Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations - Softcover

Lawrence, Thomas B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521178525 ISBN 13: 9780521178525

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011

Synopsis

This book contains a series of essays and empirical case studies exploring the nature of institutional work.

About this title

Review

Review of the hardback: 'Max Weber told us that institutions cannot be understood without considering the historical aggregation of individual activities. For many years, though, institutional theory had done little with this insight, focusing instead on the role of institutions as powerful social constraints. Priorities have clearly changed and this volume belongs with the contemporary lively 'deconstruction' of the institutional 'iron cage.' It is a welcome and timely contribution, demonstrating through a series of rich empirical explorations that institutions are created, changed and maintained through work, activities, practices, and discourses. We need more books of this kind, emphasizing the conflictual, messy, contradictory, ambiguous, processual, and ongoing nature of institutional work.' Marie-Laure Djelic, ESSEC Business School

Review of the hardback: 'The concept of institutional work is one of the most exciting conceptual developments in institutional theory in the last decade. It provides an invaluable conceptual framework for understanding the institutional effects of purposeful action and has connected conversations about institutional maintenance and change in a powerful new way. In this volume, Lawrence, Suddaby, and Leca expand on their early work on the topic and bring together an impressive group of scholars to further develop the concept through inspired theorizing and direct empirical application. This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the future of institutional theory. I highly recommend you read it today!' Nelson Phillips, Imperial College Business School

Book Description

The 'institutional' approach shows how features of social life act as mechanisms of social control. This book sets a research agenda within the field of institutional work by analyzing the ways in which individuals, groups, and organizations work to create, maintain, and disrupt the institutions that structure their lives.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521178525
• ISBN 13: 9780521178525
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336