Authority, management, and modernization

The changes in company management reflect the social and cultural changes that the notion of authority has brought into play. The old paternalist and Taylorian models have been replaced by a system of “paradoxical management” that bears the hallmark of the “impossible legacy” of May 1968. The shake-up caused is significant: autonomy and “individual fulfilment,” the tools for performance evaluation become key references at the very moment when the traditional landmarks of authority are being swept away. Individuals are thus subject to paradoxical orders that disorientate and destabilize them. The relationships with authority are denied and groups degenerate into interindividual relationships marked by affects and feelings. Outside of these impasses, authority nonetheless continues to be present in the free play of social relationships.