Ralph Stacey on rule-following

Ralph Stacey writes that we have to think of global organizational order as continually emerging in myriad local interactions,¹ and that it is highly simplistic to think of human beings as rule-following beings.² In our acting, we may take account of rules but can hardly be said to blindly follow them.³

The essential and distinctive characteristic of human beings is that we are conscious and self-conscious beings capable of emotion, spontaneity, imagination, fantasy and creative action. We are essentially reflexive and reflective.⁴ We do not interact blindly according to mechanistic rules, but engage in meaningful communicative interaction with each other.⁵ We establish power relations between ourselves.⁶ And we also exercise at least some degree of choice as to how we will respond to the actions of others.⁷ In addition, we use tools and technologies to accomplish what we choose to do.⁸

This means that consciousness, self-consciousness, reflection and reflexivity, creativity, imagination and fantasy, communication, meaning, power, choice, evaluation, tool use and sociality should explicitly be brought to any interpretation, as regards human beings.⁹

Notes:
¹ Patricia Shaw and Ralph Stacey (editors), Experiencing Risk, Spontaneity and Improvisation in Organizational Change: Working live, (Routledge, 2006), p. 125.
² Ibid., p. 126.
³ Ibid..
⁴ Ibid..
⁵ Ibid..
⁶ Ibid..
⁷ Ibid..
⁸ Ibid..
⁹ Ibid..

Update 2022-09-15: Text converted to blocks.

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Ralph Stacey on beliefs