The skills of engineers and managers in large french firms

The article considers the skills of engineers and managers in large firms in France. The large firm, through its ability to generate new products, its capacity to mobilize or even create fresh knowledge and its control over consumer practices, is emerging as a new partner in a political, economic, and social system that unites public and private power. Definition of the job content of engineers and managers entails a theory of the functioning and development of firms, a theory that describes the work of these professional groups, incorporating it into the production function of the firm, into its capacity to transform the socio-economic universe, but also redefining its system of internal power. Although the production is often consciously planned, even organized, it is also occasionally the unexpected outcome of combined action by different groups. And even when production is planned, the firm is no better able than any other collective actor to effect the transformations it desires with complete autonomy and by dint of its own free judgment.