This research explores the conditions for reconciling multiple logics in hybrid organizations. Actually, hybrid organizations are particularly exposed to conflicting logics since they embody diverse and, to some extent, contradicting institutional logics. Moreover, they are subjected to two symmetric risks; either they can lose their hybridity by giving prevalence to a dominant logic at the expense of the other, or on the contrary they can succumb to intractable conflicts between the carriers of contending views. Therefore, their ability to deal with logic pluralism appears as a key determinant to maintain hybridity and thus ensure their efficiency and survival. A longitudinal research of 10 years length was carried out in the retail banking of Agro Bank Group to bring insights as regards this question. Among the European leaders, this retail bank forms a hybrid system from a twofold point of view. On the one hand, this 100-years-old federation of cooperative independent regional banks offers a mature profile of hybridity with the long-lasting coexistence of both cooperative and commercial logics. On the other hand, institutional complexity has recently increased by the public listing of the central level and a subsequent massive inclusion of executives coming from centralized and capitalist banks. As a result, three logics simultaneously coexist and frequently oppose in ABG: cooperative ethic, business logics and financial market perspectives. This work belongs to interpretive tradition and relies on grounded theory approaches. It aims at documenting the research question at the organizational level through a mixed-qualitative design that combines participant observation with in-depth interviews and document analysis. We construe organizations as political systems composed of subgroups that commit to specific values, goals and interests, and rely on symbolic systems to make-sense of circumstances and define their action. Thus, three forms of agency are considered: routines, sense-making, and strategies. A first finding identify the cognitive compatibility of arguments as a prerequisite for reconciling divergent perspectives, since chains of cognitive gateways help to establish a dialog and form agreements, possibly cumulative. This result augments the abundant literature that underlines the benefits of cognitive dynamics and proximities, in general and for hybrids in particular. A second finding, noteworthy for the understanding of sustainable hybrids, indicates that over time, a cognitive hybridization occurs which neither suppresses the specificities of divergent logics nor harmonizes the beliefs of their carriers, but rather stabilizes cognitive gateways that bridge some of their core values and beliefs. It must be emphasized that cognitive hybridization exists in ABG despite the clear-cut collective identities and preferences of the subgroups. This suggests a significant contribution of cognitive hybridization to the persistence of hybrids which facilitates cooperation and agreements while preserving subgroups’ singularity.
