Ghislain Deslandes

His research has contributed to the consolidation of a European orientation, especially through his involvement at EMMA,[5] to media organization studies. His initial work[6] presents media management less as a new academic discipline than as a multi-paradigm field of research that challenges the universalist approaches to management science.

Drawing on various sources of continental philosophy his work highlights, beyond the efforts of the traditional stream of research in business ethics, the fact that ethics cannot be taught or understood as any other management "knowledge"[7]. The notion of protomanagement, as one can conceive it through discussion between Socrates and Ischomachus in Xenophon’s Economics is then reactivated. In the Ancient Greece, Protomanagement is first conceived as a political art inseparable from a form of virtue; the ancient "Mesnager" is that dedicated to mastering his/her self and care for the society as a whole.

At the International College of Philosophy, he developed a research program which aimed to extend the efforts made by critical and phenomenological researchers in order to discuss the commonly-held epistemic and political aspects of modern management. The program emphasized "the crisis of the foundations faced by management science in its ethical/philosophical aims". A crisis that can be defined as desaffectio societatis, and which seems to touch the managers themselves more and more.[8]

From an interpretation of Blaise Pascal and Paul Ricoeur’s analysis of power, he builds new concepts around the question of managerial responsibility, rethinking the usual way of considering management-as-practice: practical wisdom,[9] skeptical humanism or "double thought".[10] He also shows that power cannot be separated from a dialectic of abilities and disabilities; this approach is at the root of several contributions about the strategic "vision" and gender issues using the works of Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze,[11] developments about "blended leadership" in the media and about the beau geste as a critical behavior in organizations.[12]

In this field, he applies the notion of “antiphilosophy” as defined by Alain Badiou to a comparative philosophical analysis of Kierkegaard and Pascal. Firstly he examines the unique position occupied by these two authors that he defines as an antiphilosophy of Christianity in light of their idiosyncratic understanding of the relationship between faith and philosophical doubt. He also explores the connections between this position and more recent currents of thought, with particular reference to John Caputo, Gianni Vattimo and Michel Henry.

• Antiphilosophie du christianisme, Editions Ovadia, Nice•Paris•Bruxelles•Montréal, 2018.[13]
• Critique de la condition managériale, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 2016.[14]
• Essai sur les données philosophiques du management, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 2013.[15]
• Le management éthique, Collection Management Sup., Editions Dunod, Paris, 2012.[16]
• Le management des médias, Collection Repères, Editions La Découverte, Paris, 2008.[17]

• Formal and Informal Benevolence in a Profit-Oriented Context, Journal of Business Ethics, with G. Mercier, 2019.
• European management teaching and research: Reflections on the life and work of A. Blanqui, European Management Journal, 2019.
• Escape from freedom: revisiting Erich Fromm in the light of Contemporary Authoritarianism, Organization Studies (journal), 2018
• Talent Management: The Good, the Bad, and the Possible, European Management Review, with M. Painter-Morland, S. Kirk and C. Tansley, 2018.
• Weak Theology and Organization Studies, Organization Studies (journal), 2018.
• Authentic Leading as Relational Accountability: Facing up to the Conflicting Expectations of Media Leaders, Leadership (journal), with M. Painter-Morland, 2017.
• The Leader as Chief Truth Officer, Journal of Business Ethics, with J. P. Bouilloud and G. Mercier, 2017.
• Reconceptualizing CSR in the Media Industry as Relational Accountability, Journal of Business Ethics, with M. Painter-Morland, 2016.
• There are no Codes, Only Interpretations. Practical Wisdom and Hermeneutics in Monastic Organizations, Journal of Business Ethics, with G. Mercier, 2016.
• The Aesthetics of Leadership: Beau Geste as Critical Behaviour, Organization Studies (journal), with J. P. Bouilloud, 2015.
• Gender and Visionary Leading: rethinking "Vision" with Bergson, Deleuze and Guattari, Organization, with M. Painter-Morland, 2014.
• Power, Profits, and Practical Wisdom: Ricoeur's perspectives on the Possibility of an Ethics in Institutions, Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 2012.
• The Care-of-Self Ethic with Continual Reference to Socrates: Towards Ethical Self-Management, Business Ethics: A European Review, 2012.
• Turkish auteur cinema and European identity: Economic influences on aesthetic issues, Journal of European Popular Culture, 2012, with J. Maixent.
• Corporate Culture versus Organizational Identity: Implications for Media Management”, Journal of Media Business Studies, 2011.
• In Search of Individual Responsibility: The Dark Side of Organizations in the Light of Jansenist Ethics, Journal of Business Ethics, 2011.
• Indirect Communication and Business Ethics: Kierkegaardian Perspectives, Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 2011.