Janus effect of internal control or the interaction between hard and soft controls[L’effet "Janus" du contrôle interne ou l’interaction de ses aspects formels et informels]

The aim of this article is to show, through an exhaustive review of the literature on the subject, that controlling an organization can not be limited to the formal aspects of control (hard controls) and that the informal aspects (soft controls) are both delicate to define and complementary to better cover the risks. The first part of this article is devoted to defining and setting up, sometimes inflationary, layers of formal controls, as well as the problems associated with the successive addition of these regulations. The second part attempts to define or, at least, approach the aspects of informal controls, in order to reach, in the last part, the question of the nature of the interaction between the two aspects of internal control.