The ‘benefits’ of being vague: how French postal service financial advisors are managing organisational tensions

Los “beneficios” de la vaguedad: gestión de las tensiones organizacionales por los asesores financieros de los Correos franceses (la Poste)

Nadège Vezinat ()
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Nadège Vezinat: REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - MSH-URCA - Maison des Sciences Humaines de Champagne-Ardenne - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, CMH - Centre Maurice Halbwachs - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Département de Sciences sociales ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres

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Abstract: The paper, pursuing a socio-historical approach and mixing this with qualitative (ethnographic) research, asserts that the liberalisation of the postal service confirms the coexistence of market and public service logics, with tensions relating to the management of these contradictory requirements being largely transferred onto workers, notably financial advisors who are having to achieve certain commercial objectives while improving general access to banking services. A survey of these particular employees reveals concrete modalities for resolving the tensions that they face. One finding is that they have different ways of reacting to what is being construed as a new management tool. A socio-historical reading of these changes to the French postal service enhance understanding – within a context shaped by the European market's liberalisation process – of how the rhetorical justifications that management is using to legitimise the change to a limited liability company status serve, paradoxically, as a structural way of preserving public service.

Keywords: Public utility; liberalization; market; bank; reform; tensions; liberalización; mercado; servicio público; banca; reforma; tensiones; libéralisation; service public; marché; banque; réforme (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10-26
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Published in Nouvelle Revue du travail, 2013, 3, ⟨10.4000/nrt.1275⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02612999

DOI: 10.4000/nrt.1275

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