Organizational noise concerns the character and consequences of out-of-the-norm events which occur in organizations. The paper defines organizational noise as the unexpected variety which operators of the technical system have to face. The investigation of organizational noise is of twofold importance. First, it helps the analyst to understand how the work organization really functions. Second, it points out the existence of or the possibilities for implementing alternative organizational forms. New organizational forms may emerge from the organized behavior of members facing fluctuations. Two distinctive work-related phenomena are also investigated: self-regulative behavior which absorbs noise and self-organization, for which noise is exploited as a source of new configurations rather then being eliminated. Finally, some implications for methods of organizational analysis are developed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.