Conformity and variation within the legal system: An organizational communication analysis

An organizational communication theory of legal organizing reflecting the postmodern dialectical tension between conformity and variation is proposed. Legal organizing is the process by which equivocality in social behavior is reduced through the communication of interconnected rules or laws that make sense of events. A model of conformity and variation in legal processes is advanced to understand communication behaviors in legal organizing. The model is assessed and refined in light of empirical research: First, conformity and variation is explored in an examination of a judicial policy-making body's behavior in leading a radical, second-order organizational restructuring of a state's trial courts. Second, integrative complexity analysis is employed to understand the relationship between conformity and variation in a trial court's budget rhetoric. Third, a field study is conducted of a trial court's strategic planning process based on the author's experience working in the trial court's executive office during 1997--98 as a Judicial Administration Fellow.