Managerial Competencies for Organizational Flexibility: The Luxury Goods Industry between Tradition and Postmodernism

Marie-Laure Salles-Djelic (1) , Michel Gutsatz

1 CSO - Centre de sociologie des organisations (Sciences Po, CNRS)

Luxury goods are selling well and the growth of the industry has barely been slowed down by the Asian crisis (Les Echos, 04-30-1998, 09-25-1998; Le Figaro, 04-06-1998; Financial Times, 04-24-1999). As in many other growth markets, though, good results are coming together with a fair amount of turmoil. Many changes are redefining environmental conditions and new challenges are creating significant turbulence for players in the industry at a global level (Ecole de Paris, 1998; Woman’s Wear Daily, 02-10-1998; Libération, 03-06/07-1999). Our question in this paper is whether, in the face of such global trends, luxury goods companies have reacted and attempted to adapt. We are interested by changes and evolutions with an impact on organizational structures but also by the potential redefinition of managerial roles and competencies.

Keywords: Luxury; Organizational structures; Management

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Business administration; Humanities and Social Sciences; Political science

Marie-Laure Salles-Djelic, Michel Gutsatz. Managerial Competencies for Organizational Flexibility: The Luxury Goods Industry between Tradition and Postmodernism. Ron Sanchez; Aimé Heene. Research in Competence-based Management, JAI Press, pp.67 - 96, 2000, 9780762306770. ⟨hal-01892018⟩