ABSTRACT
A pair of concepts that has been used throughout the history of industrial and organisational sociology has been that of formal and informal organisation. It emerged in the 1930s as a way in which both social scientists and some management writers engaged with what we might call the ‘two-sidedness of organisational life’ (Watson 2001b). One side of every work organisation is the set of bureaucratic roles, rules and procedures that we see represented in rule books, organisation charts and formalised sets of operating procedures. This is the aspect of organisations that encourages us to conceive of them as entities that remain in existence even when the individuals who take particular organisational roles are completely replaced by another set of individuals. However, this first side of the work organisation can only come into being when human individuals enter the set of roles indicated on the organisation chart. When they enter the organisational scene they bring with them their own interests, purposes and understandings. And they are likely soon to want to shape certain aspects of their working lives for themselves, regardless of what the managerial blueprint dictates. Thus a second side of organisational life comes into being as people form relationships and coalitions of interests with others, play games, develop ‘short cuts’, create ‘pecking orders’ and generally seek ways of expressing and defending their humanity and pursuing personal priorities.
