Managing change: between time and power

This book has two aims: to contribute to a collective understanding of the management of organizational change, and to provide concrete guidelines for managerial action.

The usual discourse focuses mainly on the rational management of change, and pays little attention to the subjectivity of the players within the organization. This rationalization-centered vision deserves to give more space to people, their temporalities and their own power to change.

Isn't time itself change? And why is organizational change so coveted, leading to political games that go beyond simple management? Change means creating space, energizing power, putting it back into action and redistributing it. Does this mean making the individual the subject of change?

The subject's assertion is not synonymous with a refusal to comply: rather, it expresses the will to be oneself and to be responsible for one's own life, while respecting collective boundaries. Because I'm being challenged as a person, because my intelligence is being called upon, I consent to change in an enlightened and reasonable way.

Being aware of the phenomena of time and power in action, and mobilizing them for the democratic management of change, offers unprecedented levers for coordination and concertation, but not without implications for managers.

Based on our experience, the theoretical part of this book is complemented by an examination of the managerial principles required for a democratic approach to change, for the benefit of managers wishing to implement these ideas in their organizations.