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The MetaCapitalism Cult

Author

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  • Georges Mickhail
  • Daniel Pirello

Abstract

Qu’il s’agisse de notre vie professionnelle ou de notre vie personnelle, la promesse d’immortalité exerce le même pouvoir de séduction. La promesse de salut délivrée à l’entreprise ne diffère guère de la promesse faite aux êtres humains. Cet idéal de salut, qui a exercé sa fascination sur toutes les époques, les religions ont promis de le réaliser. Les entreprises de conseil s’inscrivent dans la même logique, dans la mesure où elles constituent, pour les entreprises, l’équivalent contemporain d’une expérience religieuse. Les prophètes du conseil s’emploient à générer ce genre de sentiments en utilisant tout un vocabulaire symbolique tel que « reconfiguration des processus », « meilleures pratiques », etc, dans un rituel baptisé MétaCapitalisme, impliquant une communauté de croyants, en l’occurrence leurs clients. Ce rituel, par le biais du Culte du conseil, a des conséquences qui vont bien au-delà des seules entreprises clientes et affectent de manière importante de nombreux groupes de personnes et d’institutions dans notre société devenue globale. Ce constat justifie de procéder à un examen critique de ses mérites. Notre recherche explore la performance du MétaCapitalisme, un terme forgé par le géant du conseil, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), pour décrire sa vision de la « nouvelle économie », qui traite de l’utilisation des e-markets, des échanges en ligne et des communautés d’affaires en réseau, et a eu pour effet de démultiplier l’impact des développements technologiques et des principales améliorations de la vie des affaires issues des années 1990. Le MétaCapitalisme peut être appréhendé en analysant la conversion des leaders du MétaCapitalisme au modèle prôné. Notre étude, en appliquant des techniques de régression à un certain nombre d’indicateurs clés, identifie les tendances relatives à la performance de ces leaders et les compare avec les tendances observées pour les 100 premières entreprises du groupe Fortune. Il en ressort que les entreprises du MétaCapitalisme ont été incapables de maintenir la transformation apparemment brillante qu’elles avaient opérée en 1999 et que sur de nombreux points, les tendances présentent des retournements imprévus par rapport au maintien de la structure idéale du MétaCapitalisme. Une évaluation critique de ces observations est effectuée de manière à valider la possibilité de généralisation du modèle, afin d’être en mesure d’éviter une expérimentation sociale continue et préjudiciable. En conclusion, la stratégie du MétaCapitalisme présente d’indéniables similitudes avec les cultes religieux, ce qui amène à la question suivante : le MétaCapitalisme aura-t-il le même destin que la plupart de ces cultes, à savoir, le désenchantement est lié à des espérances déçues ?

Suggested Citation

  • Georges Mickhail & Daniel Pirello, 2004. "The MetaCapitalism Cult," Working Papers 2004-5, Laboratoire Orléanais de Gestion - université d'Orléans.
  • Handle: RePEc:log:wpaper:2004-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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