Business Elites and Corporate Governance in France and the UK

Maclean, Mairi; Harvey, Charles; Press, Jon

doi:10.1057/9780230511736

Cited by 118 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Power is the pivotal notion in the study of human society (Clegg, 1989;Haugaard & Clegg, 2009;Judt, 1979), integral to the study of capitalism and its managerial elites (Maclean, Harvey, & Chia, 2010;Maclean, Harvey, & Press, 2006). History likewise has accorded undue attention to political power brokers and captains of industry relative to the lives of ordinary people (Collingwood, 1993;Sewell, 2005).…”

Section: Managerialism and Social Movement Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing Historical Organization Studies

Maclean

Harvey

Clegg

2016

AMR

Self Cite

286

266

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Section: Managerialism and Social Movement Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing Historical Organization Studies

Maclean

Harvey

Clegg

2016

AMR

Self Cite

286

266

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“…The research underpinning this article stems from a wider cross-national, comparative project on business elites and corporate governance in France and the UK conducted by the authors since 1999 (Maclean et al, 2006. This has three dimensions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In his book, Mon vrai journal, Messier and Messarovitch (2002) relates a conversation between Bébéar and other business leaders which is IJOA 22,4 reputed to have taken place at a Franco-Welsh rugby match in Cardiff: " [Messier] represents a danger to the marketplace of Paris, and to France's image abroad", Bébéar is reported to have said. "We must act, we must have his scalp" (Maclean et al, 2006).…”

Section: Jean-marie Messiermentioning

confidence: 99%

Elite connectivity and concerted action in French organization

Maclean

Harvey

2014

International Journal of Organizational Analysis

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Purpose -The purpose of this study is to explore some of the distinctive features of organizing and organization in France which set it apart from organization in other nations, and which are fundamental to its modus operandi. In particular, this article is concerned with elite connectivity and concerted action by elite "connectors". Design/methodology/approach -The research underpinning this article stems from a cross-national comparative project on business elites and corporate governance in France and the UK. This has three dimensions, being quantitative, qualitative and case study-based. Concerted action by the ruling elite is explored through two illustrative vignettes: the ousting from office of Jean-Marie Messier and State-sponsored expansion as pursued by EDF. Both examples shed light on the French business elite's response to globalization and the development of international business. Findings -The paper finds elite cohesion to be achieved quite differently in the two countries. In addition, it finds that the ties that bind French connectors tend to be strong and institutionally based. Practical implications -The case of EDF suggests that the most ambitious of State-sponsored strategies can also be the most successful. It implies that elite ideologies in France have deviated relatively little from sentiments expressed by Rousseau and de Gaulle concerning the primacy of the national interest and the conviction that firms can serve as an (expansionist) instrument of the nation. The Messier case illuminates the pattern of close relationships among the French business elite. It demonstrates how a strategy of expansion may come unstuck when it is not grounded in the customary modes of business regulation. Originality/value -This research confirms a slight preference on the part of the French business elite for more homogenous ties. Against this, the paper demonstrates that a significant proportion of the French elite act as boundary spanners, brokering relationships with others from more distant parts of the wider network. The integration of the French elite in the Eurozone has potentially favored bridge-building relationships and weakened national embeddedness. This may contribute to the decline of indigenous interlocks, while promoting the further internationalization of top management teams. The implications of this for organizational strategy, firm survival and economic performance form an agenda for future research.

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“…One exception to this (as Savage and Williams, 2008, note) has been Bourdieu, in particular his studies of Heidegger's social trajectory into the philosophical field of 1920s-1939s Germany (Bourdieu, 1996), his study of the French elite grandes e´coles (Bourdieu, 1998) and his discussions of class and aesthetic taste (Bourdieu, 1979). More recently, the Anglophone world has seen a growth of Bourdieusian-influenced work on elites: for example, Bennett et al (2005) on cultural capital and British elites, Maclean et al (2006) and Harvey and Maclean (2008) on French and British business elites, Lebaron (2008) In this paper, we extend a Bourdieusian approach to the study of leadership, making the connection between leaders and elite fields, that is, considering banking leaders as members of a social field (a field of power).…”

Section: Leaders Elites and Elite Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership as an elite field: Scottish banking leaders and the crisis of 2007-2009

Kerr

Robinson

2011

Leadership

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This paper addresses the question of the apparent auto-destructive behaviour of the leaders of the Scottish banks in the period [2005][2006][2007][2008]. We apply Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital to a corpus of textual sources to identify how leaders of these organisations competed with each other for leadership capital. We therefore show, through analysis of a series of historically situated crises, how competition between senior banking leaders for positions of domination within the field of elite banking in Scotland, the UK and globally, eventually contributed to the destruction of the banks themselves as independent institutions. We believe that this Bourdieusian approach to leader-leader relations can offer some explanation of the apparently 'irrational' behaviours of the banking leaders in the economic crisis

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Business Elites and Corporate Governance in France and the UK

Cited by 118 publications

References 14 publications

Conceptualizing Historical Organization Studies

Conceptualizing Historical Organization Studies

Elite connectivity and concerted action in French organization

Leadership as an elite field: Scottish banking leaders and the crisis of 2007-2009

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