At this stage, a brief history of the concept of formalization will be helpful. Formalization is a concept that has been in use for a long time by organization theorists and is broadly defined as “the degree to which norms of an organization are explicitly formulated” (Price and Mueller 1989. 137). One important line of research on formalization includes that by researchers affiliated with the Aston School (e.g., Inkson, Pugh, and Hickson 1970; Pugh, Hickson, Hinings, and Turner 1968.) In their study of manufacturing and service organizations, Pugh et al. (1968) consider formalization from the perspective of the “structuring of activities,” defined as the extent to which rules, procedures, norms, standards of behavior, communication, and so on, are in written form. Formalization is operationalized by the use of official organizational records and documents, including employee handbooks and standard operations manuals.
I lage and Aiken (1967 and 1969) make an important contribution by identifying two subconstructs of formalization: job