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Jean-Etienne Joul­lié

Associate Professor

Subjects
Management Leadership Organisation Working environment Methodology France

Primary research areas

New av­en­ues for man­age­ment re­search, edu­ca­tion and prac­tice
I work to im­prove man­age­ment re­search, prac­tice and edu­ca­tion by re­vis­it­ing the mor­al, epi­stem­o­lo­gic­al and meth­od­o­lo­gic­al found­a­tions of the core dis­cip­lines (such as Stra­tegic Man­age­ment, HRM, OB, OD, Lead­er­ship and Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Psy­cho­logy) that are re­searched and taught in man­age­ment schools around the world.
Work­place re­la­tion­ships lan­guage
The words we use to frame the prob­lems with which we grapple and to in­ter­act with oth­ers as­sume and con­vey as­sump­tions about the world, ourselves and so­ci­ety. As speak­ers, we are preach­ers and this ca­pa­city calls for con­stant crit­ic­al eval­u­ation..
Philo­sophy of so­cial sci­ence
The­ory pro­duc­tion has tra­di­tion­ally been a cent­ral fo­cus of so­cial sci­ence. This em­phas­is typ­ic­ally glosses over the fact that the­ory em­beds pre­dict­ive know­ledge. Com­mit­ting to the­ory thus amounts to as­sum­ing that pre­dic­tion is achiev­able. Non-con­tro­ver­sial in nat­ur­al sci­ence, such an as­sump­tion smuggles in so­cial sci­ence dis­cip­lines a par­tic­u­lar view of hu­man ex­ist­ence – a view that de­serves scru­tiny.

I work to open new av­en­ues for man­age­ment re­search, edu­ca­tion and prac­tice.

I work to improve management research, practice and education by revisiting the moral, epistemological and methodological foundations of the core disciplines (such as Strategic Management, HRM, OB, OD, Leadership and Occupational Psychology) that are researched and taught in management schools around the world. 

The underlying conviction that underpins my work is the following. Business and community leadership, sustainable management practice and personal integrity require analytical and critical methods of inquiry rooted in an appreciation of diverse human values. Such skill necessitates appreciation of the assumptions implied and conveyed by the terms used when describing problems and their solutions. Indeed, critical evaluation of foundations brings about awareness of alternatives; intellectual freedom and maturity, responsible leadership as well as meaningful citizenship engagement have no other possible foundations.

Publications

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July 2025

Leadership and Human Resource Management

Oil and Water in the Same Vessel

Jean-Etien­ne Joul­lié, Associate Professor

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22 April 2025

How to Manage Change, How to Manage Life

Ichak Adizes, the Organisational Therapist

Jean-Etien­ne Joul­lié, Associate Professor

Guillaume Desjardins

Rifat Sweidan
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3 December 2024

Past is Prologue

From Human Relations to Social Exchange Theory

Jean-Etien­ne Joul­lié, Associate Professor

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Recent research projects

Cha­risma today

Since at least the 1960s, dis­cus­sions about cha­risma (and cha­ris­mat­ic lead­er­ship) have been shaped by Weber’s (some­what self-con­tra­dict­ory) de­lin­eation of the con­struct. For all its mer­its and de­mer­its, Weber’s con­cep­tion was born as West­ern mod­ern­ity cul­min­ated and when bur­eau­cracy was per­ceived as the ideal work ar­range­ment. Is his con­struct still rel­ev­ant in post­mod­ern times and to vir­tu­al work­places? Can it ex­plain the rise to power of such fig­ures as Don­ald Trump, Bor­is John­son and Elon Musk? One of my cur­rent pro­jects is to try to provide at least par­tial an­swers to these ques­tions.