Only 20% of employees worldwide said they were engaged in their work in 2021, according to a Gallup study. A dissatisfaction linked in part to the difficulty in finding meaning in the missions entrusted and which was expressed through the phenomenon of massive resignation observed during the health crisis caused by the Covid-19. But this deep malaise is also linked to the “almost generalized skepticism of the world of work with regard to management as it is practiced”.
In an essay published by PUF, The erotics of administration. Philosophical reflections on the end of management, the philosopher Ghislain Deslandes thus evokes “a breathless conception of management, which brings to light the ever more glaring discrepancy between the way of conducting collective action and the way in which it is actually experienced by the women and men who participate in it”. Proof of this rejection, “a tiny minority of employees say they want to one day become managers themselves”.
The concept of management is today plunged into a fog, explains Mr. Deslandes. What are the springs of the disavowal that affects it? What new goals should it pursue to initiate its renewal? And finally, “What can philosophy do in this complete overhaul of business administration” ? The author develops these axes of reflection through his last essay, where the thought of Pascal (1623-1662) regularly serves as a guide to the reader.
Focusing on describing the dominant managerial practice, the author evokes the “King Cipher”. The one who “tends to impose a normative and unequivocal mode of management, which decides without ambiguity who are the winners and the losers, and which leaves little room for interpretation and discord”. Mr. Deslandes deplores a “predilection for access to truth in organizations based on figures”. A “governance by numbers” Or “Measurement has replaced judgment since measuring ultimately amounts to judging”he summarizes.
merit, respect
But the author reminds us that a manager must also consist in weighing, in feeling, in grasping the incalculable. Management must “count on an ethical requirement where the circuit of affects takes precedence”. The author thus invites us to think about the crisis of exchange, ” We “, for better consideration of the collective and its interactions in the management of workers. In doing so, he believes that, in managerial thinking, the ” Why “ (the end as a goal), so far in the shadow of ” how “, must find its place. One way to take into account the “quest for meaning” employees.
You have 27.49% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.