No abstract

Project-based working is so widespread today that Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello (1999) go so far as to regard the project-based 'mode of justification' as a component part of the new ideology of modern capitalism. This particular set of principles is applied in the legal, educational, psychological, political and managerial spheres, which confirms Jean Pierre Boutinet's vision (Boutinet 1990) of the project as a pervasive element of social life. The injunctions to make commitments and the promises of self-realisation purveyed by certain segments of the management literature have helped to create the myth of the good fortune to be gained from project-based work. The very vocabulary of project-based management seems laden with connotations: surpassing of oneself, reaching out beyond one's normal capacities, prevails over stress, leadership or coaching replaces authority and direction or guidance does duty for control. Employees working on projects become actors, a choice of language that emphasises the autonomy they are supposed to enjoy in order to get involved and bring projects to their conclusion. This 'managerially correct' discourse raises questions. It has something of the nature of an idealisation mechanism, as Jean Pierre Boutinet emphasises in the updated preface to his book 'Anthropologie du projet'. It seems to us, from the evidence provided by the project actors we have met, that certain collateral effects on human resources are produced; in particular, various forms of distress emerge for which no responsibility is really taken. This concern has to be set alongside the emergence of a professional and academic literature on distress at work, some of which has received considerable media attention (Dejours, 1998; Hirigoyen, 1998; Neveu, 1999). Companies are said to have placed too 3 much reliance on organisational innovations, without taking individuals into account. 'The nature of work has changed; it has become more fluid, flexible and reactive and, for many employees, certainly more interesting. However, the changes have also given rise to a new phenomenon: pressure. Various indicators show that work intensification and the resultant pressure are having a dangerously damaging effect on working conditions, with worrying increases in absenteeism, mental illness, occupational diseases, workplace accidents, even suicide and, to a different extent, alcoholism and drug addiction in the workplace' (Askenazy, in Impériali, 2005). Projects are not immune to these damaging effects-far from it. As a heightened form of professional activity, it exacerbates the problems experienced under normal conditions (Garel, Giard, Midler, 2004). It also poses specific problems, such as the 'mourning' associated with the end of an assignment (Dubouloy, in Asquin et alii, 2005).

■This article presents the results of a polar expedition by sea kayak in which the authors participated in 2007. It calls upon the approach of Bruno Latour to describe the forms of sociotechnical combinations and the controversies that arose during the course of the project. In addition, the article utilizes the experience of this unique project to draw lessons regarding project management in general: lessons on team makeup, knowledge management, and the relationship between preparation and actual implementation of a given project.

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Front-loading " problem-solving is one of the major strategies to reduce development costs and development lead time. In co-development situations, the implementation of such methodologies rises specific questions, due to the difficult partition in responsabilities and skills between the car manufacturer and the supplier, especially when customer and supplier contributions cannot be clearly interfaced in a " black-box sourcing " relation. This results in a difficult and permanent debate about design modifications. The article analyses such a co-development situation in the case of a car manufacturer and its die design and engineering suppliers. The case illustrate how to combine organizational integration (i.e. co-localization, shared development methodologies) with new economic contracting rules which create front-loading problem-solving incentives for the two partners. We compare the economic outcomes of a traditional process with a co-developped project, from the viewpoint of both the customer and the suppliers. The study demonstrates how co-development played a major role in reducing the number and cost of modifications for the customer. The benefits which suppliers can earn depend on their ability to involve in the project in terms of design and engineering capacity at an early stage. These results generate theoretical outputs which bridge the gap between incentive and contract theories on one side, and cognitive and learning fields on the other.