Abstract :
Whether they are formally prescribed or informally agreed upon, rules delineate the
types of behavior deemed acceptable or appropriate within organizations. Studies often
find that negative outcomes such as decreased group cohesion and higher turnover result
when rules are broken. However, research rarely examines the potential positive effects
of rule violations. Rules describe expectations about behavior within routines, or
patterns of activity in organizations.When rules are violated by individuals, it could be
an indication that the associated patterns of activity are no longer appropriate and that
changes to the routines are needed. Organizations may learn fromthese violations if the
violations trigger a search for new ways to organize activities, but this connection
between violations and the search for newroutines is affected by several factors.Drawing
from a review and discussion of rules, routines, and research on organizational search
and learning, this paper develops propositions regarding how rule violations motivate
the search for new routines. This perspective integrates the literatures on rule-breaking
and organizational search, and also suggests that managers who attend to patterns of
rule-breaking within their organizations may detect drift from their environments and
take corrective action earlier than suggested by other organizational learning research.
