Rule regimes and backstage processes: Organizing production and justice *

Abstract

This article argues that ‘backstage’ processes and rules are deep-seated organizational phenomena. They provide guides for organizational actors who, in ‘real-life’ situations, face dilemmas in implementing official rule regimes. Cases from Polish industry and criminal justice systems in the United States provide a comparative approach in illustrating how these backstage processes – socio-political and negotiated exchange – overcome the rule-imposed dilemmas of bounded rationality and insufficient exclusivity.