Organisation

STRATÉGIE ET SOCIOLOGIE DE L’ENTREPRISE (ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIOLOGY AND STRATEGY)

Claude Michaud and Jean-Claude Thoenig
Village Mondial, 2001, 239 pages.

This book sheds clear light on the role of management and language in the organization.

These two researchers show how the essence of strategic management is to manage complexity, i.e. ensure short-term performance while preparing for the future, maintain consistency in diverse markets, etc. They then make readers aware of the importance of language in surmounting this challenge, that is, shared language specific to the organization serves as a valuable framework to support and guide collective initiatives. On this premise, they focus on the role of management as organizational architect and facilitator of shared language development.

Written in a very demanding and conceptual style, this book is nevertheless firmly grounded in the real world. Two entire chapters are devoted to two respective case studies that use real companies to illustrate the theories presented in the book.

This book is recommended to anyone who would like to learn more about the role of corporate leaders as organizational architects.

Claude Michaud is CEO of CEDEP and associate researcher at the CNRS (French National Scientific Research Center). Jean-Claude Thoenig is a professor at INSEAD and director of research at the CNRS.