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 2009
TL;DR: The authors investigated the case of one organization, the Catholic Teachers Union (CTU), which represents over two-hundred lay teachers at eight high schools in the diocese of Camden, New Jersey.
Abstract: Over the past
half-century, the percentage of U.S. Catholic secondary school
teachers that are laypeople has skyrocketed from approximately 10%
in the 1950s to more than 90% in 2006. With this change comes many
important issues that beg to be studied in terms of labor relations
between these lay employees and the Roman Catholic Church. While
the Church has repeatedly made statements in support of labor
unions such as in Laborem Exercens, the relations between lay
teacher associations and Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have not
always mirrored these ideals. This dissertation investigates the
case of one organization, the Catholic Teachers Union (CTU), which
represents over two-hundred lay teachers at eight high schools in
the diocese of Camden, NJ. Using interviews, content analysis, and
archival analysis, the investigator found that the union overcame
diocesan opposition by deliberately framing (through media outlets
and direct communication) their movement and message as strongly
connected to Catholic doctrine, Catholic Social Thought, and Church
teachings. This "moral framing" helped the union gain support from
the parent-consumers sending their children to these schools, which
contributed greatly to the union's recognition in 1984 and then
their negotiation of nine contracts for diocesan lay teachers.
Incorporating Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis, Johnston and Noakes
schema for Social Movement Framing, James Coleman and Thomas
Hoffer's concept of Social Capital and Intergenerational Closure,
and the concept of Community Unionism, the author concludes that
CTU can be considered a leader in lay teacher-Catholic Church labor
relations and that its tactic of moral framing can inform other
unions and the larger labor movement.
6 citations
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper developed a content analysis index based on Measures on Open Environmental Information, which was issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration in 2007, with a scoring method on the basis of Global Reporting Initiative sustainability reporting guidelines.
Abstract: Based on social-political theories, this study identifies the factors which would affect the level of environmental information report provided by Chinese companies. To evaluate the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure, the study develops a content analysis index based on Measures on Open Environmental Information, which was issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration in 2007, with a scoring method on the basis of Global Reporting Initiative sustainability reporting guidelines. The sample comprised 154 Chinese companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange or the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2014. By applying the multiple regression analysis, this study finds that firm value and the adoption of certified environmental management system are positively significantly associated with the quality of environmental information reporting. Also, a good knowledge of environmental regulations and reporting guidelines, a well-built corporate environmental culture and values, and an existence of external assurance for environmental reporting, might help companies to improve the quality of their environmental information disclosure. This study may be useful for the companies which are concerned with environmental issues and their public image, and the regulators in China who take action in ensuring the high quality of corporate environmental information as well as in the overall protection of the environment.
6 citations
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors combined a literature review with a qualitative analysis through interviews with prominent Dutch dance label owners, in order to answer the question: "To what extent is the dance genre distinctive, when compared to the structures currently present in the dynamic music industries?"
Abstract: To what extent is the Dance (or EDM) genre distinctive, when compared to the structures currently present in the dynamic music industries? We have combined a literature review with a qualitative analysis through interviews with prominent Dutch Dance label owners, in order to answer this question. The analysis shows that the Dance genre is not compatible with the existing models developed by Negus and Hesmondhalgh, used to explain the structures and the (power-) division within the music industry. The article looks at the unique characteristics (e.g. the 'digitally born' nature, the absence of majors and the live revenue focus) of this genre and what this has meant, and means, amidst all digital advances, for its development.
6 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the private universities appearing and developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo specifically in its capital city, and they question the entrepreneurs' motivations to establish private higher education institutions.
Abstract: In April 1989, the central committee of the Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR) has liberalised the higher education sector; and therefore ended formally the State’s exclusive control of over it. Within a critical political and institutional context, the private higher education recognition by the moral entrepreneur has allowed private entrepreneurs with economic, social and cultural capital institutionalised to seize and to exploit "windows of opportunity" offered to them. By analysing the private universities appearing and developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo specifically in its capital city, this thesis questions the entrepreneurs’ motivations to establish private higher education institutions. This research revealed that the creation fulfils various objectives. Some private founders have created universities in order to make economic profit. Due to the commercial orientation given to these institutions, the higher education institutions are qualified as "teaching shops": some of them are lack of viable infrastructure or adequate equipment and some others have no fixe address. Not only these universities are characterised by an opaque academic management but also their educational objectives are not fulfilled; i.e. the use of non-teaching staff, the performance of programs below the regulatory scheduled hours. There also those that are founded by politicians entrepreneurs in order to serve their propaganda or to bring themselves political advantage. Nevertheless other institutions have been created in order to train Congolese youth. Training aspect is central to their educational entrepreneurship. Within a socio-historic perspective, the analysis of the functioning and the construction of these private universities relates to the new institutionalism approach. This theoretical framework and the concepts proposed — institutional entrepreneur and institutional isomorphism — allowed to seize the interpretation of the imitation as the main manner used by entrepreneurs to legitimise their universities and, at the same time, as one factor of their homogenization.
6 citations
28 Aug 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the state of the art in bioinformatics, biology, and medicine......................................................................................................................................................... 1.1.0.0
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6 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