Grevin, Anouk
ARTICLE REMOVED: The exercise of authority and employee autonomy: The limits of subsidiarity at a soap factory seeking corporate liberation
- 2022.
60
Today, traditional hierarchical models and the associated exercise of authority are being called into question, and the issue of autonomy is now at the heart of organizations. New organizational models have emerged, such as liberated companies, raising the question of the conditions of their implementation and the coordination of work. The objective of this article is to understand whether subsidiarity can constitute a management principle capable of organizing autonomy at work in the context of the liberated company. The analysis of the case of a liberated soap factory led to the identification of some of the difficulties that emerge in a context of autonomy, and in particular the difficulties of coordination and prioritization, decision-making, and the feeling of a lack of support, linked to the difficulty managers have in exercising their authority while developing employees’ autonomy. The mobilization of the principle of subsidiarity to support liberated companies is analyzed and discussed. The limits of corporate liberation are identified to enable effective decision-making, as well as the conditions for its operationalization, such as the right to make mistakes and to lack expertise, and the support of the leader.