This paper proposes to show how the work of Norbert Alter brings a major contribution to our understanding of organizations, specially regarding intimately intricate phenomena such as innovation and rule transgression. This French sociologist clearly pinpoints the existence, forms and stakes of...

Francophone organizational scholarship has been neglected by Anglophone researchers. The development of the Francophone field can be understood in terms of both epoch and episteme. Three epochs are discernible - foundations, architecture, and building/rebuilding. There are also two epistemes....

This theoretical paper argues for a strategic role of rule transgression in organization whereby transgression is understood as an element of normal functioning rather than as a pathology of organization. Following strategic analysis (Crozier and Frieberg) and joint regulation (Reynaud), we...