ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1, we sketched an image of an organization as a configuration of domains of action, linked to each other through the interlocking of delegations of agency that we called imbrication. In this chapter, we examine imbrication from the perspective of the communication processes that are constituted by, and in turn constitute, the linking. In doing so, we aim to illustrate the dynamic of organizing-imbrication as it is “enacted” in the hurly-burly of organizational life. Inevitably, we argue, because organizing involves establishing a delegation and distribution of agency-the goal being to have acceptance of a kind of organizational “map” that claims the authority to designate who is responsible for what-imbrication invites game-playing. Organizational games, what they are, and how they are played thus form the topic of the chapter. Our second purpose, from this analysis, is to establish a reasoned basis for the conduct of field research, as exemplified in later chapters: how to understand the imbrication that leads to a chaining of agency empirically, now from the point of view of an observing researcher.
