1. I NSTITUTIONS & I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Handbook of Organizational Studies Angela Peace

2. A GENDA Key definitions Concept of institutional work Institutional work in organizations Creating institutions Maintaining institutions Disrupting institutions Studying institutions Conclusion

3. K EY DEFINITIONS Institution - ‘an organized established procedure’ that reflect a set of ‘standardized interaction sequences’. Jepperson Institutional work – ‘the purposive action of individuals and organizations aimed at creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions’. Lawrence and Suddaby

4. C ONCEPT OF I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Agency in Institutional Studies DiMaggio’s 1988 essay on ‘Interest and agency in institutional theory’ Oliver’s 1991 essay on strategic responses to institutional processes Oliver’s 1992 essay on deinstitutionalization Sociology of Practice Key elements of the study of institutional work

5. C ONCEPT OF I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Agency in Institutional Studies DiMaggio’s 1988 essay on ‘Interest and agency in institutional theory’ Re-introduced power & strategy into neo-institutional explanations Institutional entrepreneurship

6. C ONCEPT OF I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Agency in Institutional Studies Oliver’s 1991 essay on strategic responses to institutional processes Presents a framework for understanding the range of responses available to organizations facing institutional pressures and the context under which these different responses would occur 5 types of strategic responses that involve active agency by the organization Acquiescence Compromise Avoidance Defiance Manipulation

7. C ONCEPT OF I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Agency in Institutional Studies Oliver’s 1992 essay on deinstitutionalization Contends that deinstitutionalization represents ‘the delegitimation of an established organizational practice or procedure as a result of organizational challenges to or the failure of organizations to reproduce previously legitimated or taken-for-granted organizational actions’ Organizational actors can actively engage in disrupting institutions Individuals or organizations can work to maintain existing institutions

8. C ONCEPT OF I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Sociology of practice Highlights the creative and knowledgeable work of actors. The actors ‘interact with existing social and technological structures in unintended and unexpected ways’. Key elements of the study of institutional work The study of institutional work highlights the awareness, skill and reflexivity of individual and collective actors The understanding of institutions as understood in the more or less conscious action of individual and collective actors All actions occurs within a set of institutionalized rules

9. I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK IN O RGANIZATIONS Creating institutions The key to creating institutions is the ability to establish rules and construct rewards and sanctions that enforce those rules Maintaining institutions Maintaining institutions is different from institutional stability or the absence of change Disrupting institutions There are actors that are not served by existing institutional arrangements. These actors will work, when possible, to disrupt the extant set of institutions Disruptive institutional work focuses mostly on the relationship between the institution and the social controls that perpetuate it

10. C REATING I NSTITUTIONS Forms of Institutional Work DefinitionKey References for Empirical Examples AdvocacyThe mobilization of political and regulatory support through direct and deliberate techniques of social suasion Elsbach and Sutton (1992) Galvin (2002) DefiningThe construction of rule systems that confer status or identity, define boundaries of membership or create status hierarchies within a field Fox-Wolfgramm et al. (1998) VestingThe creation of rule structures that confer property rights Russo (2001)

11. C REATING I NSTITUTIONS Forms of Institutional Work DefinitionKey References for Empirical Examples Constructing identitiesDefining the relationship between an actor and the field in which the actor operates Lounsbury (2001) Oakes et al. (1998) Changing normative associations Remaking the connections between sets of practices and the moral and cultural foundations of these practices Townley (1997) Zilber (2002) Constructing normative networks Constructing of interorganizational connections through which practices become normatively sanctioned and which form the relevant peer group with respect to compliance, monitoring, and evaluation Lawrence et al. (2002) Orssatto et al. (2002)

12. C REATING I NSTITUTIONS Forms of Institutional Work DefinitionKey References for Empirical Examples MimicryAssociating new practices with existing sets of taken-for- granted practices, technologies and rules in order to ease adoption Hargadon and Douglas (2001) Jones (2001) TheorizingThe development and specification of abstract categories and the elaboration of chains of cause and effect Kitchener (2002) Orssatto et al. (2002) EducatingThe educating of actors in skills and knowledge necessary to support the new institution Lounsbury (2001) Woywode (2002)

13. M AINTAINING I NSTITUTIONS Forms of Institutional Work DefinitionKey References for Empirical Examples Enabling workThe creation of rules that facilitate, supplement and support institutions, such as the creation of authorizing agents or diverting resources Leblebici et al. (1991) PolicingEnsuring compliance through enforcement, auditing and monitoring Fox-Wolfgramm et al. (1998) Schuler (1996) DeterringEstablishing coercive barriers to institutional changes Holm (1995) Townley (2002)

14. M AINTAINING I NSTITUTIONS Forms of Institutional Work DefinitionKey References for Empirical Examples Valourizing and demonizingProviding for public consumption positive and negative examples that illustrates the normative foundations of an institution Angus (1993) MythologizingPreserving the normative underpinnings of an institution by creating and sustaining myths regarding its history Angus (1993) Embedding and routinizingActively infusing the normative foundations of an institution into the participants’ day to day routines and organizational practices Townley (1997) Zilber (2002)

15. D ISRUPTING I NSTITUTIONS Forms of Institutional Work DefinitionKey References for Empirical Examples Disconnecting sanctionsWorking through state apparatus to disconnect rewards and sanctions from some set of practices, technologies or rules Jones (2001) Leblebici (1991) Disassociating moral foundations Disassociating the practice, rule or technology from its moral foundation as appropriate within a specific cultural context Ahmadjian and Robinson (2001) Undermining assumptions and beliefs Decreasing the perceived risks of innovation and differentiation by undermining core assumptions and beliefs Leblebici et al. (1991) Wicks (2001)

16. S TUDYING I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Discourse Analysis Actor Network Theory Semiotics

17. S TUDYING I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Discourse Analysis Provides methods and theories to aid in understanding how linguistic and symbolic practices create new objects and associate those objects with social controls that institutionalize them Three forms Rhetoric Narrative Dialogue

18. S TUDYING I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Actor Network Theory (ANT) Based on the theory that relations are both material and conceptual. As an example, a network can be formed between people, ideas and technology Actants compete to build networks of social support 3 contributions to Institutional Work ANT focuses attention on the struggles and contests than create and reproduce institutions The concept of translation provides a method to view local variations in adoption processes Power is referential and a distributed among the actors within a network and it is the collective interaction that produces the power of an institution

19. S TUDYING I NSTITUTIONAL W ORK Semiotics The study on how meaning is constructed by signs Offers a methodology and a language from describing and understanding mythologies Provides a way to capture and compare cultural meaning systems embedded in semiotic codes Offers a way to focus on meanings

20. B IG OT QUESTIONS : Why do organizations exist? Why are firms the same/different? What causes changes in organizations? Why do some firms survive and others don’t? Emerging issue?