Effective working practices
A perspective will be offered which suggests
that organisations might significantly benefit
from working practices which are in
accordance with the culture of the
organisation. The problem that develops ± and which this paper addresses ± is what
impact multiple objectives have on working practices and how working practices may be
understood and changed when rules and habits are likely to be important.
A number of researchers have developed a
literature on the formation of habits and
rules as a way of explaining how individuals within an organisation respond effectively to
the tasks they face. In an important article,
Hodgson (1997) ± and on which this section is based ± examines the ubiquity of habits and rules and suggests why it is that reliance on
an analysis of habits and rules to explain
organisational behaviour is likely to be quite
general. In the context of the public sector, the analysis presented here is an attempt to explain how organisations change and how
individual decision making is deeply
embedded within an organisational
structure, as expressed, inter alia, in terms of
social networks and other relationships
(Granovetter, 1985). In this way, individual
action is able to respond to complex
situations, even in the face of multiple and uncertain goals.
In general, habit and rule formation is
likely to be important when issues of optimal
performance, information overload and
complex information affect working
practices as they currently exist. Moreover, organisational change will be influenced by
the use of habits and rules because of the need to understand and communicate new ideas.