ABSTRACT
Writing in 1985 Reed argued that organisation theory has ‘been unable to maintain sufficient theoretical space for the essential ambiguity of organisational life and the need to construct interpretations of it in dynamic rather than structural terms’ (Reed, 1985:117). This book is an attempt to work with an acknowledgement of the ambiguous and dynamic quality of organisational life to explore a particular form of organising. It has not been an easy task, particularly to find a language to convey the dialectic of structural processes and the forms of relationships which are central to an organising perspective. Nor, as Reed (1985:176) points out, are research methods straightforward. What is demanded is a ‘painstaking reconstruction of the conceptual frameworks through which actors make sense of their strategic and tactical interventions in particular situations’. On the other hand, while non-hierarchy as a specific form of organising has received scant attention, there is no shortage of organisational literature which proposes and develops the framework of negotiated order and situated social action adopted here. Moreover, it is evident that participants themselves can amass a wealth of practical knowledge about what is involved in creating and maintaining organisation.
