Informal Bases of Formalisation in Pakistan: Recording the Lived Experiences of Female School Teachers

This paper focuses on exploring the way ingrained cultural wisdom and mechanisms provide the base for actualising official roles in formal organisations. Most of the formal interactions and transactions are made through personalised dealings (Qadeer, 1999). Some senior scholars feel that such cultural wisdom/mechanisms (like VB) are not relevant anymore (Chaudhary, 1999), but the current research and existing practices are giving a different picture of reality (Saher & Mayrhofer, 2014; Saher et al., 2014; Qadeer, 1999). Considering this lacuna in literature and between literature and practice, this paper is going to unravel the process of informalization in formal organisations and will contribute to the ongoing debate on convergence divergence. This paper will also discuss the implications and extend guidance for future research in this field.