Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation
Designed to close the ubiquitous gap between law on the books and law in action, management systems locate the standard setting and implementation of regulation within the regulated organization itself. Despite efforts to more closely couple aspirations and performance, the gap re-emerges because th...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70472 |
| _version_ | 1811098081858420736 |
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| author | Huising, Ruthanne Silbey, Susan S. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program Huising, Ruthanne Silbey, Susan S. |
| author_sort | Huising, Ruthanne |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Designed to close the ubiquitous gap between law on the books and law in action, management systems locate the standard setting and implementation of regulation within the regulated organization itself. Despite efforts to more closely couple aspirations and performance, the gap re-emerges because the exigencies of practical action exceed the capacity of system prescriptions to anticipate and contain them. Drawing on data from a six-year ethnographic study of the creation and implementation of an environment, health, and safety management system, this article identifies relational regulation as the approach used by front-line managers to govern the gap: keeping organizational activities within an acceptable range of variation close to regulatory specifications. We identify four practices – narrating the gap, inquiring without constraint, integrating pluralistic accounts, and crafting pragmatic accommodations – and three conditions under which actors may develop a sociological orientation to enact relational regulation. Overall, the article concludes that the mechanism for assuring compliance resides in the apprehension of relational interdependencies rather than the management system per se. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:09:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/70472 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:09:37Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/704722022-09-30T00:06:01Z Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation Huising, Ruthanne Silbey, Susan S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program Silbey, Susan S. Silbey, Susan S. Designed to close the ubiquitous gap between law on the books and law in action, management systems locate the standard setting and implementation of regulation within the regulated organization itself. Despite efforts to more closely couple aspirations and performance, the gap re-emerges because the exigencies of practical action exceed the capacity of system prescriptions to anticipate and contain them. Drawing on data from a six-year ethnographic study of the creation and implementation of an environment, health, and safety management system, this article identifies relational regulation as the approach used by front-line managers to govern the gap: keeping organizational activities within an acceptable range of variation close to regulatory specifications. We identify four practices – narrating the gap, inquiring without constraint, integrating pluralistic accounts, and crafting pragmatic accommodations – and three conditions under which actors may develop a sociological orientation to enact relational regulation. Overall, the article concludes that the mechanism for assuring compliance resides in the apprehension of relational interdependencies rather than the management system per se. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant No. 0216815) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant No. 0518118) 2012-04-27T21:41:05Z 2012-04-27T21:41:05Z 2011-03 2010-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1748-5983 1748-5991 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70472 Huising, Ruthanne, and Susan S. Silbey. “Governing the Gap: Forging Safe Science Through Relational Regulation.” Regulation & Governance 5.1 (2011): 14–42. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01100.x Regulation and Governance Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing) Silbey |
| spellingShingle | Huising, Ruthanne Silbey, Susan S. Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation |
| title | Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation |
| title_full | Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation |
| title_fullStr | Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation |
| title_short | Governing the gap: Forging safe science through relational regulation |
| title_sort | governing the gap forging safe science through relational regulation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70472 |
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