The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)
01 Jan 2008-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them, and describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative.
Abstract: 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.
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01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that little is known about the behaviour of directors or the values of the directors that govern companies and argue that a greater understanding of directors' values and behaviour is worthy of research.
Abstract: Boards have an important role in contemporary society. In fact, in some cases boards govern firms that are wealthier and more powerful than the governments of the countries in which they operate. In recent years, the impact on society of the failures of some large corporations has led governments to prescribe the role of directors. However, by virtue of context, personality or values, no degree of prescription will overcome the fact that there will always be many shades of grey. In other words, different directors and boards may come to different decisions about seemingly similar matters due to their personal values. In spite of this, little is known about the behaviour of directors or the values of the directors that govern companies. Their decisions are made behind closed doors, or in the black box. Therefore, a greater understanding of directors’ values and behaviour is argued to be worthy of research and is the focus of this thesis.
8 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This article examined the effect of the Booker/Fanfan decision on federal sentencing and found that, while some sentencing practices have changed slightly, Booker has not dramatically altered them, and that while federal judges in general sentence more leniently post-Booker, extralegal disparity and interdistrict variation in the effects of extralega factors on sentencing have not increased post-booker.
Abstract: In January of 2005, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Booker and Fanfan that in order to be constitutional, the federal guidelines must be advisory rather than presumptive. The uncertainty regarding how Booker may change sentencing practices has been a major discussion among legal scholars. The wake of Booker/Fanfan may bring decreased uniformity and consistency in sentencing between District Courts, and also increased unwarranted disparity based on the social status characteristics of defendants. This is one of the first empirical studies to examine if and how Booker has changed federal sentencing. We first review the Booker/Fanfan decision and its importance and aftermath, and then review what is known from previous studies of disparity in federal sentencing pre-Booker/Fanfan. Using survey data taken from judges, lawyers, and probation officers in federal courts, we examine how practices in courts may have changed post-Booker. We then examine several of the central questions surrounding whether Booker has increased disparity using USSC data on federal sentencing outcomes from three time periods: prior to the 2003 PROTECT Act, the period governed by the PROTECT Act, and the post-Booker/Fanfan period (2006-2007). The results from the survey data show that while some sentencing practices have changed slightly, Booker has not dramatically altered them. And from the USSC data we find that while federal judges in general sentence more leniently post-Booker, extralegal disparity and interdistrict variation in the effects of extralegal factors on sentencing have not increased post-Booker. Thus, allowing judges greater freedom to exercise discretion does not necessarily result in increased extralegal disparity.
8 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This study examines the resistance to a UK information security certification scheme through three episodes of power that led to its withdrawal in 2000 and presents a reflection on legitimacy as a required attribute for the acceptance of a certificate scheme.
Abstract: Using the lens of Clegg's circuits of power (CoP) framework, this study examines the resistance to a UK information security certification scheme through three episodes of power that led to its withdrawal in 2000. The UK authorities sought to generate market competition between a generic certificate scheme with lower costs and international recognition and one based on technical rigor, but they failed in their objectives because of resistance from organizational players. This paper makes contributions to the understanding of the discursive nature of resistance to change in the research of standards and certification, and contributes to the literature by formulating the concept of discourse resilience: the property of discourses to resist change. It identifies the non-agentic nature of resistance in the absence of coercive power and presents a reflection on legitimacy as a required attribute for the acceptance of a certificate scheme. The research finds that what organizations deem to be legitimate is the result of power.
8 citations
17 Aug 2016
TL;DR: It is proposed and found that medical dispensaries in communities with weak sociopolitical support for recreational cannabis legalization advance identity claims that sharpen their medical orientation as the recreational cannabis dispensary density increases.
Abstract: When recreational cannabis dispensaries first entered the U.S. market in 2014, how did incumbent medical cannabis dispensaries react? Did they emphasize their distinct identity as medical providers, distancing themselves from recreational dispensaries and those consumers who consume cannabis recreationally, or did they downplay their medical orientation in order to compete directly for potential resources? In this study, we seek to develop understanding of how local resource and sociopolitical contexts shape and constrain incumbents’ strategic responses to new category emergence. We propose and find that medical dispensaries in communities with weak sociopolitical support for recreational cannabis legalization advance identity claims that sharpen their medical orientation as the recreational cannabis dispensary density increases. In contrast, medical dispensaries faced with a local population that supports recreational use move to directly compete for control of overlapping regions of resource space by de-emphasizing identity-based distinctions between medical and recreational dispensaries. We further find that the preferences of a medical dispensary’s existing customer base also influence the identity claims it advances in response to recreational dispensary competition. Our findings help to advance understanding of processes underlying the strengthening and weakening of boundaries in the organizational world.
8 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2016
8 citations
References
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TL;DR: This article synthesize the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches, and identify three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based upon normative approval; and cognitive, according to comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness.
Abstract: This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval: and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.
13,229 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory of stakeholder identification and saliency based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes (power, legitimacy, and urgency) is proposed, and a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their saliency to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.
Abstract: Stakeholder theory has been a popular heuristic for describing the management environment for years, but it has not attained full theoretical status. Our aim in this article is to contribute to a theory of stakeholder identification and salience based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency. By combining these attributes, we generate a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their salience to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.
10,630 citations
TL;DR: The authors applied the convergent insights of institutional and resource dependence perspectives to the prediction of strategic responses to institutional processes, and proposed a typology of strategies that vary in active organizational resistance from passive conformity to proactive manipulation.
Abstract: This article applies the convergent insights of institutional and resource dependence perspectives to the prediction of strategic responses to institutional processes. The article offers a typology of strategic responses that vary in active organizational resistance from passive conformity to proactive manipulation. Ten institutional factors are hypothesized to predict the occurrence of the alternative proposed strategies and the degree of organizational conformity or resistance to institutional pressures.
7,595 citations
TL;DR: This article conducted a meta-analysis of 52 studies and found that corporate virtue in the form of social responsibility and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility is likely to pay off, although the operationalizations of CSP and CFP also moderate the positive association.
Abstract: Most theorizing on the relationship between corporate social/environmental performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) assumes that the current evidence is too fractured or too variable to draw any generalizable conclusions. With this integrative, quantitative study, we intend to show that the mainstream claim that we have little generalizable knowledge about CSP and CFP is built on shaky grounds. Providing a methodologically more rigorous review than previous efforts, we conduct a meta-analysis of 52 studies (which represent the population of prior quantitative inquiry) yielding a total sample size of 33,878 observations. The meta-analytic findings suggest that corporate virtue in the form of social responsibility and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility is likely to pay off, although the operationalizations of CSP and CFP also moderate the positive association. For example, CSP appears to be more highly correlated with accounting-based measures of CFP than with market-based ...
6,493 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider structural inertia in organizational populations as an outcome of an ecological-evolutionary process and define structural inertia as a correspondence between a class of organizations and their environments.
Abstract: Considers structural inertia in organizational populations as an outcome of an ecological-evolutionary process. Structural inertia is considered to be a consequence of selection as opposed to a precondition. The focus of this analysis is on the timing of organizational change. Structural inertia is defined to be a correspondence between a class of organizations and their environments. Reliably producing collective action and accounting rationally for their activities are identified as important organizational competencies. This reliability and accountability are achieved when the organization has the capacity to reproduce structure with high fidelity. Organizations are composed of various hierarchical layers that vary in their ability to respond and change. Organizational goals, forms of authority, core technology, and marketing strategy are the four organizational properties used to classify organizations in the proposed theory. Older organizations are found to have more inertia than younger ones. The effect of size on inertia is more difficult to determine. The variance in inertia with respect to the complexity of organizational arrangements is also explored. (SRD)
6,425 citations