The phenomenon of social control was investigated in this study of a Swedish interorganizational committee appointed to propose a system of economic compensation for dentists in private practice. A hermeneutic (interpretative) method was used to examine the factors controlling the organization. Understanding of the committee's decisions and arguments became possible by analogy with the figure of Procrustes in the Greek myth of Theseus. The symbol of the Procrustean bed-standardization by removing extremes-explained the observed inconsistencies and contradictions in the committee's actions, thereby revealing the usefulness of myth in understanding organizational processes.
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