Joseph Facal’s research while affiliated with HEC Montréal and other places

This paper focuses on social representations held by professional immigrants and on the notion of trust as a key factor in the integration process. Using a sample of 455 online surveys and focus groups with 29 people, this paper examines the role of trust in the socio-economic integration of Latino professionals belonging to Quebec’s Latin American Chamber of Commerce. Placed on a socio-economic integration continuum, the data demonstrate a variety of processes regarding trust in institutions and networks. Positive and negative feelings of trust have a variable impact on the integration of individuals who self-identify as members of a specific cultural group.

À l’échelle de la planète, nous assistons, depuis le début des années 1980, à un mouvement accéléré de renouvellement des appareils publics de gouvernance, sous l’influence du mouvement managérialiste ou, en d’autres mots, le nouveau management public. Peu d’études ont cependant été consacrées aux processus de diffusion à l’échelle mondiale de cette conception de la gouvernance publique. Il se trouve pourtant que si les réformes des administrations publiques menées en Nouvelle-Zélande, au Royaume-Uni, au Canada ou aux États-Unis d’Amérique ont inspiré tant d’autres gouvernements, de même que nombre de praticiens et d’universitaires, c’est en partie parce que des Organisations internationales extrêmement influentes ont non seulement contribué à les faire connaître, mais les ont aussi proposées comme des modèles de référence. Comment et par quels mécanismes ces nouveaux modèles de gouvernance se propagent-ils d’un pays à l’autre ? Quels rôles les Organisations internationales, financières et non financières, jouent-elles dans ce processus de diffusion ? Si, à l’échelle internationale, nous relevons une certaine homogénéité au niveau des valeurs, des principes et des discours de légitimation des systèmes de gouvernance en émergence, la diversité des modes d’organisation et de fonctionnement des organisations publiques ne fait aucun doute. Notre analyse révèle que la tendance à l’isomorphisme des systèmes de gouvernance sur un plan institutionnel s’accompagne d’une tendance à l’hétéromorphisme sur le plan des pratiques organisationnelles.

This article seeks to explain the surprisingly short lifespan of the Quebec government's central unit for promoting public-private partnerships (PPPs), the Agence des partenariats public-privé du Québec (APPP). I used a theoretical framework based on neo-institutional analysis informed by empirical research including interviews with key actors, a review of all briefs submitted to the Quebec legislature and pertinent parliamentary debates, and a partial review of the media coverage. The government severely underestimated the strength of the opposition to its plan. Electoral cycles and elements of the dominant political culture in Quebec also help to explain its demise. However, the prospects for PPPs may not be as negative as the rise and fall of the APPP might suggest. Cet article cherche à expliquer la brève durée de vie surprenante de l'unité centrale du gouvernement du Québec pour promouvoir les partenariats public-privé (PPP), l’Agence des partenariats public-privé du Québec (APPP). J'ai eu recours à un cadre théorique basé sur une analyse néo-institutionnelle éclairée par la recherche empirique, notamment des entrevues avec des acteurs clés, une évaluation de tous les mémoires présentés à la législature du Québec ainsi que des débats parlementaires pertinents, et un examen partiel de la couverture médiatique. Le gouvernement a fortement sous-estimé la force de l'opposition à son plan. Les cycles électoraux et les éléments de la culture politique dominante au Québec aident également à expliquer son effondrement. Cependant, les perspectives de PPP pourraient ne pas être aussi négatives que l'ascension et la chute de l'APPP pourraient le laisser entendre.

In this paper, we use the work of the philosopher, Charles Taylor, to investigate the role of culture on internationalization decisions. Using parameters related to key constructs such as positive liberty, social ontology, expressivism, civic republicanism and common spaces, we look at how culture influences the decisions regarding corporate international expansion. This framework was applied in a multi-interview design in four firms from the food processing industry from France and Canada. Results showed an obvious sensitivity to cultural difference and that managerial practices surrounding this issue tended to be intuitive and emergent. These practices were not crystallized in the form of a conscious and deliberate organizational strategy for dealing with cultural difference when planning foreign market entry. Our findings triggered further reflections on managerial implications such as the importance of searching more explicitly for cultural and organizational anchors when reviewing location factors.

This paper deals with the accountability of public managers in a context in which the relationships between elected officials, civil servants and highranking managers of government agencies are becoming ever more complex. The authors acquiesce a conceptual framework which allows to apprehend this complexity, which generates governance tensions, at four distinct analytical levels: institutional, organizational, managerial and instrumental. They illustrate their approach by explaining the historical evolution of the notion of accountability and its concrete manifestations in the civil service of the province of Quebec. They conclude by pleading in favor of a combination of institutional and instrumental approaches of the concept and practice of public sector accountability. The latter should be thought and deployed with a particular emphasis on the dilemmas, paradoxes and uncertainties which public action inevitably generates.

– Communication as a governance tool in PPPs : some lessons learnt from the case of Bonjourquébec.com – Well-managed communicative relationships within projects that have been designed, developed, financed and/or run as PPPs are decisive in ensuring their good governance. Because the private and public spheres constitute distinct spaces for organising modes of production of goods or services, the way they are organised, co-ordinated and managed varies. Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action offers us the possibility to refer to a conceptual framework that views communication as tool of governance for PPPs. The case study to which this article is devoted clearly illustrates the importance of communicative relationships within two management bodies at BonjourQuébec.com, which is a PPP involving the Quebec tourism agency and Bell Company.

The polysemic concept of public-private partnership (PPP) covers a great diversity of institutional arrangements. In this paper, we propose a typology based on the management of public projects that constitute partnerships with private firms. Our typology is founded on two key variables: (1) the proximity of the target and (2) the capacity to generate projects. We can then identify four distinct models of PPP: situational, elementary, symbiotic, and forward-looking. The management challenges, the risks, and the major issues particular to each type of PPP are described in order to enlighten management teams and contribute to the production of useful knowledge in the field.

At the Heart of Administrative Renewal : Institutional Commitment. A few Empirical Lessons Drawn from the Quebec Experience The authors set out the main lines of the administrative reform introduced over a decade ago in Quebec. They begin by situating it in relation to important reforms brought in at the same time in other Canadian provinces, Alberta and Ontario. They then present the main transformation in the Quebec public sector, the contracting of public management. Since 1995, state institutions have had the possibility of taking engagements, in the form of “declarations of services to citizens”, of “strategic and operational management plans”, “performance and imputability agreements”, and “management agreements”. The authors begin by detailing the advantages and disadvantages of this new rationale based on results. On the positive side, there has been improvement in terms of strategic efficiency, sensitivity to performance, articulation between objectives and means, and collaboration or dialogue between the various managers. On the negative side, the authors say the reform has brought about an increase in administrative formalities and that as a general rule, some actors complain that the process of understanding and appropriating all that is involved is difficult and time-consuming, as is putting into practice the various management methods and tools.