CEPEL

Tiffany Matias

Research topics

The new spirit of the SNCF. Digital transformation as a way of overcoming the railway company's neo-managerial turnaround.

Summary:

This thesis examines the significance of digital transformation within the SNCF and its link with previous neo-managerial reform undertakings. It is structured in three parts, aiming both to grasp the project articulated around the notion of digital transformation, to carry out a sociology of the actors behind it, and to identify the strategies and devices used by the latter to impose their agenda within the organization. With regard to the project, the results underline that behind the notion of digital transformation, the "modernization" project consists in the dissemination of a new spirit, which takes the giants of the digital economy as its reference model. From then on, the project represents a move beyond the SNCF's neo-managerial turnaround, fostering a movement towards neo-marketing and neo-rationalization, and forming part of the broader trend towards post-new public management. As far as the actors are concerned, the results show that this project is driven by employees who are distant from the organization's history and destiny, and in favor of SNCF's new financial performance objectives. They thus contribute even more to making digitalization a contribution to reform. However, these players are embedded in professional and organizational struggles, which limits their power to act. To compensate for this, they seek to enlist all the organization's employees in their project, by widely mobilizing devices whose purpose is to spread this new spirit within the organization.

Sociologie des organisations - New public management - SNCF

Career path

  • 2023-2024: Temporary teaching and research assistant, University of Montpellier
  • 2018-2023: PhD political science, University of Montpellier
  • 2017-2018 : Digital Transformation Project Manager, SNCF Mobilités.
  • 2015-2017: Master's degree in research and consulting, University of Montpellier (summa cum laude).
  • 2014-2015 : Bachelor's degree in Political Science, University of Montpellier (summa cum laude).
  • 2012-2013 : Bachelor's degree in digital communications, work-study communications manager.
  • 2011-2013 : BTS Communication, Work-study communication officer .