Coutrot, Laurence
Archaeology of the Logics of Expertise
- 2005.
96
Competencies schemes emerge in the 1990s as a new human resources management device. The article aims at constructing an “Archeology of Competencies”, bringing evidence that the new scheme is largely a by-product of problems experienced by the former organization of Work designed under Taylor’s principles: the relationship between supervisors and rank and file workers became a weak point and the new system does not appear to be more efficient in that regard than the previous one. Moreover, the absence of counter-power in the newer organization happens to be a threat to employees who are not in a good position to fight for themselves.