ABSTRACT
Every organisation is a group, with members who recognise both its existence and their own membership of it. As groups, organisations are networks of reciprocal identification: self-definition as a member depends upon recognition of, and by, other members. In particular, individual membership must be acknowledged by those with the legitimate authority to do so, who in this matter represent, and act as, the organisation. Hierarchies of authority and control govern the reciprocity of identification within organisations, and group membership is always in part a matter of categorisation. It is even possible to have organisational ‘members’ who are authoritatively registered as such, but are not themselves aware of their ‘membership’, or may not even exist.
