An institutionalist approach is often adopted in research into management control, or management tools more broadly. Taking the institutionalist perspective (old or new) into account allows us to better understand the institutional pressures within a given environment. These pressures, the institutionalization of new control mechanisms, partly explain the uniformity or heterogeneity of organizations. Indeed, in response to pressures, organizations can adopt different strategies. One of them, the compromise solution, leads to decoupling in these organizations. A case study conducted on the management of research in a French university subject to new institutional pressures, reveals a form of decoupling which merits further discussion.