THE COMMITMENT OF THE FRENCH POST OFFICE TO AN INCLUSIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: A LIGHT ON THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE OPERATOR

Abstract

The current governance framework of the French Post Office, La Poste, resembles that of a public service with a pre-existing range of activities offered on the basis of a set of specific contractual requirements. This framework, however, does not encompass how the organisation has had to reinvent itself to adapt to the challenges of digital transformation. To understand its emerging role in this context, this paper does not consider La Poste simply as a public service operator. The organisation is analysed as a firm capable of regenerating its competencies in a éclaidynamic process of service creation, which we describe as a logic of “lineage”. Through this process, La Poste and potential partners build on existing competencies and develop new services to address emerging social divides among the French population. A new governance model may be required to represent La Poste more accurately to its stakeholders. It is suggested that the adoption in 2021 of the new legal option introduced by the Pacte law of 2019: the status of mission-led enterprise may be more appropriate to highlight the reality of La Poste as a learning organisation that is capable of consistently renewing its public service mandate.