L'holacratie : une nouvelle gouvernance tournée vers la gestion des risques ?

Holacracy offers an organizational structure that distributes power to those who do the work in a logic of self-management. According to his supporters, this mode of governance represents a promise of agility, innovation, and even happiness at work. It can also be considered as a way of managing the risks that organizations and in particular businesses are more and more often faced with, by focusing on everyone's involvement and reflection. This article aims precisely to question the benefits claimed by the holacratic organization. We first build the basic principles. We then present the theoretical frameworks on which we rely – from Mary Douglas's work on the social construction of risk acceptability and Olfa Zaïbet Greselle's work on collective intelligence – as well as the characteristics of our survey protocol, which includes 15 comprehensive interviews with people working for seven holistic companies. The results show that within these organizations, difficulties and tensions are more easily overcome, thanks to a collective involvement that allows better management of the risks incurred. The ensuing discussion highlights the implications of holacracy for managerial practices, while emphasizing that this mode of operation is only suitable for companies whose members – weither they would be managers or employees – accept a high standard of reflexivity, autonomy and sharing of functions.