Title: Are sense and norms compatibles in organizations? Abstract: Using symbolic interactionism, an interpretative approach and a methodology between ethnography and grounded theory, I analyse how norms at work make sense in organizations. I study the way people use administrative tools in a very widespread work, the management of information. By crossing actions, intentions and justifications from six fields, it becomes evident that the administrative tools which are a materialization of norms issued as proscriptions leave some leeway for interpretation. Thus they are more flexible, relevant and evolving than those which translate prescriptions, more numerous and less well adapted.
