Résumé en anglais

Enterprise-wide risk management (ERM) is a set of policies, structures and practices infused with social ideals of good governance and controllability. In this research, we seek to know how actors’ work allows ERM lasting adoption in the organization. In La Poste, the enactment of external pressures by internal auditors turned out to be critical. When introduced in the postal organization, ERM first encountered management disregard. As a consequence, ERM regulatory and normative meanings and categories were adopted but not implemented in the business. Partial ERM structures were created and inhabited by risk managers who hold necessary skills to help organizational compliance with external expectations. Newly appointed risk managers worked internally to legitimize and structure the device consistently with external “best practices” performing what we named recoupling work - the purposive action of individuals and organizations aimed at aligning organizational risk management with external ERM abstract features. Thus, our case suggests an organizational explanation to the fact that risk management could not be rescinded after its initial settlement.