Dear all,
The next OCE Paper workshop is planned Wednesday, October 7th (10:00-12:00), room A_342.
Sanjana will present an exciting on-going work entitled “Corporate Wellbeing: Individual and Organizational Responsibility in the Case of France Telecom Suicides”.
Abstract: “Using the France Telecom suicides as a case, I examine the way corporate wellbeing was assessed across four daily French newspapers by focusing on the discourses of key actors and experts. Between 2008 and 2011, France Telecom witnessed a wave of suicides among its workforce, an affair that launched a series of debates and policies on corporate wellbeing. In this paper I focus on two themes addressed by the newspapers across a timeframe of 2005-2019. First, the scandal led to an appraisal of organizational responsibility in provoking the suicides and an organization’s responsibility in ensuring worker wellbeing at a more general level. The tension between organizational responsibility and individual responsibility with respect to wellbeing is a legal and moral matter. I suggest that this apparent tension reflects deeper beliefs about the ‘ideal worker’. Secondly, I examine the influence of new wellbeing and happiness ‘experts’ and the way their discourses potentially shape perceptions of the ‘ideal worker’ and organizational responsibility in light of the France Telecom suicides. Organizations are increasingly relying on the ‘expertise’ of these new actors to design wellbeing strategies that notably allow them room to evade responsibility.“
Sanjana will briefly introduce the paper for five minutes, and then our goal is to give her as much feedback as we can to help her move this project forward. Feedbacks about the following questions would be highly appreciated:
- The framing and the theoretical framework
- How to strengthen the data section?
- The FT case is 10 years old now, a lot has been documented on this case in the form of academic papers, books, documentaries, case studies. How does it still inform today? Perhaps I should shift my focus to the trials only?
- Should I broaden the paper to include the suicides at Renault, la Poste, EDF or Pole Emploi?
- Any other issue you foresee
We wish you all a great day.
Looking forward to seeing you!
Cheers,