ABSTRACT
Organizations, like individuals, need a degree of stability in their lives. At the most basic level some measure of consistency and regularity is necessary for us to process information: we have to be able to recognize phenomena, discern patterns and establish relationships between things. Stability allows us to project ahead and make some assumptions about how the world is going to be tomorrow or next month. It also allows us to build up relationships with other people based on expected behaviours. It enables us to ‘routinize’ activities and decisions, so saving energy and freeing up our limited attention to deal with more complex or less predictable problems or situations; thus the experienced car driver can take the basic operations for granted while concentrating on the traffic conditions or chatting to his or her passenger. Stability also permits us, over a period of time, to refine and deepen our expertise through the constant repetition-with-minor-variations of procedures and processes. These rather theoretical arguments add up to a very practical point about teaching: is there enough stability to allow teachers to get on top of the job?
