Soutenance de thèse de Lucie Chevalier

Summary:

In response to the so-called «attractiveness» crisis in the home care sector, public and private stakeholders are promoting a solution based on management and the transformation of work organisation. With this in mind, a training programme on organisational change has been offered for several years to managers, middle managers and home care workers at around ten organisations. Through a long-term ethnographic study, this thesis analyses the programme’s origins, how it has been adopted and its limitations.

The thesis begins by highlighting the central role played by a group of reformers in the project to «manage home care more effectively». Management as a solution to the sector’s crisis has gained acceptance all the more readily amongst senior managers because their social profile has changed and they have been prepared for this «solution» by the spread of New Public Management.

The thesis then analyses the ways in which support for the reform extends beyond the management of care companies and home-care organisations alone. Indeed, middle managers and home care workers themselves demonstrate their support for the managerial reform project during training sessions: they actively participate in the training and express their hope for organisational solutions that are efficient and more respectful of staff. The thesis uncovers the performative and discursive strategies employed by trainers, which aim to foster belief in the possibility of change through the implementation of a new organisation of work. It reveals how this consent stems from interactions during the training sessions, where middle managers and home care workers are taken seriously and see their aspirations – particularly regarding recognition, the revitalisation of the work collective and the improvement of professional relationships – acknowledged.

Finally, the thesis highlights the structural limitations of this training scheme, which has failed to bring about the promised changes to the organisation of work. The failure to take account of – if not outright denial of – the sector’s economic realities, namely both the lack of financial resources and the low pay of female employees, explains these limitations and constitutes a form of betrayal of the employees’ aspirations for better employment and working conditions.

Jury 

• Christelle Avril, Directrice d’études à l’EHESS, Centre Maurice Halbwachs  (rapportrice),
• Sylvie Monchatre, Professeure des universités, Université Lyon 2, Centre Max Weber – UMR 5283 (rapportrice),
• Clotilde Lemarchant, Professeure des universités, Université de Lille, CLERSÉ – UMR 8019,
• Hélène Stevens, Maîtresse de conférences, Université de Poitiers, GRESCO – UR 15075,
• François-Xavier Devetter, Professeur des universités, Université de Lille, CLERSÉ – UMR 8019,
• Anne-Marie Arborio, Maîtresse de conférences, Aix-Marseille Université, LEST – UMR 7317 (dir. thèse),
• Olivier Masclet, Professeur des universités, Université de Limoges, GRESCO – UR 15075 (dir. thèse)