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The focus of this article is the “research tool” that Michel Crozier developed in the early sixties on his return from California at the same time as he finished writing his book, Le Phénomène bureaucratique. The functioning of this research unit can be compared to that of a small firm in the cultural sector such as a theater company, for example. The article analyses Crozier’s style of leadership and management, his ability to find and combine resources coming from both the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and contracts with public agencies, the carrying out of surveys and Crozier’s political and intellectual links with a reformist think tank called the Club Jean Moulin. The organization resembles a craftsmen’s association or workshop – an Atelier. It is named after the street where the association was located in a popular area of Paris, rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. The dynamism of the research unit was such that it was transformed into intramura CNRS laboratory in 1975.