The contrasting contributions of holacracy to deliberative democracy in business. An ethnographic study in a French SME

Abstract

Le développement des théories de l’auto-organisation depuis les années 1950 a largement renouvelé les modes de représentation des organisations et de la démocratie dans l’entreprise, tant chez les chercheurs que chez les praticiens. S’inscrivant dans ce cadre, l’holacratie peut s’analyser comme un système délibératif. A partir d’une ethnographie d’une PME ayant adopté l’holacratie, cet article montre les effets contrastés du modèle dans la dynamique de démocratisation d’une entreprise. En effet, si l’holacratie amorce un exercice de la délibération par consensus apparent (Urfalino, 2007), des pratiques contradictoires sont observables concernant la participation aux décisions d’une partie du collectif de l’organisation. Cette étude ethnographique nous invite ainsi à repenser la notion même de modèle autoorganisé, la place à accorder aux espaces informels de discussions, ainsi que le rôle des dirigeants dans le processus de démocratisation des firmes.

Framing Liberation Management as the Bundling of Practices: An Adoption Process with a Two-Fold Coherence

“…They are also involved in other functions, especially human resources (recruitment of future colleagues, etc.) (Battistelli, 2019). Strategic decision-making (e.g., setting the company's vision) often remains a management responsibility .…”

“…Framing Liberation Management as the Bundling of Practices collaborative and participative decision-making (Battistelli, 2019;Hamel & Breen, 2007;Lee & Edmondson, 2017).…”

Employee-ownership: Exploring the Potentials of Practicing a Democratic Ideal

“…Thus, novel forms of organizational structures are emerging in western countries, herein a revival of democratic organizing of work (Tischer et al, 2016). Both the more well-known forms of democratic organizing such as worker cooperatives (Wilson & McLean, 2012) and fully or partly employee-owned companies (Blasi, Freeman & Kruse, 2013), but also new forms that are not necessarily cooperatives as legal units, but rather democratic in their functioning and principles are now increasingly established (Battistelli, 2019). The revitalization, and legitimacy, of such new and existing forms of employee-owned businesses is to a large degree based upon several documented positive features, based on key performance indicators of traditional businesses: higher productivity, resilience in times of crisis and work satisfaction (Mygind & Poulsen, 2021).…”