Contenu du sommaire : Vers l'entreprise paradoxale

This paper suggests studying the cooperation between craftsmen, who have been led to gather within a craft cooperative of purchases to mutualize their supplies in goods, materials and products, essential to the well-being of their activity, in order to cope with the difficulties regarding the negotiations with the materials' suppliers. This cooperative includes members who are involved in woodcraft and collectively share the same identity. The craftsmen were led to choose this structure to meet the demands of central purchasing. These organizations, coming from social solidarity economy (SSE), are often qualified as hybrid in their endeavour to deal with the tensions generated by the conflicting forces at stake. An exploratory research based on an interpretative methodology was led through 18 semi-directive interviews with the Region's Trade and Crafts Chamber representatives, and with the cooperative's leader and managers, its member craftsmen and employees. In this research we suggest answering the following question : which kinds of cooperation can be developed within the hybrid structure of cooperatives, in order to reconcile the economic and identity challenges at stake ?
Based on the case study, we shall show why and how the cooperative's structure of governance, the services which are put at the craftsmen's disposal, its management system as well as its organization are at the same time at the origin of performance for craftsmen and a factor of social cohesion in the ability to strengthen the solidarity between craftsmen. The results show an original form of cooperation which is based on a duality between community and complementary cooperation. This duality is explained by both a very strong sense of identity in the woodcraft world and the hybrid character of cooperatives. The results show that these two logics, instead of developing at the expense of each other, set up a dynamic and positive model leading to a balance. The co-op structure has made the cooperation between its members and the management of its paradoxical situations easier.

The analysis of interpersonal conflict has so far been dealt with primarily through an interactional and logical approach, while other factors are concerned such as instrumentation deficit, lack of coherence with the internal tools, or their difficulty of internal appropriation. This article questions the levers of regulation. We have focused our study on social or medico-social organizations. Based on comparative monographs, we mobilize qualitative methodology showing three interpersonal conflicts through their genesis, maturation and their management. We present levers used to handle them and we highlight the organizational systems or the management tools developed to regulate them. Our results show the importance of a genuine joint regulation namely an effective link between regulatory control and self-regulation. This gives an opportunity for the managers of these organizations to better understand both the origin and the passing lanes of interpersonal conflicts by developing acceptable agreements around the rules and through meaningful projects.

The French and European populations are aging. That phenomenon emphasizes the issues of the end of career for mature professionals. Facing the difficulties to keep or to find a job while aging, one of the solutions identified lays in entrepreneurship. But the profile and the motivations of older entrepreneurs remain under-researched. Entrepreneurship literature has unveiled some assets or liabilities of senior entrepreneurs. This research presents the analysis of the data base of French chambers of commerce and industry, with 7298 entrepreneurial project initiators in 2014. We explore the profile of the entrepreneur by age. Results comparing the over-50-year-old population to the under-50 were complemented by the analysis of more precise age groups and highlight the situation of project initiator. Our results show that the entrepreneur over 50 years sparsely diverges from other entrepreneurs, as far as his relation to time is concerned. The real difference appears over the age of 60. We conclude with the limitations and the contributions of our study.