Journal of Studies in Language, Culture and Society (JSLCS)
Volume 9, Numéro 1, Pages 338-353
2026-04-30
Institutional Bureaucracy In Algeria: A Study Of The Interaction Between Human Resources Policies And The Production Of Organizational Culture
Authors : Boumaza Belkacem .
Abstract
This ethnographic study aims to explore the intricate relationship between formal HR policies and the ongoing creation of organizational culture within Algerian institutions. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation across multiple sites, the research analyzes how employees actively engage with and interpret bureaucratic frameworks, revealing a fundamental dialectic at work, as while policies provide an official script, organizational members consistently perform sophisticated “everyday making,” whereby they artfully blend procedural mandates with deeply rooted, localized social logics and practical understandings. This dynamic interaction generates a distinct, hybrid cultural order, characterized not by the dominance of one logic over the other, but by their pragmatic coexistence; the formal and the informal are continuously woven together through daily practice. Consequently, the very mechanisms designed to standardize and control behavior become central, albeit unintended, instruments for forging unique and context-grounded organizational identities; thus, culture is not merely shaped by policy but is produced through the ongoing, nuanced enactment of it.
Keywords
Institutional Bureaucracy ; HR Policies ; Organizational Culture ; Ethnography ; Algerian institutions
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