Julie Battilana, professor of organizational sociology at Harvard Business School (United States), holds the chair of social innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School; His co-author, Tiziana Casciaro, is a professor of organizational behavior at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto (Canada).
It is the alliance of their knowledge – about companies on the one hand, about individuals on the other – that has allowed us to forge a very original approach to the analysis of power in our societies. The book, written by four hands and published in 2021 by Simon & Schuster, was translated and adapted for French readers by Julie Battilana under the title Power to all! Understanding power dynamics to transform the world (Dunod, 360 pages, 26.90 euros).
Your work oscillates between two contrasting styles. One, very American, resembles management consulting books, with common sense principles and portraits of exemplary characters. The other style, more European, compares it to a political manifesto and draws on tools of conceptual analysis to overthrow the system, in the name of an ideal of a better society. Why this confusing choice?
The aim of the book is to democratize access to knowledge about power and to encourage readers to become aware of the role we all have to play in preventing the abuse of power in organizations and societies, and to increase our ability to act together to address the problems. issues. economic, social, environmental and political crisis that we face.
My research work on “divergent change” (i.e. breaking from existing norms) taught me that being exposed to different institutional environments makes it easier to innovate and implement changes that deviate from the beaten path.
Being French-American and familiar with standards on both sides of the Atlantic, I wanted to take advantage of this experience to write a book that is both accessible to the reader and firmly anchored in research, ready to answer the simplest questions about interpersonal relationships of power and the more complex questions about the dynamics of power in organizations and society.
Throughout the book, you present somewhat heroic characters, who embody role models, such as Lia Grimanis, a former Canadian businesswoman and power agent who became the founder of an association that helps homeless women. Why this process?
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