Management Books Review: our reading tips on telework and pandemic

The works on telework, and its managerial and organizational impacts, continue to proliferate with necessarily uneven quality.Precisely, two recent works, of different bills, aroused our interest.

The lasting impacts of the management crisis, led by Michel Kalika and Paul Beaulieu, Management and Society, 2021.

Michel Kalika and Paul Beaulieu continue with this work, that already robust, published a year ago, entitled the impact of the crisis on management, again by mobilizing a beautiful palette of experienced researchers (and in a welcome way, some doctorsof the DBA of the Business Science Institute).The interest of this second work, benefiting from a timely perspective, lies in its desire to deepen the teachings of the previous one.And let's say it immediately, the result of this collective production is convincing.

Three parts structure this work. The first brings together ten convincing contributions focused on the impacts of the crisis on organizations, based on robust survey data. Among these contributions, we particularly appreciated that of Françoise Laval and Aurélie DUDEZERT devoted to the digital transformation of work mode, from "Crash test" to "New Normal". The authors underline in particular through these expressions, the effects of the trajectory sequence of crisis towards the exit of the crisis, showing how they constitute an opportunity to continue the digital and organizational transformation of firms. These same authors, accompanied by Fatou Diop-Sall, notably highlighted in another contribution, a revealing phenomenon. Namely the beneficial effects of distant informal practices (“aperitif zoom”, “coffee skype”, etc.), in terms of innovation (new ideas, new practices, etc.) Michel Kalika for its part, finally emphasizes , the beneficial effects of the COVID-19 in view of the meetings, always based on robust sources.

The interest of the second part is to carry out a sectoral analysis of the impacts of the crisis in sectors as diverse as tourism, the automobile, the petroleum industry, or the hospital.The contribution of Hedi Guelmani, in the latter case is particularly convincing.

Finally, the last part is devoted to the effects of the crisis on managerial devices and practices.We will notably remember among the ten quality contributions, that of Pascal Glémain on the emergence of a new organizational form, the new collaborative spaces (NEC), even exceeding the concept of "third places".However, they must deploy and collaborate even more strongly with local administrations and companies that learn and/or practice telework.Finally, we will note two enlightening contributions from Nathalie Dubost and Yvon Pesqueux on the limits of the New Public Management, accompanied by interesting concerns.

This work is mainly aimed at an informed audience including not only researchers, but also in our view of enlightened leaders and managers who are more numerous than we imagine to be interested in academic work, as we have been able toObserve, especially through our professional activities.

Teleworking: The end of the office?by Sarah Proust, Jean-Jaurès/L'Aube Foundation, 2021.

Here is a particularly welcome 88 -page opus.The author, Sarah Proust who is an expert associated with the Jean-Jaurès and consultant Foundation, intends to draw “desirable trajectories” to imagine the office of the future, induced by the pandemic, which is both just for employeesand effective for the organization.For this, it is based on a joint study by IFOP and the Foundation, as well as around thirty diverse interviews (functions, regions, countries), allowing it to support its remarks.Three cumulative trajectories are offered.

The first is consistent through the alignment strategy/work practices/spaces and tools, while she recalls, the whole history of the office consisted in making the opposite.In other words, the office cannot assimilate simple surfaces organized randomly depending on the entries and outputs of employees.It must be thought and designed with regard to the object of the organization, the activities and professions that are mobilized there and the managerial forms which are practiced there or which one wishes to develop.

The second is working to clearly distinguish the spots between the office and the telework.Insofar as possible, favor the office for meetings, collective work, socialization and informal, and teleworking, which is reflection and production.If this is not always concretely possible, take advantage of the square meters made available as part of a flex office to create collective workspaces, or make employees not being able to work easily at home, the benefit of the useof a “third place”, if possible near their home.We can indeed think more generally that this type of space should be deployed even more widely in the territories and in the densification areas of the homes of teleworkers.

Finally, the last cumulative trajectory and not the least, the need to rethink managerial practices based on trust and autonomy.It is of course the subtle and complex balance between confidence and control that is at stake.

Even if some of these trajectories can, as the authors itself recognizes, be relatively easy to propose, their merit is to point these few protruding points which constitute essential levers on which it is important to act.This is the interest of this little opus.

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