Wie man Bürokratien das Lernen beibringt

Organizational rules (standard operating procedures) are, at the same time, enabling and restraining. They are enabling, because, e.g., they represent highly effective coordination instruments and serve as stores of organizational knowledge. On the other hand, they tend to develop a dynamics that leads to bureaucratization that can paralyze the organization. In this article typical problems of organizational rules are discussed on the basis of case studies. In a second step, a number of approaches to a design of rules that proves enabling for organizational learning are developed. In a third step, it is asked whom the responsibilities of the process of the design of rules should be assigned to. Finally, it is discussed how an organization can dispose of restraining rules and replace them by enabling ones.