ARTICLE 1

« Quiet everybody, action »

Résumé :

We believe we owe some explanation to our readers in order to
dispel any doubt they could entertain regarding the objective of our
review. In accordance with François Perroux’s wishes we still intend
to preserve its ecumenical characteristic and to foster multifarious
approaches to management sciences. In this connection the
International symposium recently organized in Lyon by the Institute
of Psychoanalysis and Management testifies, among others to the
necessity of decompartmentalizing further management research and
put an end to its splendid isolation. A new trend among those in
charge of recruiting candidates to managerial responsibilities or
consultancy position is no longer to draw on business school
incubators. Besides, in northern - European countries the teaching of
management is not restricted to these schools since it is rightly
considered as an interdisciplinary science. For instance, management
is taught at the Utrecht University for humanistics...

par Michel Péron
Emeritus professor
University of Paris Sorbonne 3
Monique Péron-Bois
Painter

Introduction

EThis special number of the Revue de Sciences de Gestion presents
papers on listening. Utilitarian interest in listening is fairly commonly
accepted --- that is, listening as a skill that job applicants need to have
to function successfully in the workplace, or listening as required by
cultural difference, globalization and social-political complexification
(Brownwell, 2002). Listening is defined here as a ‘competency’ for
‘receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken
and/or nonverbal messages’ (Emmert, 1994). Listening is thus part
and parcel of a rationalist theory of communication. In the articles
contained in this number of RSDG, listening is no such thing ---
listening it will be argued is capable in its own right, of making an
impression on consciousness. Listening is not just a tool or a means of
rationality, but a direct phenomenal process...

par Hugo Letiche
Professor
University of Utrecht
(The Netherlands)

ARTICLE 3

Multiple melodious worlds: harmony and change

Résumé :

In courses on Organization and on Change I have developed a
method that invites ‘relational listening’. We listen to each other’s
musical preferences and tell each other stories about the music. A
personal story on musical paradigmatic shifts (told on many
occasions in classes, organizations and at conferences) is used as an
introduction.1 The final part of the paper presents conclusions. These
are meant as an introduction to change in listening behaviour for
managers. The most important of these is that a listening mode offers
opportunities for future behaviour. In any given listening situation the
nine behaviours I elaborate help managers reflect on the difference
between their action and inaction in listening.

par Alexander J.J.A. Maas
Associate Professor
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Special Professor
University for Humanistics, Utrecht
(The Netherlands)

ARTICLE 4

Sound constructs
A constructionist discourse of sound
processes and listening

Résumé :

This article outlines a very particular view of social
constructionism. It is a view that treats all discourses, including its
self, Science, what it is to be human… as relational constructions.
Detailed attention is given to the processes in which “relational
realities” may be constructed and to their (often neglected) oral/aural
aspects – here referred to as “sound qualities”. It is suggested that
when oral/aural ways of relating are well developed they tend to be
associated with relatively “soft” self/other differentiation. It is further
suggested that more attention could be directed to sound, silence and
listening in relation to “soft” differentiation. Such work could reconstruct
listening (a) as multi-sensual and embodied (b) as “power
to” be open to and appreciative of other and as (c) as essential for
“the patient labours of co-existence”. Such re-constructions could
help management and organisation studies develop relational theories
(e.g., of leadership, of listening, of dialogue and teamwork) and more
relational “wholistic” approaches (systems theories, chaos theory,
complexity theories) that are non-dualistic, that are sensual and
embodied and that are capable of including the spiritual aspects of
organisational life.

par Dian Marie Hosking
Professor
Utrecht School of Governance (USBO)
Utrecht University
(The Netherlands)

ARTICLE 5

A Catch in Your Throat:
managing the indiscernible subject

Résumé :

Two recording of a prelude from Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier
are compared in order to exemplify how to “decentred self” is
insolved in listening. Based on the work of Maurizio Lazzarato and
Michel Foucault this comparison is applied to the problem of
managing today’s “indiscernible subject”. In the immaterial
economy, where organizations, products and subject have become
temporary, volatile and virtual, management cannot rely on shared
cues and sense making. Instead we propose a radical version of Karl
Weick’s idea of “enactment”, suggesting that management is a
mediated balance between stressing and relieving the “listening self”.

par Thomas Basbøll
Resident Writing Consultant
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)
Asmund Born
Associate Professor
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)

ARTICLE 6

Listening to the other:
polyphony and dialogism as ways of organising

Résumé :

The purpose of this paper is to take up notions of dialogism and
polyphony (Bakhtin, 1986; Bakhtin, 1984) and explore their relevance
to organizational practice and research. While these concepts have
been applied in areas of organizational change (Hazen, 1993),
globalisation (Bouwen and Steyaert, 1999), strategy (Barry and
Elmes, 1997) and narratives (Boje et al., 1999; Ng and De Cock,
2002), to name just a few, their potential for authorship and
representation practices in research writing has been much less
explored. Aiming to fill this gap, this paper provides a detailed
reading of polyphony and dialogism and discerns those aspects of the
dialogic and polyphonic word that challenge canons of scholarly
narratives. I examine how research writing can be informed by
distinctions between monologic and dialogic discourses; the
responsive, poetic and embodied character of the ambivalent word;
and polyphonic structure of narratives with intertwining storylines.
The paper then explores implications of this analysis for management
practice and research.

par TDr Olga Belova
Lecturer in Management
Department of Accounting, Finance and Management
University of Essex (United Kingdom)