Legal readings: Employee interpretation and mobilization of law

Organizational scholars have studied the impact of employment law on the st ructure of formed organizations but have given little attention to how law affects everyday life within work organizations. Here we propose a "legal r eadings model" of how law is received and mobilized by employees. This posi ts that law within organizations is composed of employees' beliefs about la w and mobilization of law which develop from interaction with employers' la w-related actions. Employees' legal readings function much like a prism, re directing legal rules in multiple and sometimes unanticipated directions.