ABSTRACT
Administration and leadership studies, in their formalized forms of hierarchical structure, policy, decision making, and human resource management, while appearing to be transparent and procedural, still lend themselves to a variety of secret or deceptive practices. The informal organization sometimes exists as a shadow organization with its own structures and roles, consisting of influence networks, work constellations, and cliques and alliances, often maintaining a high degree of confidentiality or concealment in its activities. On a functional level, the policies, procedures, and rules serve two purposes: the orderly functions of administration and, at the same time, opportunities and sources for covert activity. They are functional sites of co-optation, subversion, undermining, and erosion. Membership of committees can be infiltrated by someone bent on perverting the procedures and rules of decision making to a political purpose. Research activity approvals can be manipulated to serve a personal or factional agenda, unduly benefiting some people and marginalizing or excluding ones enemies.
