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)

Our health and theirs: forced migration, othering, and public health.

'The NHS Plan means that by April 2003 all employees in the health service will have the right to work for an organisation that can show it has adopted flexible working practices.

Time for a change

This article presents and tests a model of gift selection based on cognitive consistency theories. The model, which is supported by the data presented, offers a means for predicting the conditions under which giver tastes or recipient tastes dominate gift selection, and for predicting the amount of satisfaction which the gift brings the giver.

It's the thought that counts : a signed digraph analysis of gift-giving / BEBR No. 314

This paper examines the relationship between gender performativity and organizational space. Specifically, it focuses on some of the ways in which gender is materialized in and through workspace in accordance with the dominant gender norms shaping organizational life, a theme that has been relatively neglected within organization studies to date. Judith Butler’s (1988, 1993, 2000 [1990], 2004) performative analysis of gender draws critical attention to the body as a medium through which the gendered subject is brought into being, or made to ‘matter’, as she puts it. This paper seeks to extend Butler’s analysis of gender performativity, focusing on the evocation and materialization of these norms through the gendered inhabitation of organizational space. Inspired by a piece of work by contemporary video artist Sofia Hulten called Grey Area, it develops Butler’s analysis with reference to data generated in a series of focus groups and interviews with women working in diverse roles within a university settin...

Spaces that Matter: Gender Performativity and Organizational Space

We discuss the emergence of a new craft movement known as Stitch'nBitch. Prevalent around the globe, particularly among women, this movement is based locally in places such as hotels and cafes, and virtually using the internet. The women meet to knit, stitch and talk. The groups use new technologies as an enabler and resource exchange. At the same time, their presence can be seen, in part, as a negative response to major political, social and technological changes including globalization, terrorism, damage to the environment and the dislocation of the Information Society. We introduce five themes to assist in the development of a research agenda into this new form of material culture, discussing (1) remedial, (2) progressive, (3) resistance, (4) nostalgic and (5) ironic possibilities. Each is considered in terms of their respective foci on community, cyberfeminism, craft, conservation and comment.

Stitch'nBitch: Cyberfeminism, a third place and the new materiality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the role that visual measures of attention to product and information and price display signage have on purchase intention. The authors assessed the effect of visual attention to the product, information or price sign on purchase intention, as measured by likelihood to buy. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used eye-tracking technology to collect data from Australian and US garden centre customers, who viewed eight plant displays in which the signs had been altered to show either price or supplemental information (16 images total). The authors compared the role of visual attention to price and information sign, and the role of visual attention to the product when either sign was present on likelihood to buy. Findings – Overall, providing product information on a sign without price elicited higher likelihood to buy than providing a sign with price. The authors found a positive relationship between visual attention to price on the display sign and ...

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Seeking attention: an eye tracking study of in-store merchandise displays

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how customers with different relational bonds respond to the same service failure. In particular, the framework to service failure and recovery devised by Fournier and Mick is applied.Design/methodology/approach – To uncover rich emotional and cognitive responses to service failure, in‐depth interviews with eight former and current patrons of an Australian opera were used.Findings – Three types of relationship were identified: satisfaction‐as‐love (SaL), satisfaction‐as‐trust (SaT) and satisfaction‐as‐control (SaC). Each responded to the same failure in different ways. SaL customers had emotional bonds with the product category and thus reaffiremed their loyalty following the failure. SaT customers saw the service failure and inadequate recovery as a breach of the brand's implied promise and thus excited the relationship. SaC customers took charge of the situation, using their status to improve their situation and then defended the brand.Practical implicat...

An exploration of relational customers' response to service failure

Inside-outside: Using eye-tracking to investigate search-choice processes in the retail environment

Purpose – Responding to calls for a greater understanding of consumer socialization in young people, this paper aims to investigate daughters' perceptions of shopping with their mothers. It seeks to provide insights into the significance of the retail shopping experience for young women.Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study is based on 30 online and three face‐to‐face interviews with young women aged between 20 and 22. The authors asked the young women who they shopped with and why and to recount some of their best and worst shopping experiences. The interviews were coded and analysed to reveal several recurring themes. This paper reports only on data relating to shopping with their mothers.Findings – The four major themes that emerged from the interviews with the young women were: gaining independence; trust in mother; the bank of mum; quality time with mum.Research limitations/implications – The sample is limited to young women in a Midwest university in the USA. Attitudes to consumption ...

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Stella Minahan

Papers

Stitch'nBitch: Cyberfeminism, a third place and the new materiality

Seeking attention: an eye tracking study of in-store merchandise displays

An exploration of relational customers' response to service failure

Inside-outside: Using eye-tracking to investigate search-choice processes in the retail environment

Shopping with mum - mother and daughter consumer socialization