Institutional Work in Management and Organizational Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 218-240
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Context ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Work First

Although the study of institutional work developed relatively recently it has inspired a significant body of research investigating how agents purposefully engage with their institutional context in order to create, modify, or disrupting institutions. The focus of that research has, however, remained relatively narrow—oriented around practices and the discursive dimension of institutional work. This chapter examines two types of institutional work. First, it explores practice work as a form of institutional work, the study of which represents a core focus in management and organizational research. Second, it examines category work, the study of which is only emerging in management and organizational research.

Self Work in Management and Organizational Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 82-114
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Research Area ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Emotion Work ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Work First ◽  
Organization Research

The study of self work is one of the oldest and most developed areas of management and organizational research that focuses on social-symbolic work. This chapter reviews three literatures on self work in management and organization research. For each, it introduces the type of self work, reviews its development in management and organizational research, and explores the implications of studying it as a type of self work. First, the chapter explores how the concept of self work can help organize an extensive and well-developed literature through a discussion of emotion work. Second, it explores how the concept of self work can extend an existing research area by using the example of identity work. Third, it explores how a social-symbolic work perspective can motivate a new stream of literature by examining career work as a form of self work that remains largely unresearched.

Can institutional theory be refuted, replaced or modified?

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-159
Author(s):  
Herman Aksom ◽  
Oksana Zhylinska ◽  
Tetiana Gaidai
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Institutional Entrepreneurship ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Theories ◽  
Closed Theory ◽  
Dominant Theory ◽  
Blind Spots

Purpose This paper aims to demonstrating that the former new institutional theory of isomorphism and decoupling cannot be extended, modified or refuted as it is a closed theory. By analyzing the structure of this former version of institutional theory and its numerous modern competitors (institutional entrepreneurship, institutional work and institutional logics theories) it is argued that these alternative theories demonstrate even less explanatory and predictive power and do not refute or extend their predecessor. The rise of new organizational theories can have no other effect on classic institutional theory than to limit the domain of its applicability. In turn, there are a number of principles and conditions that future theories should meet to be accepted as progressive advancements. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a review of relevant organizational and philosophical literature on theory construction and scientific progress in organizational research and offers a set of principles and demands for those new theories that seek to challenge new institutionalism. Findings The authors show that the former institutional theory satisfies two main criteria that any scientific theory should conform with following it is useful and falsifiable in term of giving explanations and predictions while, at the same time, clearly specifying what can be observed and what cannot; what can happen and what is not likely to occur. Modern institutional theories cannot demonstrate this quality and they do not satisfy these criteria. Moreover, institutional isomorphism theory is a closed theory, which means it cannot be intervened with changes and modifications and all future theories should develop their theoretical propositions for other domains of applications while they should account for all empirical phenomena that institutional theory successfully explains. Originality/value Adopting instrumental view on organizational theories allowed reconstructing the logic and trajectory of organizational research evolution and defends its rationality and progressive nature. It is also outlined how existing dominant theory should be treated and how new theories should challenge its limitations and blind spots and which philosophical and methodological criteria should be met.

scholarly journals ESTADO DEL PROYECTO DE AUTONOMÍA Y ESENCIALIZACIÓN DE LO IDENTITARIO.

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (16) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Rafael Miranda Redondo
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Captive Populations ◽  
Post Modernism ◽  
Cornelius Castoriadis ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
French Theory

En este artículo se valora la cultura política de la izquierda, particularmente de la región latinoamericana, a la luz de la esencialización de la identidad. Damos cuenta de lo que consideramos una imposibilidad de sustentar de manera creíble la reivindicación de la autonomía a partir de dicha esencialización; lo hacemos argumentando desde la noción de alteridad en la obra escrita e institucional por la autonomía de Cornelius Castoriadis. Ese trayecto pasa por la polisemia de la noción de autonomía, por la mezcla no aleatoria de marxismo y teología del contexto institucional en la región, por la precipitación de estas fuentes en un discurso reciclado gracias al posmodernismo y la french theory, que se cristaliza gracias a la complicidad de las poblaciones cautivas, en un dispositivo liderado por expertos en ejercicio y a contracorriente de la sociedad autónoma en proyecto.   STATE OF THE AUTONOMY AND ESSENTIALIZATION OF IDENTITY PROJECT.NOTES ON LATIN AMERICA BASED ON CASTORIADIS ABSTRACTThis article assesses the left-wing political culture, particularly in Latin America, in light of the essentialization of identity. The author reports what he considers the impossibility of sustaining, with credibility, the claim to autonomy based on the essentialization of identity. He bases this argument on Castoriadis’ notion of alterity which appears in his written and institutional work in favor of autonomy. This trajectory passes through the multiple meanings of the notion of autonomy, the nonrandom blend of Marxism and theology in the region’s institutional context, the embodiment of these sources into a discourse that has been recycled, thanks to post-modernism and the French Theory, and, with the complicity of captive populations, culminates in a mechanism led by experts who both exercise and go counter to the projected autonomous society.

Conclusions: Understanding the Implications of a Social-Symbolic Work Perspective for Scholars, Change-Makers, and Citizens

2019 ◽  
pp. 289-320
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Work Organization ◽  
Social World ◽  
Potential Importance ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

This book has introduced the social-symbolic work perspective, which revolves around the relationship between social-symbolic work and social-symbolic objects. To explore this relationship, it examined three broad forms of social-symbolic work—self work, organization work, institutional work—and prominent streams of management and organizational research associated with each. This concluding chapter moves on to a broader set of questions concerning the potential importance of a social-symbolic work perspective for different communities. In particular, it explores the implications of the social-symbolic work perspective for scholars analyzing the social world, change-makers trying to make it better, and citizens trying to understand and cope with its roaring currents of change.

Organization Work in Management and Organizational Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 148-187
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Work ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Focus On Forms ◽  
Work First

Recently, there have emerged in management and organizational research streams of research that are based on a view of organizations compatible with a social-symbolic work perspective and which focus on forms of organization work as defined in this book. This chapter reviews three literatures on organization work in management and organizational research. For each, it introduces the type of organization work, reviews its development in management and organizational research, and explores the implications of studying it as a type of organization work. First it explores strategy work as a form of organization work, the study of which has emerged primarily within management and organizational research. Second, it examines boundary work as a form of organization work, the study of which has emerged primarily in disciplines outside of management and organizational research. Third, it examines technology work as a form of organization work, the study of which is recently emerging in both management and organizational research and other disciplines.

Measuring Implicit Processes in Organizational Research

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan A. Bowling ◽  
Russell E. Johnson ◽  
Alex Stajkovic
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Organizational Research
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