Résumé (EN)

This theoretical paper addresses the implementation of a diversity policy as an organizational change process, overtaking the laterality of ad-hocratic initiatives to embrace a transformative movement. Following a diachronic, multi-dimensional and multi-level perspective, the phenomenology of a diversity policy is analyzed as a complex socio-organizational dynamics inspired by institutional constraints duly “endogeneised” and “managerialised, embedded in actors’ role-games and perhaps contributing to the legitimation of the firm.Theoretically, the paper crosses managerial and sociological theories to investigate the actors’ role-games (Crozier & Friedberg, 1977) and the processes of social regulation and collective learning that underlie an organizational change (Reynaud, 1997; Alter, 2005; Babeau & Chanlat, 2008; Lazega et al., 2008, Bruna, 2013). The investigation is enlightened by qualitative data collected during an exploratory research focused on the French case.