The governance of the intrapreneur: the transgressive and reproductive dimension of micro-resistances

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the mechanisms of resistance organised by workers in the paradoxical environment of the recruitment consultancy. The consultancy sector is a particularly suggestive field of study, since, for years, it has been established as a vector of change and a faithful reflection of the transformations and new forms of work marked by flexibility and the outsourcing of services. A relevant feature of the profound changes taking place in the world of work is linked to the resignification of the normative ideal of the "good worker" and the normative and referential displacement of the traditional employee. The figure of the intra-entrepreneur, an employed worker who is required to have an attitude and mentality comparable to those of the entrepreneur, reflects the processes of profound transformation of the normative reference points of the world of work. Through a detailed autoethnographic approach, we develop an empirical analysis aimed at identifying some of the strategies of resistance used on a daily basis by recruitment consultants, delving into their transgressive and reproductive dimension of the existing social order within the organisations studied.