Article: Acknowledged the autonomous regulations to organize the work: the case of the absenteeism management in nursing homes

Michel DEVIGNE*, Johanna HABIB**, Cathy KROHMER*** et Brami LAURENT****

* Ecole des Mines de Nantes – LEMNA, 4, rue Alfred Kastler, BP 20722, 44307 Nantes Cedex 7, France
** Université Paris-Est Créteil, IRG (EA 2354), UPEC, 94010 Créteil, France
*** Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LEST UMR 7317, 13626 Aix en Provence, France
**** CESAME, BP 50089, 49137 Les Ponts de Cé, France

Abstract

Facing with a high level of absenteeism, top and middle management of nursing homes often implement management tools which are not in line with real phenomenon at work in nursing teams. Those tools can disrupt teams’ work and lead them to invent new ways of organizing their work. The theory of social regulation [1] is able to make sense of mechanisms involved in that particular management issue. Through three case-studies, it appears that top and middle management implement control rules which do not take into account the autonomous ones invented by nursing teams. These rules, due to their spontaneous, changing and unstable state, often fail to be noticed by management. This article aims at exploring ways of matching up the two kinds of rules pointed out.