Réformes managériales des services sociaux en France et au Québec : des changements institutionnels entre prescription et autonomie professionnelle

Abstract

This article presents a part of the results of a Franco-Quebec research on the effects of the New Public Management (NPM) for social work in the two countries. It shows how the actors involved evoke a dynamic of control of professional practices through the implementation of new managerial standards within institutions in evolution. The effects are differentiated according to the type of organization. Collective work is more coherent but is also more constrained and controlled. Standardization is experienced both as a necessity and as a hindrance to work. The actors are ambivalent about the hybridizations they are led to develop. The NPM thus contributes to the pluralization of logics in social work institutions.

Keywords

• institutional change
• New Public Management
• standardization
• hybridization
• professionalism
• control