Abstract
Most studies on cultural integration are oriented toward providing evidence of the existence of common values that, because they are shared, make the organization coherent and facilitate organized actions. Juxtaposed with this dominant current of thought are studies that, turned toward the ambiguous or even contentious dimensions of culture, focus on subcultures. By moving beyond the dichotomy between a cultural integration based on sharing values (the organization as a source of coherence) or on power relations (the organization as a place of incoherence and conflict), an approach is proposed to study culture as the result of partial, negotiated agreements (thus including both of the foregoing). Studying culture as a social construction requires understanding the personnel’s strategies of action that lead to collective operations. Since these strategies cannot be separated from the perception of the local context, it is also necessary to take into account the complexity of the organization and its context as they are seen by the personnel. This view of the social construction of a company culture is illustrated through a case study of a health-care group made up of six clinics. The five of these clinics that had been purchased, though bound by the same mutualist code, have problems operating as a mutualist organization.