Abstract EN:

For more than 30 years, the tools of local public management have undergone significant changes, both conceptually and practically. Indeed, the current budgetary and financial context is prompting local authorities to rethink their way of operating and to better structure their actions, in line with the requirements and changes in their environment. A number of previous studies have examined these developments, particularly from a conceptual or practical point of view. However, none of them, to our knowledge, addresses the evolution of the social representations of the actors concerned with regard to these managerial changes. Thus, the problem of this research concerns the applicability of the tools of New Public Management and Post-new Public Management to local authorities. To answer this question, we are particularly interested in the case of Lean Management, a tool first introduced in the private sector and which is now beginning to be mobilized by public structures.This study thus looks at the analysis of all the opinions, beliefs and attitudes of local actors regarding the evolution of the management tools mobilized within local communities. It then reports on the results obtained from 330 respondents who participated in the national online survey. Beyond the studies on social representations, our theoretical and conceptual framework is based on the work of HATCHUEL and WEIL (1992). The latter distinguish three constituent elements to characterise a management tool: its management philosophy, its technical substrate, and its vision of organisational relations. In this context, the results of our analyses highlight:• A more open management philosophy, with local management tools more focused on performance goals and exogenous targets (population, environment, territory),• A richer technical substrate, with more varied management tools and a more participatory implementation methodology• A vision of more open and anticipatory organizational relationships, with territorial actors who are more pilots of change than auditors, to better control public action. These results make it possible to observe, in total, major changes in the representations of local actors regarding their roles and their definition of management tools. Lean Management thus seems to be a management tool applicable to local authorities, in view of the evolution of the social representations of the actors concerned. A paradigm shift then seems to be taking place in local communities regarding their public management tools. Increasingly oriented towards public performance, these tools demonstrate the desire of local public actors to take part in more inclusive approaches, taking into account the multi-dimensional nature of public action. More than a follow-up of existing regulations or standards, in a process and standardised vision, this change is formalised by the desire not only to choose a more exogenous orientation, integrating the beneficiary and the territory, but also challenging the internal functioning of local authorities in a changing context.The results of this study also include important managerial inputs for local authorities, and more generally public organisations. For the communities already engaged in a process of evolution of their management tools, too few from our point of view, these results confirm the changes already undertaken. For the others, these results are as many avenues for future evolution towards local management tools more focused on performance objectives and exogenous targets (population, environment, territory), more varied and more participatory, more pilots of change to better control public action and changes in its environment.