Middle management under pressure: sensemaking activities around the implementation of new managerial devices in the General interest

The paper is structured around three sections. The first one will help to highlight the way in which the scientific literature documents the appropriation of management control systems by middle or local managers. It leads us to develop a first hypothesis expressed in institutional terms. In a second step, three case studies are presented, where the relationship to the notion of general interest — supposed to reflect public action— is contrasted: a “pure” public service (Judicorps), a private organisation acting on behalf of a public service (Federmut) and a formerly public but now privatised company (National Telecom). In a third step, we discuss the results gathered, invalidating our initial hypothesis, and propose an alternative explanation of the phenomena observed, referring to the actor-network theory (Akrich, Callon & Latour, 2006), the sensemaking activities of local managers (Weick, 1995) and the disciplinary power of managerial devices (Foucault, 1994).