Les fondements et les processus de l’intégration organisationnelle : La banque de détail France du Crédit Agricole

Integration appears among the core concepts of organizational theories, which have supported the progresses of social sciences. Faced to difficulties in collective actions, researchers and managers have been thoroughly studying the levers for action, in search of the key conditions for unity, cooperation and agreement. Their aggregated findings have unveiled the multiplicity, the complexity and the various foundations of integration: formal organizations and devices, culture, systems of action or cognitive dynamics. Yet, the managerial uses sometimes restrict the phenomenon to control and hierarchy and wrongfully attribute properties such as homogeneity, discipline and relational harmony to organizational integration. The uncommon functioning of the retail banking of Crédit Agricole fixes these distortions. Diverse, democratic and non-centralized, this organization unrolls various sturdy integration processes through sophisticated assemblies of the social components pointed out by scientists. This case study emphasizes the fundamental functions of integration, which consists in making compatible heterogeneous logics of action and conciliating diversity, in order to facilitate the collective functioning. It calls attention on the sometimes surprising forms of integration and highlights the many benefits of diversity. Finally, this research combines the compatible integration and action theories and proposes a set of pluralistic tools - definition, methods, analytical framework - that enhances the ability to fully understand the richness of this social phenomenon.