What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Quasi-experimentation - design and analysis issues for field settings - cook,td, campbell,dt

Publisher Summary The chapter presents a discussion on the theory of equalizing differences. The theory of equalizing differences refers to observed wage differentials required to equalize the total monetary and nonmonetary advantages or disadvantages among work activities and among workers themselves. On the conceptual level, it can make legitimate claim to be the fundamental (long-run) market equilibrium construct in labor economics. Its empirical importance lies in contributing useful understanding to the determinants of the structure of wages in the economy and for making inferences about preferences and technology from observed wage data. Measurable job attributes on which compensating wage differentials have been shown to arise empirically include (1) onerous working conditions, such as risks to life and health, exposure to pollution, and so forth; (2) intercity and interregional wage differences associated with differences in climate, crime, pollution, and crowding; (3) special work-time scheduling and related requirements, including shift work, inflexible work schedules, and possible risks of layoff and subsequent unemployment; and (4) the composition of pay packages, including vacations, pensions, and other fringe benefits as substitutes for direct cash wage payments. Another important class of problems identifies work environments with investment rather than with consumption. Market equilibrium is defined by equality between demand and supply for workers on each type of job.

Chapter 12 The theory of equalizing differences

Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization

Over the past 3 decades, the U.S. Temporary Help Services (THS) industry grew five times more rapidly than overall employment. Contemporaneously, courts in 46 states adopted exceptions to the common law doctrine of employment at will that limited employers’ discretion to terminate workers and opened them to litigation. This article assesses the contribution of “unjust dismissal” doctrine to THS employment specifically, and outsourcing more generally, finding that it is substantial—explaining 20% of the growth of THS between 1973 and 1995 and contributing 500,000 additional outsourced workers in 2000. States with smaller declines in unionization also saw substantially more THS growth.

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Outsourcing at Will: The Contribution of Unjust Dismissal Doctrine to the Growth of Employment Outsourcing

This paper provides a critical survey of the literature dealing with public sector labor markets. It discusses the research by economists on wage determination in the state and local sector (including the effects of unions), on the estimation of compensating wage differentials for pecuniary and nonpecuniary job characteristics, on the effects of unions on productivity, on the estimation of public/private pay differentials, and on gender and race discrimination in the public sector. Numerous suggestions for future research are offered.

/pdf/public-sector-labor-markets-20gpmm2ftm.pdf

Public Sector Labor Markets

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=itscm_facpubs

Negotiation, Email, and Internet Reverse Auctions: How Sourcing Mechanisms Deployed by Buyers Affect Suppliers’ Trust

This study investigates business-to-business interpersonal trust formation (trust that develops between boundary spanning individuals from different organizations) during the price determination stage of the supplier selection process. We first investigate whether trust can form at this stage. Then we examine two factors that may affect trust formation: the communication channel employed by the buyer and the amount of complexity involved in the purchase. Hypotheses are tested with a behavioral experiment (N=117) comparing three communication media (face-to-face, email, and Internet reverse auctions) and two levels of procurement complexity. Results show that trust formation does occur at the price determination stage; however, the degree to which trust grows depends on the communication channel employed and on the level of procurement complexity. Our study enhances managerial understanding of the possibility of developing (or eroding) trust early in the buyer-seller relationship, and it sheds light on the appropriateness of various supplier selection tools under various conditions. In addition, this research contributes to the supply chain management field by complementing the existing trust literature which typically focuses on interorganizational trust that is formed or eroded later in the supply relationship.

Interpersonal trust formation during the supplier selection process: the role of the communication channel

This study examines workplace issues of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) employees. Specifically, we analyze the effect of firm GLBT nondiscrimination policies on that firm's stock market value. Corporate equality index (CEI) is used as a proxy for how firms manage GLBT issues. Results reveal that changes in firms' standardized CEI scores are positively associated with changes in firms' standardized stock price trend during the following year. Our findings suggest that the stock prices of firms with more progressive GLBT nondiscrimination policies relative to competing firms in the same industry outperform otherwise equivalent firms with lower CEI scores. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Stock price reactions to GLBT nondiscrimination policies

Employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals remains a persistent problem not addressed by federal and most state equal employment opportunity laws in the United States. Despite this lack of regulation, a growing number of organizations are voluntarily adding sexual orientation and gender identity to their nondiscrimination statements, providing domestic partner benefits, sponsoring affinity groups, and establishing other “LGBT-friendly” policies. This article incorporates institutional theory and organizational demography to explore the antecedents to these policies to understand why some organizations seek to be at the forefront of this trend while others do only the minimum to embrace this element of diversity. The analysis of a sample of Fortune 1000 firms reveals that state law dealing with gay rights in non-employment-related areas for the state where each company is headquartered, the number of women serving on each firm's board of directors, and whether other companies in the same industry have adopted progressive policies are all related to company policy toward its LGBT employees. Sexual orientation of employees by industry does not seem to influence company policy

Joshua L. Schwarz

Papers

Public Sector Labor Markets

Negotiation, Email, and Internet Reverse Auctions: How Sourcing Mechanisms Deployed by Buyers Affect Suppliers’ Trust

Interpersonal trust formation during the supplier selection process: the role of the communication channel

Stock price reactions to GLBT nondiscrimination policies

Predictors of the Adoption of LGBT‐Friendly HR Policies