Despite its widespread use in France and around the world, particularly since the beginning of the health crisis, complex thinking (CT) as defined by Edgar Morin, remains poorly operationalized. This article therefore questions the relevance of CT in a context of high uncertainty such as the emergence of Covid-19 in 2020, in France. A qualitative exploratory study conducted within four hospitals shows a strong fit between professional practices and CT principles during the first wave of the virus, followed by a blatant mismatch from the second wave onwards. The discussion highlights the interest of CT for management sciences, but also for managers to whom it offers an epistemological framework to the apprehension of uncertainty. The operationalization of CT suggests a crisis management no longer based solely on pre-defined rules, but enriched with a constructivist vision aimed at positively transforming hospital organizations, which are now facing multiple tensions that go beyond the framework of the Covid-19 crisis alone.

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Despite its widespread use in France and around the world, particularly since the beginning of the health crisis, complex thinking (CT) as defined by Edgar Morin, remains poorly operationalized. This article therefore questions the relevance of CT in a context of high uncertainty such as the emergence of Covid-19 in 2020, in France. A qualitative exploratory study conducted within four hospitals shows a strong fit between professional practices and CT principles during the first wave of the virus, followed by a blatant mismatch from the second wave onwards. The discussion highlights the interest of CT for management sciences, but also for managers to whom it offers an epistemological framework to the apprehension of uncertainty. The operationalization of CT suggests a crisis management no longer based solely on pre-defined rules, but enriched with a constructivist vision aimed at positively transforming hospital organizations, which are now facing multiple tensions that go beyond the framework of the Covid-19 crisis alone.

Converti à l’islam dans sa jeunesse : David Vallat tente de rejoindre les rangs des moudjahidines étrangers partis soutenir les musulmans de Bosnie pendant la guerre de Bosnie-Herzégovine, puis il part s’entraîner dans un camp de djihadistes en Afghanistan. À son retour, il a formé la cellule islamiste de Chasse-sur-Rhône qui a été démantelée dans le contexte des attentats de 1995. En 1998, David Vallat est condamné à six ans de prison. Au cours de ses années de détention, il rompt avec l’idéologie islamiste… Nous interrogeons ici les mécanismes de cette rupture.

Une recherche-action conduite dans un groupe médico-social permet d’observer la mise en œuvre du concept de pensée complexe (PC) d’Edgar Morin. Les résultats montrent que la PC offre aux professionnels un cadre épistémologique permettant de mieux faire face aux incertitudes de l’environnement. En effet, l’opérationnalisation de la PC invite les professionnels à définir la stratégie d’un établissement dans une perspective de construction de sens, de survie et de développement dans un environnement concurrentiel et aujourd’hui traversé par la crise de Covid-19.

How is strategy produced? This is a question that the ‘strategy as practice’ (SAP) current of thought has been trying to answer since the early 2000s, emphasising the importance of connecting strategic decision-making with the context of its production. Particular attention is paid to the practitioners, who are the main beneficiaries of the work of the SAP approach. This implies close collaboration between researchers and practitioners, which tends to challenge the traditional axiological neutrality of the researcher. Apart from a necessary epistemological discussion, we need to question the researcher’s project and ethic. How may we reconcile epistemology, method, data-collection technique, and the researcher’s ethic? In this context, the aim of this article is to show how the rapprochement of researcher and practitioner may be organized. The case studied allows us to place these questions in a reallife context and open up avenues for further thought on the part of both researchers and practitioners.