8

The professionalization of an SME leads to the adoption of managerial practices fostering its development. It complements the entrepreneurial approach of management when the leader can no longer cope with all the challenges they face. Management control is then a support function likely to play an important role in the process of professionalization. The literature on shared-time work has highlighted various effects of this form of employment on the development of support functions. In this paper, we focus on understanding the effects of shared-time work on the professionalizing impact of management control. The research is based on qualitative data collected from SME professionals. It appears that shared-time work has various effects on the professionalizing impact of management control. The identification of these effects contributes to a better understanding of the professionalization process of SMEs and of the potential benefits of time-sharing.