Marie-Léandre Gomez

The Emergence of an Influential Practice: Food for Thought

How do influential practices initially emerge? Bourdieu’s work offers an approach to answering this question and connecting local micro and field-level macro phenomena. We empirically build on this framework to analyse how the practice of using vegetables as gastronomic ingredients emerged in the field of haute cuisine at three-star chef Alain Passard’s Arpège restaurant. Based on multilevel and longitudinal data, we describe the practice and account for its emergence based on Passard’s habitus and his position in the field of haute cuisine. Our research contributes to the practice-based literature by highlighting the complicity between the agent and the field, and it contributes to institutional theory-based studies by accounting for the genesis of a new influential practice initiated by an individual insider.

A Bourdieusian Perspective on Strategizing

The use and the study of ‘practice’ has been widely developed in organization and strategic management research as an intermediary level of analysis between individuals, organizations, market fields and institutions. Bourdieu’s work has been largely mobilized in these studies, particularly within the attempt to define practice, for example by Jarzabkowski (2004), Johnson et al. (2003), Whittington (1996, 2006), Chia and Holt (2006). However, as asserted by Chia (2004), “advocates of practice-based approaches to strategy research may have underestimated the radical implications of the work of practice social theorists such as Bourdieu […] who they rely upon to justify this turn to practice” (Chia 2004: 30). Yet, authors mainly base on the characteristics of practice and on the relation between practice and habitus to understand how individuals develop their practical capacity to strategizing, but they mainly remain at a descriptive stage. They do not take into account the complete possibilities of the framework, mainly because they neglect the concept of field, which is nevertheless essential to understand the link between individuals and action. As Bourdieu puts it, “the ‘subject’ of what is sometimes called ‘company policy’ is quite simply the field of the firm or, put it more precisely, the structure of the relation of force between the different agents that belong to the firm”(Bourdieu 2005: 69). This highlights the struggling nature of strategy as a practice, a struggle for power, a political fight over time between agents. The aim of this paper is to propose a comprehensive perspective on practice by taking into consideration the core notions of field and habitus. I propose to consider strategizing as a practice. This emphasizes the ‘doing’ of multiple agents; the embodied and tacit aspects; the symbolic violence and power issues at stake. As a consequence, strategizing refers to the practice of motivated agents engaged in struggles and to account more completely for the relation of forces (and their development) between them.

Dishing up individual and collective dimensions in organizational knowing

This article investigates the interplay between individual and collective dimensions in organizational knowing. We ground our analysis on the case of a gourmet restaurant managed by three different head chefs over an eight-year observation window from 2000 to 2008. We find organizational differences between the three periods although apart from head chef changes, the cooking team itself remained stable. Building on a parallel between knowing and habitus, we take into account the chefs’ trajectories, the ‘doing’ of agents in the organization, and organization and field characteristics. We show that in each period, the chef ’s knowing deeply permeated the restaurant. We demonstrate that the individual, collective, organizational and even field dimensions form a system of interdependence in knowing, where each dimension influences and is influenced by the others. Emphasizing the bidirectional nature of these relationships, we argue that a relational approach is necessary to better understand knowing.

Creativity in Haute Cuisine: Strategic Knowledge and Practice in Gourmet Kitchens

Creativity is considered essential because it is the seed for innovation and thus is viewed as key to building a competitive advantage, particularly in the restaurant industry. However, little research has detailed how creativity, as a specific activity, occurs. We investigate creativity in high-end restaurants with a practice-based perspective, which emphasizes the social, situated, relational, material, and perceptual dimensions of creativity. We build on an empirical in-depth study of three French Michelin-starred restaurants to examine the minutiae of creative practices. We show that creativity is organized in space and time and distinguish three types of creative work in gourmet restaurants.

Keys to successful implementation of a French national quality indicator in health care organizations: a qualitative study.

BackgroundSeveral countries have launched public reporting systems based on quality indicators (QIs) to increase transparency and improve quality in health care organizations (HCOs). However, a prerequisite to quality improvement is successful local QI implementation. The aim of this study was to explore the pathway through which a mandatory QI of the French national public reporting system, namely the quality of the anesthesia file (QAF), was put into practice.MethodSeven ethnographic case studies in French HCOs combining in situ observations and 37 semi-structured interviews.ResultsA significant proportion of potential QAF users, such as anesthetists or other health professionals were often unaware of quality data. They were, however, involved in improvement actions to meet the QAF criteria. In fact, three intertwined factors influenced QAF appropriation by anesthesia teams and impacted practice. The first factor was the action of clinical managers (chief anesthetists and head of department) who helped translate public policy into local practice largely by providing legitimacy by highlighting the scientific evidence underlying QAF, achieving consensus among team members, and pointing out the value of QAF as a means of work recognition. The two other factors related to the socio-material context, namely the coherence of information systems and the quality of interpersonal ties within the department.ConclusionsPublic policy tends to focus on the metrological validity of QIs and on ranking methods and overlooks QI implementation. However, effective QI implementation depends on local managerial activity that is often invisible, in interaction with socio-material factors. When developing national quality improvement programs, health authorities might do well to specifically target these clinical managers who act as invaluable mediators. Their key role should be acknowledged and they ought to be provided with adequate resources.

Sociomateriality and the Transnational Expansion of Soft Regulation: Michelin in Haute Cuisine around the World

How do rules and norms expand internationally? In particular, how do those soft rules, which are generated by non-state actors, travel and impact new regions, and become modified? We tackle this question with the study of the international expansion of the Michelin Red Guide rating of restaurants and investigate the expansion of these soft rules within a sociomaterial perspective.