Striving for seamlessness: Procedures manuals as a tool for organizational control

Describes the writer′s experiences as “author” of a procedures manual for a large contract cleaning company. The senior managers were anxious to take control over what they saw as an unwieldy organization with unclear procedures that badly needed streamlining. The manual reflected senior managers′ need to set up an illusion of control over the organization; in its production process and in its style, it suggested both that a coolly analytical, rational and logical approach was being taken to organizational description and rationalization, and that it was morally right to follow the procedures described. Yet in fulfilling senior managers′ requirements, the manual did not reflect the mess of organizational procedures, and its smooth,“seamless” descriptions implied that employees had nothing original to add to organizational procedures. Concludes that procedures manuals might be seen as inimical to individuality, as a force for control by senior management, and as a means of inhibiting employee creativity.