Annie Camus

A Mosquito in the Classroom: Using the Cooperative Business Model to Foster Paradoxical Thinking in Management Education

Although the paradox perspective is gaining increasing attention among management scholars, most of us continue to struggle with addressing this challenging topic in the classroom, as it seems out of reach for many students. In this article, we describe a potentially beneficial way to approach paradoxical thinking in management education: teaching the cooperative business model. Cooperatives are user-owned, user-controlled, and user-benefitting enterprises that operate in the world’s most competitive economies and sectors of activity, demonstrating strong resilience in periods of turbulence and crisis. We argue that, despite the absence of the cooperative business model in mainstream management textbooks and curricula, this model can offer a high pedagogical value for management education in that it can foster paradoxical thinking. To support this claim, we first demonstrate how the cooperative business model is characterized by inherent paradoxes that are more salient and inescapable than they might be in conventional corporations, thus generating tension-filled material for student engagement. Second, we share experiential pedagogical tools and suggest potential learning outcomes. Finally, we discuss some practical implications for integrating cooperatives and other alternative organizations in mainstream management education curricula to help develop paradoxical thinking.

Capitalizing on the Co-op Business Model to Bolster Paradoxical Thinking in Management Education

The paradox perspective is gaining more and more attention among scholars in management and organization theory. In this paper, we argue for management education to follow suit in order to better p...

Les défis du partenariat en contexte de changement

Que ce soit une nouvelle politique gouvernementale ou des reorganisations municipales, les changements ont des incidences importantes pour l’administration municipale et pour ses partenaires. Il faut alors revoir la configuration du partenariat et trouver de nouveaux arrangements institutionnels, ce qui peut avoir des consequences importantes pour les partenaires. Par exemple, les Corporations de developpement economique communautaire (CDEC) montrealaises, apres avoir ete mandataires du Centre local de developpement (CLD) de Montreal, sont aujourd’hui agreees en tant que CLD. Nees d’initiatives locales de developpement economique communautaire pour revitaliser les anciens quartiers industriels de Montreal, les CDEC etaient bien placees pour recevoir un mandat de centre local de developement a Montreal. La nouvelle ville resultant des fusions allait-elle remettre en cause cet acquis? Suivant a la trace la naissance et l’evolution du partenariat, des origines des CDEC jusqu’au recent contrat de ville, les auteures analysent l’impact du mandat de centre local de developpement sur la configuration de la CDEC et ouvre la voie a de futures recherches sur la configuration meme du rapport de partenariat.