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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether characteristics of French organizations can be found in the Airbus Group, ancient European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) Group, and how these characteristics have evolved over time in comparison to German ones.

This article presents an in-depth case study by using a contextual approach, considering influential factors which are likely to influence the evolution of organizations.

The analysis shows that the Airbus Group reflects characteristics of French organizations: the importance of strategy, the principle of honour, centralization of decision and power, the role of the state in the capital and its influence via professional networks of its elite coming from the Grandes Ecoles. These findings confirm a relative continuity of national peculiarities over time. The recent evolution of the company also highlights the German influence, notably in terms of shares and management positions.

The case study demonstrates that the Airbus Group has become a multinational company where contextual elements and organizational structures regulate intercultural relationships of interests, influence and power.

Five contextual factors are proposed, which allow to understand and structure the peculiarities of French organizations, in comparison to German ones as well as power distribution within the Airbus Group.

Examines the French and UK traditions of management training and education, and how these have shaped organizational approaches to human resource development. Presents results from a Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey which shows data based on human resource issues in European organizations. Concludes that French and UK organizations focus differently on training and development. States that these are clearly a reflection of the legislative and cultural environment in which the organization is operating.

The purpose of this paper is to question the profiles of female directors on top French company boards. It explores the legitimacy attributes of current female directors to identify the profiles sought recently, as firms approach the need to make many new appointments to fulfill gender quotas for supervisory boards, given that the proportion of women on a corporate board must reach 40 percent by 2017, with an intermediate level of 20 percent by 2014.

The authors gathered numerical and qualitative biographical data on all SBF 120 (French stock exchange index) firms’ female directors from annual reports and web sites over seven years (from 2003 to 2009). The authors constructed an SPSS database to categorize the individuals into various orders of legitimacy.

Drawing on director bio-data, the authors extend previous work on four legitimacy assets (family ownership; academic excellence; strong ties to the State; and top career), by adding a fifth asset (representative director), and contribute a gender dimension to the literature on personal legitimacy. Owning-family ties and academic excellence are still particularly salient in explaining legitimacy of women directors. A new source of female directors since 2005 is the pool of foreign women, outside the elite Grandes Ecoles system.

The authors had data for directors of 115 companies out of the SBF 120 firms. The authors also lacked data for seven women out of 144 appointed during the period, despite efforts to track down data from public sources.

These legitimacy profiles present different challenges for management development as those responsible for appointing several women to their boards in a short space of time will find out.

The authors highlight that with the diminishing role of family members on large corporate boards, more women directors need to be found, developed and mentored. If this approach is followed, new female directors with solid achievements can be appointed, without having their legitimacy as directors challenged by resistant males. Women will thus be able to take their legitimate place in French boardrooms and contribute their diverse experiences and knowledge.

This paper questions the legitimacy assets of female directors, which can be clustered into three groups: combined elite education and top corporate career; owning-family membership; and representative directors. These legitimacy profiles present different challenges for management development as those responsible for appointing several women to their boards in a short space of time will find out.

In response to an identified information need about entrepreneurial teaching methods employed in the European higher education system, aims to investigate whether this type of experimentation could make a difference – an activity traditionally considered individualistic within a collectivist society – and, second, to evaluate the project in terms of its appropriateness.

Examines an innovative case of entrepreneurship teaching at a French grande école, the ESC Rouen. In line with the purpose of this investigation a number of interviews were conducted with the project manager, the students' opinion was sought and a questionnaire survey was carried out among the participants. In addition, the author herself has been actively involved as a teacher and tutor for entrepreneurial projects.

Finds that an entrepreneurial project such as the one presented here can indeed make a difference in creating a societal acceptance for entrepreneurial activity. Engages a large number of students in activities which range from creative thinking and practical activities such as conducting market surveys and researching potential competitors to developing communication skills vis‐à‐vis their fellow group mates. Highlights that there are significant barriers to entrepreneurship and enterprise creation in France.

Concludes that, although the Projet Entreprendre has not yet led to any enterprise creation at the management school, it could be an appropriate pedagogical tool in line with present government aims and objectives. Suggests that the entrepreneurial project is of particular interest as it is one of the rare instances that such a project within a French grande école environment is being discussed.

A very useful source of information and reference point for entrepreneurial projects.

To investigate how the financial status of students in England and France affects their experience of university life.

A questionnaire survey was carried out among undergraduates in two countries. There were 168 responses from students studying at a French university and 325 responses from students studying at an English university.

The financial burden in France rests with parents, while in England students are largely responsible for their own funding. Indicators suggest that English students may be suffering from financial difficulties. Students continue the tradition of enjoying themselves and socialising, whatever their nationality and financial status.

The comparison made was not between institutions of equal status. The Institut de Formation Internationale in Rouen is part of a Grande Ecole group which is private, and may attract students from higher income families. The students at Manchester Metropolitan University Cheshire study in a rural locale (the towns of Crewe and Alsager in south Cheshire), which is unusual for a UK university and it may well be that a lower proportion of these undergraduates come from higher income families than the French students.

While it would seem to be more equitable and economically efficient for individuals to pay directly for services they receive, rather than those services being funded by higher tax, this study highlights certain problems. The quality of the educational experience for English students may be reduced by their continuing to live at home with parents and carrying out low level work while studying.

No other research appears to have been carried out in the UK or in France on this topic.

Across the European Union there has been an increase in the number of programmes and initiatives aiming to promote small business and entrepreneurship. In line with this general trend, enterprise creation and entrepreneurship are increasingly recognised as vital for French post‐industrial society, yet France is lagging behind Spain, the UK, Italy and the USA in terms of enterprise creation. This article discusses entrepreneurship education and the role of the Grandes Ecoles. Draws on primary research into student attitudes to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and concludes that both societal and educational aspects as well as the creation of entrepreneurial environment at a management school are key to promoting an entrepreneurial student population.

Begins by analysing the nature of work relations in France. These work relations can be categorized as relatively impersonal, formal, hierarchical, partitioned, subtly politicized and flexible; and holistic. Leads into an examination of the character and role of the cadre (the manager), and of the relative professional status enjoyed by French managers. The discussion should be viewed from the viewpoint of Hampden‐Turner and Trompenaars' description of France as a “fascinating country for English‐speaking cultures to study” but which may require the outsider to be prepared “to question, even to confound, their own basic assumptions” about the culture, role and practice of management.

The author's interest in learning organisation development leads him to examine large French companies' practices regarding “high potential” executives policies and to question their selection and development processes and their capabilities to develop learning oriented organisations.The author also tries to explain why most large French companies are not yet familiar with this concept.

An analysis of the managerial and leadership characteristics of the French élite, as well as of the way they are trained in French grandes écoles and universities, can help to understand the kind of dominant style of leadership that features in the so called “high potential” executives in most large French companies.

The criteria against which these French “high potential” executives are discriminated explains largely their still very traditional hierarchical and centralised leadership styles, that are not favourable to build the more learning oriented organisations of the future. In addition most of the management development programmes for these executives stem from the traditional hierarchical leadership models that do not foster the necessary changes.

This article is based on the results of several studies performed in France by organisational sociologists about the corporate élite and the “high potential” executives of large companies and their development policies. The author relies on his participation in field researches but also draws from his extensive professional experience and in‐depth knowledge of these large organisations as consultant, trainer and speaker.

This article provides a critical approach of the mainstream “high potential” model based on the learning organisation philosophy. It proposes another vision of the “high potential” executive concept that the author believes to be more adequate in facing up to the challenge of the HR management and leadership changes that most large French organisations will likely have to face in the future. It also raises the issue of the adequacy of the present leadership development offer of the higher management education system. Although slightly political it aims at generating a debate about the very concept of the “high potential” executive, which is a major key to the necessary changes in the people management and leadership practices for the organisations of the future.

The purpose of this paper is to cover the emergence, history, and development of French business schools. It is a reflection on organizational tensions, more particularly within the Grandes Ecoles system, that the challenge of research has created following the schools internationalization of the last 20 years.

Institutional theory, social dynamics, and history provide the frame of analysis.

Internationalization of the French business schools context has transformed the rules of the game. Ability to produce international quality publications has become a competitive necessity to attract faculty and students. Research is now a priority to gain international credibility, hire new faculty and perform successfully in the accreditation process. The shift from teaching institutions to international and research‐orientated business schools has created tensions and new challenges that need to be met.

The paper provides an historical account of the French business schools evolution and of their new research imperative. It stresses the governance and strategic issues this new imperative creates.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual and linguistic challenges that French business schools face when preparing for international accreditation and to shed light on the different ways in which experts facilitate these accreditation processes, particularly with respect to how they capitalize on their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning competences.

The authors interviewed 12 key players at four business schools in France engaged in international accreditations and in three specific categories: senior management, tenured faculty and administrative staff. The interview-based case study design used semi-structured questions and an insider researcher approach to study an underexplored sector of analysis.

The findings suggest that French business schools have been particularly impacted by the colonizing effects of English as the mandatory language of the international accreditation bodies espousing a basically Anglophone higher education philosophy. Consequently, schools engage external experts for their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning expertise to facilitate accreditation processes.

The authors contribute to language-sensitive research through a critical perspective on marginalization within French business schools due to the use of English as the mandatory lingua franca of international accreditation processes and due to the underlying higher-education philosophy from the Anglophone academic sphere within these processes. As a result, French business schools resort to external experts to mediate their knowledge and competency gaps.