Institutional and Organizational Changes and Managerial Practices in the Algerian Public Enterprise

The present research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the new context shaped by the institutional, organizational, and social changes within Algerian public enterprises since the implementation of various reforms starting in 1990. Furthermore, it seeks to understand the impact of these transformations on the evolution and structuring of social actors, as well as on collective representations, work-related values, and the new internal and external environments of the enterprise.

Following independence and until 1990, Algeria implemented a large-scale socio-economic and institutional structuring process. Economically, this was characterized by the establishment of public enterprises operating on the principles of centralized planning, development programs, and a state monopoly over all economic functions and activities. The State viewed itself as the sole, if not exclusive, agent of social transformation.

Socially, human resource management was imbued with populist ideology, where the logics of performance, effort, merit, and innovation were not state priorities at the time.

The structural, political-institutional, and socio-economic reforms initiated since 1990 aimed for a declared rupture with previous organizational and operational rules. This new system seeks to establish market economy principles and mechanisms to correct the dysfunctions of public enterprises, enabling them to modernize and adapt to the new requirements of the national and international economic environment.

Furthermore, the transformation of Algerian public enterprises coincides with the global process of globalization and is set within a particular context of severe political, economic, and social crisis. These changes were triggered by both endogenous and exogenous pressures following the 1986 oil price crash and the subsequent structural adjustments supervised by the IMF and the World Bank.

With the abrupt disengagement of the State from managing the enterprises it once monopolized, actors have been forced into a rapid effort of adaptation and sanitization—legally, organizationally, and in the management of material and human resources. The adoption of new economic, financial, and managerial policies—alongside values and corporate cultures based on competition, performance, and merit—has become an essential condition for the modernization and even the survival of the public enterprise.

Research Problematic and Hypotheses:

Have the institutional and organizational changes since 1990 enabled the emergence of better economic and human performance and a new managerial culture?

How have public enterprises reacted to these changes, and what strategies (recruitment freezes, downsizing, productivity improvements) have been implemented to address internal dysfunctions?

How are socio-professional categories evolving after the abandonment of the SGT (Statut Général du Travail) system typical of the Welfare State? Is there a real shift from a qualification-based system to one based on competence and merit?

What logics and strategies underpin the trajectories of the three socio-professional categories? Are career paths the result of personal performance, new corporate career management policies promoting equal opportunity, or external circumstances? Does this new organizational policy foster professional integration or, conversely, trigger social conflict and tension?