RT Article
T1 Financialization and the Employee Suicide Crisis at France Telecom
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 139
IS 3
SP 501
OP 515
A1 Chabrak, Nihel
A1 Craig, Russell
A1 Daidj, Nabyla
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2016
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/178565957X
AB The privatization of France Telecom (FT) in 1997 led to the implementation of a profit-oriented financialization strategy. An unforgiving work environment was developed, which has unsettled many employees. Between February 2008 and October 2011, 69 employees took their own life. Many left notes blaming management for having privileged the interests of shareholders over those of employees. Through interviews with employees and professional practitioners associated with FT, we reveal that employees strongly resented the company’s use of financialization policies to maximize shareholder value. Pursuit of such policies led to the de-institutionalization of socially prescribed norms that were applied commonly in Continental European workplaces. Feelings of anomie, disgrace, futility and isolation ensued among employees. This case highlights an important effect of a modern corporation’s adoption of financialization policies. It points to the need to improve workplace sensitivities and the ethical dispositions of companies and their managers.
K1 Social partnership
K1 Anomie
K1 Workplace
K1 Suicide
K1 Solidarity
K1 Financialization
K1 Employee
DO 10.1007/s10551-015-2602-8