Samuel Sponem

Le gestionnaire public en question - La difficile conciliation des logiques bureaucratique et managériale

Des ses origines, le Nouveau management public a mis au cœur de sa doctrine l’importance de faire emerger un gestionnaire public dote d’un veritable pouvoir de decision, d’une autonomie de gestion et de processus de reddition de comptes permettant de definir l’imputabilite des dirigeants publics (Hood, 1991). Pratiquement, les nombreuses reformes administratives qui en ont decoule, notamment dans les pays de l’OCDE, ont fortement interroge les institutions, institutionnalise la notion de « resultats » des organisations publiques (Pettigrew, 1997) et suscite des debats passionnes sur la gestion par resultats et de quete de performance publique sur les roles, fonctions et responsabilites des gestionnaires publics (Peters, 1987 et 2008).

Les gestionnaires publics à l’épreuve des résultats

e second volet du dossier intitule Le gestionnaire public en question. Administration et instrumentation (voir la premiere partie du dossier dans le n° 250/2015 de la RFG)1 aborde plus particulierement la maniere dont les cadres officiels de gestion et les nouveaux outils et instruments de la gestion questionnent et transforment l’activite des gestionnaires publics. Rappelons que c’est dans la foulee des reformes issues du nouveau management public que les tentatives de delimitation des responsabilites inherentes aux roles et fonctions des principaux acteurs de la gouvernance publique se sont heurtees a des tensions intrinseques a l’imputabilite des Ministres et des hauts fonctionnaires qui relevent de leur autorite (Tiernan et Weller, 2009 ; Weller, 2001 ; Wyse et Vilkinas, 2004 ; Walter, 2006 ; C

Is Commitment to Performance based Management Compatible with Commitment to University “Publicness”? Academics’ Values in French Universities

Individuals’ values in the context of NPM-based reforms are a central theme in studies of public professional organizations. While organization studies mainly focus on “professional” values, research on public administration primarily addresses the issue of “public” values. This article brings these two research streams together in order to investigate the relationship between two sets of individual values—commitment to performance-based management and normative publicness—in the context of French public universities. It draws on a quantitative survey of academics involved in university governance. The study demonstrates that a positive attitude towards performance-based management is negatively correlated with commitment to university publicness; furthermore, it delineates different groups within the academic profession—according to professional status, managerial position within the organization, and the department’s reputation and ability to generate revenues—which have differing attitudes regarding performance-based management and university publicness.

Exposing organizational tensions with a non-traditional budgeting system

PurposeThe Beyond Budgeting movement has argued that traditional budgets failed to contribute to the management of tensions associated with the increasing complexity of business models. The literature has reported a range of budgeting practices developed to address these problems, which the authors refer to collectively as “non-traditional (NT) budgets.” The purpose of this paper is to consider how the design and use of a NT budgeting system facilitates the management of multiple organizational tensions.Design/methodology/approachThe study reports the findings of an in-depth case study on three business units (BUs) of the French chemical giant SSB, a company that implemented a NT budget inspired by the Beyond Budgeting Round Table model.FindingsThe authors provide detailed empirical insights into the design and use of a NT budgeting system and analyze the manner in which the new system exposes organizational tensions across multiple axes.Research limitations/implicationsIt is a limitation of the study that only three of SSB 21 BU’s which implemented the NT budget project were examined in depth. This limitation is mitigated to some extent by the review of audit reports in respect of the implementation of the NT budget in a total of 15 BU’s.Practical implicationsThe study contributes a means of analyzing NT budgets in terms of the different types of organizational tensions generated, which should be of use to both researchers and practitioners in researching, designing, and evaluating NT budgets.Originality/valueThis study provides detailed empirical insights into the design and use of a NT budgeting system and evidence of the success of this system in exposing organizational tensions across multiple axes. The study illustrates how productive tensions can be generated through the analysis of discrepancies between alternative views of organizational performance.

Entre obligation de conformité et leadership stratégique

Les chefs des finances et les controleurs doivent a la fois assumer des responsabilites en matiere de reddition de comptes et jouer un role de partenaire d’affaires aupres de la haute direction et des differentes unites d’une organisation. Comment peuvent-ils concilier ces deux exigences ?

Le gestionnaire public en question. 1 - Institution et organisation

Des ses origines, le Nouveau management public a mis au cœur de sa doctrine l’importance de faire emerger un gestionnaire public dote d’un veritable pouvoir de decision, d’une autonomie de gestion et de processus de reddition de comptes permettant de definir l’imputabilite des dirigeants publics (Hood, 1991). Pratiquement, les nombreuses reformes administratives qui en ont decoule, notamment dans les pays de l’OCDE, ont fortement interroge les institutions, institutionnalise la notion de « resultats » des organisations publiques (Pettigrew, 1997) et suscite des debats passionnes sur la gestion par resultats et de quete de performance publique sur les roles, fonctions et responsabilites des gestionnaires publics (Peters, 1987 et 2008).

The role of accounting in the making of the bank customer: transferring capital ‘d'une main OISIVE dans une main LABORIEUSE’

This article explores the role that accounting played in the development and transformation of a new banking model created at the end of the nineteenth century in a context influenced by the ideas of Saint-Simon. The Saint-Simonian doctrine emphasised the economic necessity to massively finance the growth of the industrial sector. Deposit banks such as the Crédit Lyonnais were intended to drain dormant capital from savers, even the most modest, and direct it towards industry, the heart of economic activity. This development model required the implementation of an accounting system, in part non-financial, in order to manage the many customers and local branches. We will show how the accounting system revealed a significant increase in the overheads linked to the new economic model and how this triggered the emergence of a new figure, the paying customer, whose income was to be captured. Accounting played a decisive role in the transformation by showing the costs of the draining policy. This revelation led the Crédit Lyonnais to draw away from the Saint-Simonian doctrine. Savers would gradually be transformed into paying customers subject to banking fees, prefiguring the bank of the twentieth century with its resolutely capitalist logic.