The illusion of accountability: Information management and organizational culture
Name
The Illusion of Accountability1_suggPG-1.sssedit. doc.pdf
Size
324.84 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
0bdc6eeace46830021edf3adf6d90ccc
Author(s)
Silbey, Susan S.
Agrawal, Tanu
Date Issued
January 2011
Journal
Droit et Societe
Publisher
World Scientific
Citation
Silbey, Susan S. and Tanu Agrawal. "The illusion of accountability: Information management and organizational culture." Droite et Societe (2011) 77.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
How do laws and regulations govern the activities of large, decentralized, and often geographically dispersed organizations? Under conditions of loose coupling, how does the organization coordinate action and know what it is doing so that accountability, and conformity, to law are achieved? Rather than relying on interpersonal trust, direct observation, or bureaucratic review, this paper describes the collaborative creation of a database as part of a surveillance technology for managing environmental, health and safety hazards in university research laboratories. Based on two years of observation, we show how the desire for information and the fear of misuse of information together fails the basic informational surveillance mission.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=DRS_077_0069
