Appropriation d’une stratégie opératoire : un enjeu du collectif de travail

This research is based on the monitoring of an important organizational and technical change conducted in a sorting office. The aim is to understand how postal workers are developing their activities following both the organizational changes and the introduction of new technical systems. Research from various fields of sociology and educational science led us to approach the ergonomic analysis of this change through the concept of “appropriation”, which we decline on three levels: the appropriation of tools, the appropriation of procedures and the appropriation of “professional actions”. The development of an instrument (from the “sorting tool” artefact) and the appropriation of a new strategy used for sorting post are analysed more specifically. The results show that this appropriation is in several ways dependent on the requirements of each work situation and on performance objectives pursued by operators, but that it is also dependent on collective work