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)

Since the publication of the first special issue on human resource management (HRM) in the Middle East in this journal in 2007, the last seven years have witnessed a significant increase in the volume and breadth of topics relating to HRM in the region. Our aim in this special issue is to contribute to a greater understanding of HRM research and practices in the Middle East, hoping to push the research agenda forward. To achieve our aim, we critically examine the direction that HRM research on the Middle East has taken in the last seven years. We then point to current and future challenges facing the region, and suggest how these regional realities are likely to shape HRM research and practices, thus suggesting avenues for further research. Finally, we present the nine articles included in this special issue. Taken together, these articles provide a better understanding of the challenging issues facing both employees and organizations in the region, point to important new developments in theory and practi...

HRM in the Middle East: toward a greater understanding

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how women academics from the Arab Middle East enact their careers with reference to double-bounded contexts: academia as an institution encoding organizational career scripts and gender as another institution encoding specific gender roles. It is hoped that this cross-cultural perspective would broaden the understanding of careers beyond the economically advanced industrialized countries and better inform the current debate on the boundaryless career model. Design/methodology/approach – The study is qualitative and exploratory in nature. It draws on one-to-one interviews with 23 female academics in early, mid and late careers, working in research universities in the Arab Middle East region. Findings – The choice of academia as a profession is mainly driven by the subjective perception of an academic career as a calling, the lack of attractiveness of other career options in the region, and the appeal of the flexibility of academic work. Furthermore, the fin...

Women's careers in the Arab Middle East

Purpose – This paper takes an institutional approach to identify cognitive, normative, and regulatory factors affecting women’s business leadership in an under-studied traditional society. The purpose of this paper is to assess how such forces work to create a case of female leadership deficit (FLD) in Lebanon. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyze interview data to identify themes linking women’s leadership with societal institutional forces. The qualitative analysis provides an understanding at the societal level of analysis which is only partially tempered through organizational structures. Findings – Misalignments among cognitive, normative, and regulative pillars inhibit real change. Organizational structures are not highly salient as the most important factors affecting women’s leadership. Rather, patriarchal structures, explicit favoring of males over females, and assignment of women to nurturing roles within the private sphere of the family are the major limiting factors impeding women...

From female leadership advantage to female leadership deficit

In this paper, we apply insights from poststructuralist feminist theory to contribute to entrepreneurial leadership. By drawing on 21 individual narratives with Lebanese women entrepreneurs, we exp...

Entrepreneurial Leadership, Patriarchy, Gender, and Identity in the Arab World: Lebanon in Focus

Synopsis This paper leverages Structuration Theory within the greater framework of Institutional Theory to broaden the balance discourse cross-culturally. We argue that the application of the balance concept can be expanded if one allows a move beyond the structure-argument for a bi-polar, equal weighting conceptualization of “work” versus “family”, and beyond a process argument focusing on psycho-behavioral components. Instead balance can acknowledge the differences between structure and agency and the interaction between them (i.e., agentic process ). Agentic process suggests that women actively seek to address as well as modify a multitude of institutionally mandated and idiosyncratic structures (i.e., roles and responsibilities) through day-to-day behaviors. Ultimately, balance is a matter of the ease of navigation between and across these different types of structure. With a set of qualitative data drawn from three societies within the Arab Middle East, we find preliminary support for an enriched conceptualization of balance readily applicable cross-culturally.

Nour A. Nasr

Papers

Walking a tightrope or navigating a web: Parameters of balance within perceived institutional realities

Addressing Social and Gender Norms to Promote Gender Equality