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Abstract
This research uses survey data and count data of formal rules in a Dutch organization to investigate the relationships between an objective measure of formalization and subjective measures of formalization and red tape. We find that red tape perceptions are related to perceptions of formalization. Second, we find that perceived formalization is weakly, significantly related to objective measures of formalization but that objective formalization measures do not correspond to higher levels of red tape perceptions. We conclude that red tape and formalization are distinct concepts, but question the claim that formalization is a necessary condition for red tape.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Gasunie and Arjen van Witteloostuijn for supporting this research. The analysis and results presented here are those of the authors and do not represent the views of Gasunie.
Notes
In addition to the six main organization departments, there is also a Corporate Management department at the case study organization. This unit consists of a handful of employees, however, and has no written rules contained in procedures, work instructions or specifications.
Since the differences in rule stock sizes between the various departments are very large, we also ran the analyses with a log-form of the formalization count. Results are similar in this case.