Valérie Michaud

Mediating the Paradoxes of Organizational Governance through Numbers

Despite abundant prescriptions regarding what boards should do, we know little about what they actually do, especially in the face of the paradoxical goals of both ensuring control (as expressed in agency theory) and fostering collaboration (as expressed in stewardship theory) simultaneously. Drawing from the study of a co-operative over a 10-year period (including ethnographic data collection spanning 3 years), this paper shows the role of numbers in mediating paradoxes of governance. We show that numbers from very different spheres support different models of governance, prompt their change, but also their coexistence. Paradoxical control–collaboration dynamics are embraced, fed by two number-supported micro-practices: personalizing/professionalizing issues and creating new calculable spaces. These practices enable board members to both “act at a distance” and control, while they are also “kept at a distance” from the general manager, who ensures the board’s collaboration.

La politique d’achat d’une coopérative de solidarité en environnement - Outil de gestion, objet de médiation des tensions

La gestion des entreprises sociales et solidaires est marquee par diverses tensions, que ce soit entre visees ou parties prenantes multiples. Cet article aborde la gestion de ces tensions sous l’angle d’un outil de gestion, une politique d’achat, au sein d’une cooperative de solidarite en environnement. L’etude de l’evolution de cette politique et de son application revele le role d’objet de mediation qu’elle joue pour diverses tensions (de belonging , d’organizing et de performing ), ainsi qu’une tension entre ideaux et pratiques.

Words fly away, writings remain – paradoxes in and around documents: A methodological proposition

Purpose This paper makes a case for the investigation of organizational paradoxes through the analysis of documents. After having presented what paradoxes are and the methodological challenges of studying them, the paper turns to document research, with emphasis on its potential contribution to paradox research. More specifically, document research typically provides ready-to-code data in a nonintrusive manner, allowing for the potential longitudinal, multilevel and multivoice analysis of organizational paradoxes and their management, in practice. To illustrate this, the purpose of this paper is to explore exemplar research based on multiple approaches to the study of different paradoxes in/around various documents and sets a research agenda. Design/methodology/approach Exemplar research on paradoxes using organizational documents as central data are presented. This highlights the range of documents and analytical strategies that can be used to explore organizations’ discursive management of paradoxes, as well as the roles documents can play in organizational contexts marked by different types of paradoxes. Findings A research agenda is developed, formulated around the needs to study paradoxes within documents and around them; grasp the discursive strategies deployed in documents to deal with paradoxes and/or the action of documents in contexts marked by paradoxes; follow the organizational processes involving documents, paying special attention to the paradoxes surrounding the development, adoption and appropriation of documents; and compare paradoxes in documents and those around the documents’ mobilization. Originality/value Despite growing interest in organizational paradoxes, reflections on methodological approaches to exploring them remain scarce and alternative methods largely unexplored. This paper makes the following proposition: organizational documents (strategic plans, annual reports, policies, websites, etc.) can provide a valuable entry point to explore organizational paradoxes.

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...