Organizational Rules

"Oganizational Rules" analyzes the significance of rules within organizational life and explores ways in which rules both reflect and affect the organizational behaviour of individuals and groups. The authors argue for an approach to understanding organizations that adequately and concurrently takes account of both the structure of actions and the understandings of the actors in actions. Examining the notion of rule as a key metaphor, they attempt a synthesis of a number of different organizational approaches. In exploring and forwarding a body of theory, they interweave the argument with case studies which both underpin their theoretical argument and reflect their practical concerns: of helping individuals to survive and prosper within organizations; and of assisting managers to identify possibilities for change, to resolve conflict and to make organizational adjustments.