ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the role of procedures and some paradoxes surrounding procedures and focuses on a side effect of the over-proceduralization, a phenomenon we call the 'no rule, no use'. This side effect will be interpreted as a defensive behaviour developed within organizations characterized by over-proceduralization, over-control practices and blames culture. In 2008, a high-risk company prescribed a new organizational requirement to strengthen the management of a specific hazardous activity. Consequently, one can generalize that the 'no rule, no use' behaviour is damaging for high-risk organizations because it can lead to a decline in safety professionalism, in the 'moral sense of safety'. This moral sense of safety refers to an assembly of actions carried out, without relation to procedures, to perform and enhance safety. Over-proceduralization, over-control practices and empowerment strategy can threaten the 'moral sense of safety'. The excessive rationalization process within organizations is conducive to forgetting, neglecting or avoiding everything that has not been formalized.
