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Institutional Logics (institutional + logic)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting80%

Selected Abstracts

From National Service to Global Player: Transforming the Organizational Logic of a Public Broadcaster

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 6 2010
André Spicer
abstract We present organizational logics as a meso-level construct that lies between institutional theory's field-level logics and the sense-making activities of individual agents in organizations. We argue that an institutional logic can be operationalized empirically using the concept of a discourse , that is, a coherent symbolic system articulating what constitutes legitimate, reasonable, and effective conduct in, around, and by organizations. An organization may, moreover, be simultaneously exposed to several institutional logics that make up its broader ideational environment. Taking these three observations together enables us to consider an organizational logic as a spatially and temporally localized configuration of diverse discourses. We go on to show how organizational logics were transformed in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1953 and 1999 by examining the changing discourses that appeared in the Corporation's annual reports. We argue that these discourses were modified through three main forms of discursive agency: (1) undertaking acts of ironic accommodation between competing discourses; (2) building chains of equivalence between the potentially contradictory discourses; and (3) reconciling new and old discourses through pragmatic acts of ,bricolage'. We found that, using these forms of discursive agency, a powerful coalition of actors was able to transform the dominant organizational logic of the ABC from one where the Corporation's initial mission was to serve national interests through public service to one that was ultimately focused on participating in a globalized media market. Finally, we note that discursive resources could be used as the basis for resistance by less powerful agents, although further research is necessary to determine exactly how more powerful and less powerful agents interact around the establishment of an organizational logic. [source]

Institutional Environments, Employer Practices, and States in Liberal Market Economies

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2002
John Godard
This article draws on the new institutionalism in economics, sociology, and political studies in order to establish a foundation for analyzing how states shape employer human resource management and union relations. It then reviews and extends the available literature on this topic, establishing how, in addition to legal regulation, states help to shape the cognitive and normative rules that undergird employer decision processes, the social and economic environment within which employers act, and ultimately, the relations of authority constituting the employment relation itself and hence employer policy orientations. The article concludes with a discussion of the prospects for state policy initiatives in view of established employer paradigms, institutional logics, and state traditions, and identifies possibilities for further work in this area. A neoclassical world would be a jungle, and no society would be viable. Douglas North (1981:11) [source]

From National Service to Global Player: Transforming the Organizational Logic of a Public Broadcaster

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 6 2010
André Spicer
abstract We present organizational logics as a meso-level construct that lies between institutional theory's field-level logics and the sense-making activities of individual agents in organizations. We argue that an institutional logic can be operationalized empirically using the concept of a discourse , that is, a coherent symbolic system articulating what constitutes legitimate, reasonable, and effective conduct in, around, and by organizations. An organization may, moreover, be simultaneously exposed to several institutional logics that make up its broader ideational environment. Taking these three observations together enables us to consider an organizational logic as a spatially and temporally localized configuration of diverse discourses. We go on to show how organizational logics were transformed in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1953 and 1999 by examining the changing discourses that appeared in the Corporation's annual reports. We argue that these discourses were modified through three main forms of discursive agency: (1) undertaking acts of ironic accommodation between competing discourses; (2) building chains of equivalence between the potentially contradictory discourses; and (3) reconciling new and old discourses through pragmatic acts of ,bricolage'. We found that, using these forms of discursive agency, a powerful coalition of actors was able to transform the dominant organizational logic of the ABC from one where the Corporation's initial mission was to serve national interests through public service to one that was ultimately focused on participating in a globalized media market. Finally, we note that discursive resources could be used as the basis for resistance by less powerful agents, although further research is necessary to determine exactly how more powerful and less powerful agents interact around the establishment of an organizational logic. [source]

POWER LEARNING OR PATH DEPENDENCY?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2010
INVESTIGATING THE ROOTS OF THE EUROPEAN FOOD SAFETY AUTHORITY
A key motive for establishing the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was restoring public confidence in the wake of multiplying food scares and the BSE crisis. Scholars, however, have paid little attention to the actual political and institutional logics that shaped this new organization. This article explores the dynamics underpinning the making of EFSA. We examine the way in which learning and power shaped its organizational architecture. It is demonstrated that the lessons drawn from the past and other models converged on the need to delegate authority to an external agency, but diverged on its mandate, concretely whether or not EFSA should assume risk management responsibilities. In this situation of competitive learning, power and procedural politics conditioned the mandate granted to EFSA. The European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council shared a common interest in preventing the delegation of regulatory powers to an independent EU agency in food safety policy. [source]

Are standardized EMSs useful in local authorities?

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 3 2004
A study of how a tool from the private sector is used in the public sector
Following the trend in the private sector, standardized environmental management systems (EMSs) have been introduced in several local authorities around the world. When the tool is transferred from the private sector to the public, one can ask how useful the tool is in the new environment, since the private and the public sectors are two different types of social sphere, with different institutional logics. Taking a closer look at the situation in Sweden, this paper aims to investigate the applicability of standardized EMSs in local authorities and the public sector in general. Based on qualitative interviews with public officers in two municipalities in Sweden, it is argued that EMSs are useful in municipalities. However, the study also reveals that an EMS seems to be more suitable for technical service administrations and municipally owned companies than social service administrations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]