Based on an in-depth case study in the French nuclear industry, this chapter describes what happens when law's ambiguity meets organizational complexity. While regulation studies suggest that organizations assign managerial values (such as efficiency or flexibility) to their compliance structures, this research focuses on the mixed role of purchasing managers in these processes. Constituting the missing link when explaining the legal regulation of economic activities, these intermediaries defend a financial conception of the firm against a more technical performance oriented solution. This financial conception did not emerge from nowhere, but resulted from the institutionalization of a particular meaning of business regulation within the nuclear industry. However, if values guide organizational behavior, the behavior of the actors can under no circumstances be reduced to these values. Conflicts, misunderstandings, and mistakes are a constitutive part of these process, too.
Cet article s’intéresse aux transformations connues par l’industrie roumaine de l’habillement durant ces trente dernières années. En mobilisant plusieurs types de données (archives, entretiens, observations, etc.), mon principal objectif est de saisir au concret les multiples formes de « continuité » et « rupture » qui s’instaurent lors de l’effondrement de l’économie planifiée. Si la théorie sociologique de la path dependancy fournit quelques pistes intéressantes pour aborder cette problématique, sa focalisation sur les déterminations macro sociales des activités économiques fait l’impasse sur la complexité des choix et stratégies individuelles qui émergent pendant les années 1990. Or, il n’en reste pas moins important de souligner la diversité des trajectoires individuelles et cela à l’intérieur même d’un secteur supposé dominé par une seule logique économique.
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