. How do scientists share know-how? And how does this sharing enhance their knowledge of the techniques they hope to manage? An ingenious detour via linguistics sheds light on social actors' strategies and tactics for saying neither too much nor too little.

ASSESSMENT STUDIES BETWEEN STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY: THE EXAMPLE OF PUBLIC WETLAND POLICIES

Laurent Mermet

Between saving an exceptional environmental heritage and promoting development projects, the conservation of wetlands is one priority of policies for protecting nature. But do such policies work? This question implies making assessments, a shifting field where the experts of an emerging science face off the practitioners of public affairs.

MOSAICS

Sylvie Chevrier: All of management! On: Traditional management and beyond: A matter of renewal by Omar Aktouf

Vincent Mangematin: For a global view of the society where we live: On L'ordre économique de la société moderne. Un réexamen de la théorie de la régulation by Bernard Billaudot

Frédérique Pallez: Societies sick of work? On: Le travail, une valeur en voie de disparition by Dominique Méda

Guy Érard: The firm's horizons: On Comptes et récits de la performance. Essai sur le pilotage de l'entreprise by Philippe Lorino

Jean-Luc Metzger: It's not easy being a manager! On Les illusions du management by Jean-Pierre Le Goff

DEBATES

CAPITAL CONTROL AND SHAREHOLDERS' RIGHTS

Laurent Batsch and Bertrand Collomb

In Gérer et comprendre's June issue, Bertrand Collomb, the Lafarge Group's president of the board and CEO, mentioned the changes in this group's policy with regard to its shareholders, and discussed differences between French and Anglo-American practices. A researcher has opened the debate. By reviewing corporate law, he raises questions and asks Bertrand Collomb for specifics.

A CERTAIN VIEW FROM NORWAY

Isabelle Knock

OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES

A MAJOR INNOVATION IN MANAGEMENT: DISCOUNTED CASH FLOW AND THE PROFIT-EARNING CAPACITY OF INVESTMENTS DURING THE 1960s

Anne Pezet

Till now discounted cash flow has remained a nearly exclusively Anglo- American practice. The history of how firms have slowly adopted this quite old technique fits into the history of technology and its concepts. The French case turns out to be instructive given how early this innovation - which came out of a long tradition of economic calculations -arose. This case sheds light on the relation between innovation in management and the socio-economic context. This relation is more a sort of loose determinism than a rigid causality.

IN QUEST OF THEORIES

CHANGING SIGHTS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST JOBLESSNESS

Michel Berry

Society expects firms to pull it out of the current recession; and economists, to provide the appropriate remedies. But these expectations are unreasonable given the competitive pressures bearing down on companies. In fact, they even stem from a diagnostic error: society does not suffer just from a job crisis but from a crisis of meaning. By seeing the ways meaning is produced in- and outside firms and by reinforcing them, we can examine the crisis of meaning and, in addition, create jobs. To help set off such a trend, persons enrolled on unemployment could be placed in the service of certified associations.