Qui du Sujet ou de l'Acteur, faut-il ménager en période de changements ?

A strong sense of involvement is one of the main values that organizations try to promote in order to (re)motivate their employees. Postmodern management no longer sees control or coercion as the only ways of achieving a sense of belon ging ; other means are used to orchestrate the subjectivity of the Subject. This orchestration takes place on a new " stage " upon which the Subject is invited to act, and in return receives (alongside the traditional incentives) new rewards such as enhanced autonomy with all of its spinoffs, more responsibility and a promise of self fulfillment. The question which this raises is to know to what extent this " stage " is occupied, and what forms of involvement it can lead to. This article attempts to answer the question by analyzing the psychological impact on fifteen middle managers who have experienced a restructuring of their organization. We shall see that the conditions within which they are asked to exercise their autonomy in the new structure are invariably less severe than the reality that these managers actually experience. This example demonstrates the paradox that nowadays an offer of more autonomy and involvement is often experienced as a source of suffering, concealment and de-motivation.