33

This paper explores the possibility of developing organizational methods that are an alternative to the professional bureaucracy (Mintzberg 1978; Boyer and Equilbey 1999) in public institutions subject to strong regulatory pressure. The administrative rigidity of our public services (Isambert Jamati 1966) undermines the daily activity of public institutions subject to the same constraints linked to uncertainty as private companies. In the context of sea rescue, the level of organizational uncertainty is high (the situations to be dealt with are inherently uncertain and it is difficult to anticipate workloads). We studied the following question: How can temporary organization meet the regulatory requirements of public institutions involved in unpredictable emergency assistance? Using ethnographic research, we propose ways in which temporary organization can be applied to these institutions and also examine its limitations.