Suffering at work as a consequence of paradoxical management: Case of teacher-researchers and caregivers in the context of New Public Management in Tunisia

Amel Bouderbala and Sinda Ben Sedrine Doghri
Additional contact information
Amel Bouderbala: ESCT - École supérieure de commerce de Tunis
Sinda Ben Sedrine Doghri: ISG - Institut Supérieur de Gestion de Tunis [Tunis] - Université de Tunis, Université de Tunis

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This article aims to understand, from a sensemaking perspective (loss / quest / construction), how actors react to the paradoxical management system that leads to suffering at work. The study took place in the Tunisian post-revolution context with two professional activities: university teacher-researchers and hospital caregivers in public organizations managed according to New Public Management principles. The objective is to generate a model highlighting, from a sensemaking perspective, the interactions of this paradoxical management with the dimensions of work (being, having and know-how) and the mechanisms mobilized by the actors in reaction to this suffering. The aim is to identify both the peculiarities of individuals' experiences and the cross-cutting constants of these activities. The research is qualitative, exploratory and is located in the interpretive paradigm. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted and the results of the content analysis show an almost similar evolution of suffering for both activities characterized by acquired, active, even preventive, resilience. Resilience, a concept that has abductively emerged in this research, refers in particular to the notions of dynamic capacity and the preservation of resources through a salutogenic approach.

Keywords: Resources; Resilience; Sense; Suffering; Work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-04-16
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://normandie-univ.hal.science/hal-05395466v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Revue internationale de psychosociologie et de gestion des comportements organisationnels, 2021, XXVI (67), pp.23-49. ⟨10.3917/rips1.067.0023⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://normandie-univ.hal.science/hal-05395466v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05395466

DOI: 10.3917/rips1.067.0023

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().