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"Papereality" and Learning in Bureaucratic Organizations

This article argues that organizations create, maintain, and live by "papereality, " defined as a world of symbols, a particular form of representation that takes precedence over the things and events represented. If so, what is written down as official can be an important guide to and constraint on behavior in organizations. This article explores in particular the significance that papereality may have on organizational learning. Its main hypothesis is that in bureaucratic organizations, the presumption of knowledge, the power of distrust, the heavy reliance on official records and procedures, and the predominance of routine all seem to cushion papereality from other forms of representation and thus inhibit forgetting and learning.