Toward a pragmatic critique of management by numbers. An analysis of conversational routines in a franchise network

Abstract

This article proposes to refresh
traditional criticism of management and
performance measuring instruments by
assuming a pragmatic analytical position:
numbers’ performativity – what they do in
saying what is – is constituted by reciprocity,
symmetry, oscillation between us. Based on
an analysis of conversational routines enacted
in a Highway Gaz Service station salaries, this
article shows that the most tyrannical evaluation can be seen, as far as it lasts in time, as
performative of a polyphonical organizational
way of being. Conclusion invites organizations
to ethics of undecidability when using numbers
and speech acts