History, a useful "science" for management from polemics to controversies

Enterprise and Society

Volumn 10, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 791-807

  Godelier, Eric ^a  

^a ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE   (France)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 73849119935     PISSN: 14672227     EISSN: 14672235     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/es/khp031     Document Type: Review

References (56)

1. A scientific controversy opposes individuals who speak the same language and share the same system of norms, whereas a polemic opposes individuals whose criteria of judgment belong to separate universes. See G. Noiriel, Sur la "crise" de l'histoire (Paris: Belin, coll "Socio-histoire, " 1997), 43.
2. An earlier version of this article was published in Y. Cohen, "Organiser et s'organiser. Histoire, sociologie, gestion," Cahiers du Centre de recherches historiques, Paris EHESS, no. 25, October 2000, 135-48.
3. J.-M. Doublet and P. Fridenson, dir., no. 70, October-Novembre 1998.
4. I define "management historians" as academics who are educated in management, but also use the field of history.
5. I regard "Professional Historians" as those educated and trained in the field of History.
6. Especially marketing or finance but also positivist researchers from other fields (human resources management and strategic management, for example).
7. This can be evaluated through the growing number of unsolicited papers that are received by the editors of the French business history review Entreprises et Histoire.
8. B. Gille, "La fondation de la Société génrale," Histoire des entreprises, no. 8, November 1961, SEVPEN, 1962;
9. J. Bouvier, Le Credit Lyonnais de 1863 à 1882, 2 vol., SEVPEN, Paris, 1961 or, idem. Un siècle de banque française (Paris: Hachette, 1973).
10. C. Fohlen, Une affaire de famille au XIXe siècle: Mequillet-Noblot, Thèse Paris 1, 1955.
11. To find more details, please see: A. Beltran, J.-P. Daviet, M. Ruffat, "L'histoire d'entreprise en France. Essai bibliographique," Les Cahiers de l'IHTP, no. 30, June 1995.
12. L. Marmonnier et R.-A. Thiétart, "L'histoire, un outil pour la gestion?" Revue française de gestion, no. 70, Septembre-Octobre 1988, 162-71, 167.
13. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.
14. P. Vilar, "Histoire économique," Encyclopédie Universalis (CD Rom, Paris, 1998).
15. G. Bourdé and H. Martin, Les écoles historiques (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, Coll. "Points," 1983), 171-226.
16. J. Heffer, "Nouvelle histoire économique," Encyclopédie Universalis (CD Rom, Paris, 1998).
17. Vital Roux en 1800, De l'influence du gouvernement sur la prospérité du commerce;
18. J.-B. Say en 1828, Cours complet d'économie politique appliqué ou J.-G. Courcelle-Seneuil de 1854, le Manuel des affaires.
19. A special university for Commerce and Industry of Paris. In 2008, it will become the third-ranked Business School in France, the ESCP-EAP near the Place de la Republique in the center of Paris. Today's top French business school, HEC, was created in 1881. In the late eighteenth century, only two schools existed: one was launched by Koechlin and Thierry in the city of Mulhouse in 1781. At the same time, the other was the farm-school of Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. I thank Andre Grelon for this information. One may read more about the French Business schools in the special issue: Entreprises et histoire, no. 14-15, June 1997.
20. In Great Britain, one of the first teachers in management was Andrew Ure with his course in Principles of Manufacturing at the University of Edinburgh starting in 1804.
21. He probably influenced another French Teacher, Charles Dupin, D. Wren, The Evolution of Management Thought, 4th ed. (New York: John Wiley, 1994), 63.
22. S. Pollard, The Genesis of Modern Management. A Study of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), 42ff.
23. J.-P. Bouilloud and B.-P. Lecuyer (dir.), L'invention de la gestion. Histoire et pratiques (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1994).
24. V. Guigeno, L'éclipse de l'atelier. Les missions françaises de productivité aux Etats-Unis dans les années 1950, Mémoire de DEA, ENSPC-Université Marne-la-Vallée, 1994, 92 or, more generally, D. Barjot (ed.), Catching up with America. Productivity Missions and the Diffusion of American Economic and Technogical Influence after the Second World War (Paris: Presses de l'Univerité de Paris-Sorbonne, 2002);
25. R. Locke, Management and Higher Education since 1940. The Influence of America and Japan on West Germany, Great Britain and France (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989).
26. M.-E. Chessel and F. Pavis, Le technocrate, le patron et le professeur. Une histoire de l'enseignement supérieur de gestion (Paris: Belin, Coll. "Histoire de l'éducation," 2001), 11. The first IAE (Institut d'Administration des Entreprises/Institute for Enterprise Administration) was launched in Aix-en-Provence in 1955. Others followed; most were part of the Univerities'Law or Economics Departments.
27. A. Hatchuel, "Quel horizon pour les sciences de gestion? Vers une théorie de l'action collective," in A. David, A. Hatchuel et R. Laufer (dir.), Les nouvelles fondations des sciences de gestion. Éléments d'épistémologie de la recherche en management (Paris, Vuibert, Coll. "FNEGE," 2001), 11.
28. P. Fridenson, "Les organisations, un nouvel objet," Annales ESC, November-December 1989, 1461-77.
29. R. Franck (dir.), Écrire l'histoire du temps présent (Paris: CNRS Histoire, 1993).
30. Ibid. 86.
31. J. Girin, "L'analyse empirique des situations de gestion: éléments de théorie et de méthode," in A.-C. Martinet (dir.), Épistémologie et sciences de gestion (Paris: Économica, 1990), 141-82.
32. J.-M. Doublet et P. Fridenson, "L'histoire et la gestion: un pari," Revue française de gestion, no. 70, September-October 1988, 1-3.
33. R. Martin, "Stratégie industrielle: l'éternel retour?" Entreprises et histoire, no. 1, April 1992.
34. For a complete overview of James March's work in French, please see: E. Godelier, dir., James March, Penser l'organisation (Paris, Hermes, 2003)
35. or T. Weil, Initiation à la lecture de James March (Paris: Presses de l'EMP, 2000).
36. It is for instance clear with some supporters of "agency theories" or of "transaction cost theories," which are the core of management sciences nowadays. See in French, H. Gabrié and J.-L. Jacquier, La théorie moderne de la firme (Paris: Economica, 1994).
37. D. Wren, op. cit., 10ff.
38. Sociology has already started this historical work on the birth of the discipline through the controversies that opposed Durkheim to historians like Fustel de Coulange. See J.-M. Berthelot, "La sociologie: histoire d'une discipline," in La sociologie, K. Van Meter, dir. (Paris: Larousse, coll. "les textes essentiels," 2000), 11-26.
39. See for instance Paul Veyne, Comment on écrit l'histoire (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1979) (rééd.);
40. ou more recently G. Noiriel, Sur la "crise" de l'histoire (Paris, Belin, 1997);
41. and F. Bédarrida, dir., L'histoire et le métier d'historien en france (1945-1995) (Paris: Éditions de la MSH, 1997).
42. F. Braudel, Écrits sur l'histoire (Paris: Flammarion, 1984), 23.
43. G. Noiriel, op. cit, 41.
44. E. Godelier, "Le discours politique: source vivante ou source figée?" in P. Bérégovoy. Une volonté de réforme au service de l'économie (1984-1993) (Paris: CHEFF, 1998).
45. P. Veyne, op. cit, 147.
46. P. Lorino, L'économiste et le manager (Paris, La découverte, 1991) (rééd.).
47. P. Louart et A. Desreumeaux (dir.), "Constructivisme(s) et sciences de gestion," Actes du colloque de Lille du 23 octobre 1997, Lille, IAE, 1997, 2 vols.
48. C. Riveline, "Un point de vue d'ingénieur sur la gestion," Annales des Mines-Gérer et comprendre, no. 25, December 1991, 50-62.
49. For instance, H. Mintzberg, Grandeur et decadence de la planification stratégique (Paris: Dunod, 1994), 24.
50. D. Roche, "Les historiens aujourd'hui. Remarques pour un debat," Vingtième siècle, no. 12, 1986, 3-20, especially 19.
51. C. Ronan, Histoire mondiale des sciences (Paris: Seuil, coll. "Points," 1988). I am thinking, as an example, of the way French management sciences present bibliographies and footnotes, giving better visibility to recent authors instead of older ones, or favoring quantity over quality with a long list of references that are not always integrated by the researcher thanks to a critical appropriation of their core themes and concepts.
52. C. Midler, "Logique de la mode managériale," Annales des Mines-Gérer et comprendre, June 1986, 74-85.
53. Y.-F. Livian and P. Louart, "Le voyage de la culture et de la motivation des sciences sociales à la GRH," in Repenser la gestion des ressources humaines, J. Brabet, dir. (Paris: Economica, 1993), 39-67.
54. One may read the works of Y. Lemarchand or N. Berland on the history of amortization or budget control. On management models, our colleague J.-L. Peaucelle has visited the Fayols' family archives.
55. C. Argyris, Savoir pour agir. Surmonter les obstacles à l'apprentissage organisationnel (Paris: InterEditions, 1995).
56. E. Cohen, "Épistémologie de la gestion," in Encyclopédie de Gestion, Y. Simon and P. Joffre, dir. (Paris: Economica, 1997), T1., 1158-78, especially 1164 and 1170.