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

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.
Citations
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Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors explored the deep structures of four comparable case study organizations drawn from the New Zealand science sector and concluded that no new, stable organizational archetype has emerged following the reforms, but that in fact, a dynamic style of organization that is in a state of endless transition is the most appropriate response to contemporary demands for knowledge production.
Abstract: Throughout the Western world, the provision of public good science research has undergone dramatic reforms over the past two decades. In the aftermath of these reforms, this paper asks whether the organizations engaged in science research and knowledge production have actually changed, and if so, how? Archetype analysis is used to explore the deep structures of four comparable case study organizations drawn from the New Zealand science sector. The study concludes that no new, stable organizational archetype has emerged following the reforms, but that in fact, a dynamic style of organization that is in a state of endless transition is the most appropriate response to contemporary demands for knowledge production. The role of organizational leaders in this context is not only to make sense of the organization's ever-changing situation, but also to translate this sense into the actions of organizational members and other stakeholders.

21 citations

01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this article, a sociological approach to change in schools and educational reforms is proposed, making the distinction between self-description of schools and school-descriptions by others and analyzes the terms change and reform according to their rhetorical use.
Abstract: This programmatic text proposes a concept for a sociological approach to change in schools and to educational reforms. It makes the distinction between self-description of schools and school-descriptions by others and analyzes the terms “change” and “reform” as they have to be reconstructed according to their rhetorical use. Methodologically we suggest applying existing approaches within discourse analysis. The examination of four lines of research yields a fragmented and ambivalent image of schools. The reconstruction of the educational sector in line with the discourse analysis will help to recognize existing positions in their fundamental social belonging and to identify their supports, controversies and contradictions more precisely.

21 citations

Posted Content
Frank Dobbin1
TL;DR: The influence of Durkheim's theory of meaning on organizational sociology has been examined in this paper, which has taken a cultural turn since the late 1970s with the rise of the new institutional theory (Meyer and Rowan, 1977, Dimaggio and Powell, 1983) and organizational culture theory (Barley and Kunda, 1992, Schein, 1996).
Abstract: Emile Durkheim’s Division of Labor has palpably influenced students of organizations, occupations, and stratification. Chapter 11, by Paul Hirsch, Peer Fiss, and Amanda Hoel-Green, documents that influence by exploring his contribution to our understanding of the global division of labor. In this chapter I examine the influence of Durkheim’s theory of meaning on organizational sociology, which has taken a cultural turn since the late 1970s with the rise of the new institutional theory (Meyer and Rowan, 1977, Dimaggio and Powell, 1983) and organizational culture theory (Barley and Kunda, 1992, Schein, 1996). As the founder of the cultural approach in sociology, Durkheim might well have won credit for the cultural turn in organizational analysis. But while he is frequently cited for his influence on micro-level constructionists and symbolic interactionists, such as Erving Goffman (1974) and Karl Weick (1995), he is rarely cited by social constructionists who study organizations (but see Dobbin 2004).

21 citations

Dissertation
30 Apr 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities by estate owners in the North East of Scotland, and found that the majority of estate owners engage in similar ranges of activities, with a minority identifying and exploiting differentiated opportunities.
Abstract: Family-owned estates face challenges achieving economic stability. Estate owners, including those in the North East of Scotland (the focus of this study) are committed to perpetuating family ownership. To enable this, entrepreneurial diversification is advocated by both landowner associations and rural consultancies. However, upper-class estate owners have historically been perceived to be reluctant to engage in entrepreneurial activities and some remain so. With other remunerative options available to them, this research investigates the identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities by estate owners in the North East of Scotland. Multiple perspectives drawn from institutional and entrepreneurial theory provide insights into estate owners' embeddedness in the institutions of family and social class, and their influence on the socially-constructed nature of entrepreneurial motivations, personality and process. Individual case studies of estate owners in the North East of Scotland provide rich insights into what activities estate owners engage in, and how and why they identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. Cross-case analysis identifies patterns of similarity and difference between individual estates. Case-state estate owners are found to engage in similar ranges of activities, with a minority identifying and exploiting differentiated opportunities. Motivations are layered in nature. Explicit commitments to community and implicit commitments to family motivate estate owners to ensure continued financial stability of their estates. Awareness and identification of estate resources are push factors for estate owners to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Their entrepreneurial process consists of multiple, overlapping journeys, which consist of phases of awareness, identification, development, action and outcomes. Estate owners whose continued entrepreneurial activities have short-term requirements have retained traditional identities of estate owners or farmers, whereas those whose activities are planned to continue over a longer time are those who have embraced - albeit partially - entrepreneurial identities. Contributions have been made to theory and understanding in the areas of entrepreneurial process, personality and motivation. Contributions to policy and practice include recommendations to support estate owners engaging in entrepreneurial activities, aimed at both enterprise and/or landowner support organisations as well as policy makers. Finally, methodological contributions are made to the process of sampling and interviewing elites, and the use of individual case studies of elites and cross-case analysis.

21 citations

12 Sep 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the approaches and strategies used by the US and the EU to support democracy, and find that they are often quite different and, in some respects, clashing.
Abstract: The United States of America and the institutions of the European Union are the most prominent democracy assistance donors in third countries. Over the last two decades, they have spent tens of billions of dollars to support the formation and consolidation of democratic regimes around the world. In this sense, the US and the EU have seemingly shared interests – i.e. seeking to build democratic institutions in target countries so that these become part of the community of democracies and contribute to the stability of the world’s economic and political system. However, if we look at the approaches and strategies used by the US and the EU to support democracy, we find that they are often quite different and, in some respects, clashing. Why are the approaches of both actors different if they strive to reach the same goal? Or – upon closer examination – are their goals indeed somewhat different? The key problem is that democracy as such is a contested concept, so it is necessary to ask the question: if we are promoting democracy, what kind of democracy do we mean? If we finance the development of one or the other institution, what model of democratic establishment will be created? The thesis takes a constructivist view of this issue and demonstrates how the different democratic identities of the two actors create different views on the process of democratic transformation and, consequently, informs the actors’ approaches to the policy of democracy assistance. The first part of this dissertation deals with the discussion of models of democracy and creates a typology of approaches to democracy assistance. The second part examines the democratic identity of both actors – that is, the influence of different political philosophies on their contemporary perceptions of democracy, their conceptions of the role of the state in an individual’s life and the sources of the legitimacy to govern for democratic regimes. The third part links previous theoretical knowledge to practice – it describes the concepts and definitions of democracy in US and EU primary guiding documents and instruments designed to support democracy in third countries and demonstrates how the specific

21 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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

Journal ArticleDOI
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

Journal ArticleDOI
Christine Oliver1
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

Journal ArticleDOI
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

Journal ArticleDOI
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