T2 - Institutional work

Alla Inga Spara

• Balancing distinctiveness and legitimacy Strategic balance
• Competing by being unique Differentiation
• Surviving by fitting norms Conformity
• Acceptable deviation range Range of acceptability
• Too different → lose legitimacy Legitimacy threshold
• Too similar → intense competition Competitive crowding
• Best performance at moderate deviation Inverse U-shape
• Being “as different as possible, as similar as necessary” Strategic motto
• Legitimacy as a resource Institutional capital
• Why firms become similar Isomorphism
• Arena of interacting actors Organizational field
• Pressure from law or state Coercive isomorphism
• Copying successful peers Mimetic isomorphism
• Shared norms through professions Normative isomorphism
• Mature fields → more similarity Field maturation
• Legitimacy more important than efficiency Social rationality
• Homogenization of organizations Institutional conformity
• Modern iron cage of legitimacy Iron cage
• Purposeful actions shaping institutions Institutional work
• Creating, maintaining, disrupting Work types
• Defining and legitimizing new rules Creating
• Supporting and policing norms Maintaining
• Undermining old beliefs Disrupting
• Building normative networks Networking
• Making new seem familiar Mimicry
• Explaining cause–effect through theory Theorizing
• Embedding practices into routines Routinizing
• Continuous effort sustains stability Everyday maintenance
• Organizations not passive rule-takers Strategic choice
• Five response types A–C–A–D–M Response spectrum
• Full compliance to norms Acquiesce
• Balancing conflicting pressures Compromise
• Hiding nonconformity Avoid
• Openly rejecting rules Defy
• Changing the rules themselves Manipulate
• Response depends on legitimacy vs autonomy Dual logic
• Institutional pressure shaped by 5C factors Context dependence
• Defending existing order Institutional maintenance
• Powerful actors resist reform Status-quo defense
• Making reform appear impossible Incommensurables
• Claiming markets are unique Market exceptionalism
• Transparency threatens liquidity Liquidity argument
• Reform as impractical Implementation critique
• Resistance through technical language Technical framing
• Change blocked by “incomparability” Denying commensuration
• Maintenance requires active strategy Strategic inertia
• Elites shaping institutions for control Elite power
• Creating environmental accounting tools Institutional creation
• Three phases: creation–conflict–popularization Institutional phases
• Gatekeeping access to knowledge Gatekeeping
• Making the new look legitimate Mimicry
• Framing alternatives as inferior Demonization
• Deliberate non-diffusion of knowledge Absence of educating
• Claiming scientific authority Theorizing
• Change used to preserve power Defensive innovation

Alla Inga Spara