Theorizing the ‘I’ in Institutional Theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 731-749
Author(s):  
Jaco Lok
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Theoretical Integration ◽  
Organizational Institutionalism ◽  
Internal Fragmentation

Recent critiques of organizational institutionalism have pointed to its increasing loss of focus and coherence. Yet, this criticism has not affected ongoing efforts to integrate insights from the literature on identity and organizations into institutional theory. In this chapter the author argues that these attempts at increased theoretical integration are unlikely to be productive, as long as institutional theory continues to be treated as one coherent theoretical perspective. Through an analysis of four fundamental shifts in the (implicit) theorization of actor-hood since the late 1970s, the author identifies five alternative institutional theories that currently coexist within organizational institutionalism. It is only when we accept this internal fragmentation of institutional theory that it becomes possible to relate different theories of identity to it more congruently.

“It’s the context all the way down!”

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg G. Wang ◽  
David Lamond ◽  
Verner Worm
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Chinese Management ◽  
Societal Culture ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Institutional Contexts

Purpose – This paper aims to emphasize the importance of Chinese institutional contexts beyond “culture” by analyzing a few non-cultural institution-dependent contexts in Chinese HRM research, using an institutional theory perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The authors review existing Chinese indigenous management research from an institutional theoretical perspective and provide a critique of the research from that perspective. Findings – Chinese contexts are more than Confucianism. Focusing on this aspect of culture without integrating other institutional contexts, while informative, is unlikely to identify and explain the uniqueness of Chinese individual and organizational behaviors. Informed by institutional theory, the authors examine how institutional language context influences Chinese institutional behavior. The authors also argue that the guanxi phenomenon is more strongly dependent on institutional forces than on culture in the recent Chinese history. Incorporating these “non-cultural” institutional contexts in research enables us to describe the “what” and explore the “why” and “how” in theory development, rather than placing value judgments on the institutional arrangements. Research limitations/implications – While societal culture provides an important institutional context, China’s broad culture is not unique among countries with similar Confucian traditions. Chinese management scholars are encouraged to be mindful of pervasive institutional contexts in exploring and theorizing local organizational phenomena. Research without considering non-cultural institutional contexts may prevent a finer-grained understanding of Chinese organizational phenomena for developing Chinese management theory, and it is unlikely to identify the uniqueness of Chinese organizational phenomena among countries influenced by similar Confucian cultural traditions. Originality/value – Built on previous literature, this paper is among the first to specify and examine explicitly non-Confucian Chinese institutional contexts as a basis for the exploration of Chinese organizational phenomena.

Using Institutional Theory with Sensemaking Theory: A Case Study of Information System Implementation in Healthcare

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Blegind Jensen ◽  
Annemette Kjærgaard ◽  
Per Svejvig
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Sensemaking Theory ◽  
Is Implementation ◽  
Historical Structures ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
The Individual

Institutional theory has proven to be a central analytical perspective for investigating the role of social and historical structures of information systems (IS) implementation. However, it does not explicitly account for how organisational actors make sense of and enact technologies in their local context. We address this limitation by exploring the potential of using institutional theory with sensemaking theory to study IS implementation in organisations. We argue that each theoretical perspective has its own explanatory power and that a combination of the two facilitates a much richer interpretation of IS implementation by linking macro- and micro-levels of analysis. To illustrate this, we report from an empirical study of the implementation of an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system in a clinical setting. Using key constructs from the two theories, our findings address the phenomenon of implementing EPRs at three levels: the organisational field, the organisational/group, and the individual/socio-cognitive level. The study shows how a rationalised myth of an efficient EPR system has travelled from the organisational field to the hospital ward and on to individual doctors. The findings also provide evidence of a strong human agency by showing how doctors enact their work practices and shape the use of the EPR system. The study contributes to IS research by showing the need to address macro-level structures, as well as individual interpretations and practical use situations, in order to identify how and why information systems are adopted by users.

Institutions: Everywhere But Not Everything

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Ocasio ◽  
Shelby L. Gai
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Life Crisis ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
Organizational Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Variation ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Remarkable Progress

Recent critiques by Alvesson, Hallett, and Spicer have characterized neo-institutional theory (NIT) specifically as confronting a mid-life crisis and institutional theory (IT) more generally as uninhibited. While offering valid points, these critiques lack a fundamental understanding of how organizational institutionalism (OI) has become distinct from NIT. In contrast to NIT’s master hypothesis of isomorphism and focus on structural determinism, OI has made remarkable progress in explaining institutional variation and change. Notably, like organization theory more generally, OI is not a coherent theory, but rather a big tent community with its own set of internal differences, and at times confusing concepts. Rather than abandoning the concept of institutions, we suggest continued progress in OI requires greater clarification. Institutions are everywhere, but not everything, so it is important for researchers to specify which institutions are being studied, distinguish between institutions and culture, and ascertain the relationship between institutions and organizations.

scholarly journals Diversity on corporate boards: A systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 8-20
Author(s):  
Abdlmutaleb Boshanna
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Organizational Outcomes ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Board Diversity ◽  
Business Source Premier ◽  
Rich Data

This study conducts a systematic review and provides a comprehensive up-to-date review of the literature about diversity on corporate boards. Unlike previous studies, we do not restrict our search to a specific type of diversity (e.g., gender diversity) or limited firm outcomes (e.g., firm performance). Our aim is to review, evaluate, synthesize, and summarize the literature and extend our knowledge on five key areas: 1) the theoretical approach (going beyond the theoretical analysis of each article by exploring how the theoretical perspective informs their focus); 2) dominant framing and theorizing (single theory vs multi-theories); 3) determinants and consequences; 4) how board diversity is defined and operationalized; and 5) the outcomes of board diversity. In reviewing the research from 2010 to February 2021 and using Saint Mary’s University Business Source Premier (SMU EBSCO) database, we identify 46 articles. Our findings reveal that agency theory no longer dominates board diversity research and has given way to institutional theory. The increasing use of institutional theory, which considers the effect of social structure on organizational outcomes, may be caused by most of the literature (based on our findings) using cross-country data. At the same time, there is a tendency to use a more multi-theoretical approach rather than a single theory one, and there are methodological limitations, including a paucity of rich data collection methods (e.g., surveys, questionnaires, and interviews). In addition, the current literature, according to the findings, focuses more on the consequences than the determinants of board diversity. Finally, our study intends to highlight and outline crucial research gaps that invite future investigation

scholarly journals Empreendedorismo Feminino Sob a Perspectiva da Estratégia como Prática e Teoria Institucional

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-527
Author(s):  
Flávia Oliveira Santos ◽  
José Ednilson Matos Júnior ◽  
Darlane Amorim Vieira ◽  
Eúde Do Amor Cornélio ◽  
Felipe Borges De Santana
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Female Entrepreneurship ◽  
Institutional Practice ◽  
Strategy As Practice ◽  
Under Construction

The aim of this paper is to suggest a new theoretical perspective in studies on female entrepreneurship, more specifically, an analysis of the phenomenon from the perspective of Strategy as Practice and Institutional Theory. For that, a qualitative bibliographic research was carried out, in order to extract concepts that would make this analysis possible. A search was made on the CAPES Journals portal (CAFE / UFS) and on the Google Scholar platform, where 28 (twenty-eight) articles were selected from national and international, which helped the development of this study. As a result, it is highlighted that the analysis of female entrepreneurship under the lens of strategy as practice, brings the focus of observation to the strategist subject, thus contributing to the understanding of institutional practice, that is, an investigation that starts from the micro to the macro. This analysis is one of the main theoretical contributions of this study, strengthening a field of research still under construction. There is also a contribution to the field of Organizational Studies, because when understanding that entrepreneurship is a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary phenomenon, it gives rise to data that provide new views on the nature and reality of the phenomenon studied.

Beyond the Stable Image of Institutions: Using Institutional Analysis to Tackle Classic Questions in Institutional Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Bouilloud ◽  
Mar Pérezts ◽  
Thierry Viale ◽  
Valentin Schaepelynck
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Critical Dimension ◽  
Clinical Approach ◽  
Social Imaginary ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organizational Institutionalism ◽  
Agency And Structure

Although institutions are subject to constant change, we retain a stable image of them. Consequently, should they be considered as objects or processes? Notwithstanding its success, institutional theory still faces theoretical challenges to account simultaneously for change and stability, agency and structure. Following recent calls to integrate other perspectives on how we think about institutions, we draw on institutional analysis – a stream that has flourished in Europe and Latin America – to propose a radical and comprehensive conception of the institution as a locus of tension between the instituting (by which institutions are formed) and the instituted (temporarily stabilized forms). Since there is permanent tension between them, the institution itself can never be a stable object. It is constantly evolving, being either reinforced or destabilized. This research enriches the theoretical dialogue between organizational institutionalism and institutional analysis, two streams that have hitherto displayed little cross-fertilization. First, it contributes to rethinking the nature of institutions by emphasizing the role of the social imaginary, thus improving our understanding of the under-theorized role of imagination in institutionalization processes. Second, by placing the dynamic tension between the instituted and the instituting at the core of institutional theories, we answer calls to reclaim their missing critical dimension. Furthermore, this results in a methodological implication: the clinical approach of institutional analysis involving the intervention of researchers allows us to further embed institutional theories in organizational practice.

The role of nursing in the rehabilitation of acute stroke patients: Toward a unified theoretical perspective

Pflege ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-27
Author(s):  
Marit Kirkevold
Keyword(s):  
Acute Stroke ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Role Of Nursing ◽  
Rolle Der Pflegenden

Eine Übersicht der bestehenden Literatur weist auf Unsicherheiten bezüglich der spezifischen Rolle der Pflegenden in der Rehabilitation von Hirnschlagpatientinnen und -patienten hin. Es existieren zwei unterschiedliche Begrifflichkeiten für die Rolle der Pflegenden, keine davon bezieht sich auf spezifische Rehabilitationsziele oder Patientenergebnisse. Ein anfänglicher theoretischer Beitrag der Rolle der Pflege in der Genesung vom Hirnschlag wird als Struktur unterbreitet, um die therapeutischen Aspekte der Pflege im Koordinieren, Erhalten und Üben zu vereinen. Bestehende Literatur untermauert diesen Beitrag. Weitere Forschung ist jedoch notwendig, um den spezifischen Inhalt und Fokus der Pflege in der Genesung bei Hirnschlag zu entwickeln.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document