A produção agrícola cada vez mais é direcionada para atender às exigências dos mercados e aos aspectos legais do próprio país, na busca de maior segurança do alimento (food safety). No entanto, alterações nos padrões necessitam que toda a cadeia produtiva se altere para a sua implementação. Nesse processo, há que se mudar o conjunto de aprendizado e introduzir o novo conjunto de regras, tanto formais quanto informais. A Produção Integrada de Frutas (PIF) surgiu na Itália para diminuir problemas enfrentados na cultura da maçã pela resistência da cultura às pragas. No Brasil, foi introduzida a pedido do próprio setor produtivo da maçã para diminuir o risco de o produto nacional ser rejeitado em outros mercados, especialmente na União Europeia (UE). Assim, foi adotada como uma política pública agrícola com vista a incentivar um maior padrão de qualidade ao produto nacional. Para isso, o setor produtivo deve perceber incentivos e implementar uma série de mudanças, se adaptando ao novo padrão institucional, ou seja, às novas regras do jogo. O presente trabalho analisa a influência das instituições e organizações na adoção da Produção Integrada de Maçã (PIM), avaliando os incentivos, dificuldades, construção das regras, entre outros fatores. Para entender esse objetivo, foram feitas visitas às empresas e cooperativas produtoras que adotam ou adotaram a PIM. Colheram-se informações através de questionários estruturados e entrevistas com agentes públicos e privados que participam do processo, a fim de avaliar esses aspectos sob por várias visões. A PIM é de adoção espontânea e como estratégia buscou-se a criação de áreas experimentais para mostrar a eficiência do sistema e criação das normas em conjunto com os comitês técnicos, com a participação do setor produtivo. As empresas e cooperativas aderiram ao sistema proposto; porém as empresas, pelas exigências dos mercados em que atuam, já que podem utilizar outros sistemas de certificação, têm deixado de certificar a PIM, mas, mesmo assim, muitas vezes seguem suas recomendações. As cooperativas continuam recorrendo à certificação, pois, através dela, controlam a produção, com a padronização de produtos e processos entre os cooperados. Os processos atuais podem mudar facilmente, o que torna necessário que os diversos agentes do sistema produtivo, tanto público quanto privado, percebam as mudanças e consigam implementá-las. / The agricultural production more and more is targeted to attend the market demands where it is commercialized, as well as to follow the legal aspects of the country looking for a bigger food safety. However, alterations in the standards need that the whole productive chain alters for its implementation. In this process, it is necessary to alter the set of apprenticeship and to introduce the new set of rules, formal or informal. The Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) appeared in Italy in order to reduce faced problems in the apple culture by the pest resistance. In Brazil, it was introduced, requested by the apple productive sector, to reduce the risk of the national product to be rejected in other markets, especially in the European Union (EU) So, it was adopted like a public agricultural politics with the objective of stimulating a bigger standard of quality to the national product, getting higher the use of traceability and certification in the Brazilian agriculture, but for that the productive sector must realize the incentives and have to implement several changes, adapting to the new institutional standard, in other words, to the new game rules. This paper analyses the influence of the institutions and organizations in the adoption of the Integrated Apple Production (IAP), valuing the incentives, difficulties, construction of the rules, among others. To understand this process, it was done visits to the enterprises and producing cooperatives that adopt or adopted the IAP, collecting the informations through structured questionnaires and interviews with other public and private agents who participate of the process to value these aspects through several visions. The IAP is of spontaneous adoption and as a strategy it was looked for creation of experimental areas to show the system efficiency and creation of the standards together with the technical committees, with the participation of the productive sector. The enterprises and cooperatives adhered to the proposed system, however, the enterprises for the demands of the markets in which they participate, also were using other certification systems and they stopped certifying the IAP, even using its recommendations. In the cooperatives, they keep on certifying, because the biggest incentive is to have production control, with the standardization of products and processes among the cooperated ones. The current processes can change easily, what makes necessary that several agents of the productive system, public or private, realize the changes and manages to implement them.

Using a case study of the Italian spirit grappa, we examine status recategorization - the vertical extension and reclassification of an entire market category. Grappa was historically a low-status product, but in the 1970s one regional distiller took steps that led to a radical break from its traditional image, so that in just over a decade high-quality grappa became an exemplar of cultured Italian lifestyle and held a market position in the same class as cognac and whisky. We use this context to articulate "theorization by allusion", which occurs through three mechanisms: category detachment-distancing a social object from its existing category; category emulation-presenting that object so that it hints at the practices of a high-status category; and category sublimation-shifting from local, field-specific references to broader, societal-level frames. This novel theorization is particularly appropriate for explaining change from low to high status because it avoids resistance to and contestation of such change (by customers, media, and other sources) as a result of status imperatives, which may be especially strong in mature fields. Unlike prior studies that have examined the status of organizations within a category, ours foregrounds shifts in the status and social meaning of a market category itself. (authors' abstract)

This thesis was written against the background of intense public debate on increasing housing shortages and housing policy reform in Germany and Sweden. Potential reforms to increase housing development volumes, especially in the affordable segment, are analysed using theories of institutional change with focus on urban planning, building law and housing policy. The instruments analysed are divided into measures intended to increase housing supply elasticity and targeted affordable housing measures.   Three measures intended to increase housing supply elasticity that could be transferable to Sweden are identified: 1) Development planning could be reformed through facilitated procedures, the introduction of private initiative in planning and new incentives of planning authorities. 2) The planning and building legislation could be reformed to facilitate building approvals in relation to serial housing construction, which in turn could increase the number of affordable homes being built. 3) City housing policy could promote housing development through more intense use of the policy instruments of organisation, urban planning, municipal land and subsidies, with city organisation and political attention to housing markets being identified as crucial.   However, effectively targeted affordable housing policies are difficult to implement under the current Swedish housing policy regime. In the short term, Swedish housing policy should therefore concentrate on housing supply elasticity-enhancing measures. However, considering the increasing pressure on the affordable housing supply and future expected demographic changes, public discussion of potential future solutions would be valuable. A first step would be to compile housing statistics such that the affordable housing shortage and the opportunities to design effective measures to counter it could be better understood. / <p>QC 20170905</p>

Problem: Continuous improvement is important in modern healthcare to control increasing costs and fulfil the demand for higher quality. This requires interdisciplinary collaboration between healthcare professionals. However, these professions are seeking to maintain and improve their social status through a ‘professional project’. There are existing professional barriers based on historical privileges and boundaries, leading to nurses holding lower status. The extent to which this motivates medical professionals and nurses in particular to be involved in continuous improvement is unclear. Is it that nurses are driven to become involved in continuous improvement by their ‘professional project’, and is there any evidence that involvement in continuous improvement benefits their status? Purpose: This thesis explores (a) the effect that the ‘professional project’ of nursing, gaining relative equality with doctors, has on involvement in continuous improvement activities, and (b) how involvement in continuous improvement activities affects the status of nurses relative to doctors.  Method: This qualitative study has been performed through an interview study based on themes, on the topic of improvement in healthcare. The empirical data is gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted with professionals from Sweden, New Zealand and The Netherlands. The participants were active within Hospitals and Primary Care, and had the position of nurse, manager or doctor. Data was analysed using the Thematic Analysis approach as proposed by Braun &amp; Clarke (2006).  Findings: The results of our research suggest that nurses’ status has certainly improved. However, rational status-seeking described by many other researchers, could be better described as ‘seeking a voice’. Nurses are driven by ambition and improving patient care, rather than seeking strict equality with doctors. Continuous improvement has given nurses the opportunity to take on more technical roles and have more input on the way medical tasks are conducted. Enhanced communication between all levels of healthcare organisations has given nurses the opportunity to show their knowledge. It has resulted in more understanding and respect by doctors of what nurses are capable of. Nurses are highly motivated to participate in continuous improvement, driven by the common logic of patient centricity. However, external factors such as limited time and financial support slow them down.

This thesis outlines a study into institutional change analysing how certain senior individuals, called opinion leaders, were able to achieve change within the strongly institutionalized environment of medical education. It is situated in the complex and contested context of the English National Health Service, which for more than 60 years has seen numerous managerial, organizational, political and professional changes, which have impacted upon the roles and relationships of medical professionals, managers and government. Adopting a retrospective case study approach, the research centres on the specific case of the Enhancing Engagement in Medical Leadership (EEML) project, which had national-level sponsorship and status, directly involving a multitude of senior NHS bodies, representatives and individuals, to embed leadership and management training into medical curricula. Medical curricula are a mediated result of cultural, social, political and economic forces (Kuper and D’Eon, 2011) rooted in the construction of professional identity and transformation from lay person to professional. Prior to this project, there had been limited attempts to engage the medical profession in leadership and management conspicuously through the curriculum, because of the difficulty of including new content into already crowded specialty curricula, given the constraints of time and resources for medical training. Using conceptual insights into agency in institutional theory, such as institutional work (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006) and institutional entrepreneurship (DiMaggio, 1988); practice theory (Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011; Nicolini, 2012); social position (Battilana, 2011) and capital (Lockett et al., 2014; Bourdieu, 1986), this study explores how project members enacted change within medical education. It analyses the processes involved in their actions and practices and establishes how this case furthers understanding of strongly institutionalized environments. Interviews were conducted with members of the EEML project team and steering group, many of whom had positions of influence and status in other relevant organizations in this field. In addition, a review of documentary data encompassing published and non-published project materials was undertaken. An open coding and thematic analysis approach was taken to gain deeper insight into the interview data, whilst the documentary evidence was used to confirm and support the interview analysis. This case study research reveals that contextual and environmental conditions, as well as exogenous shocks and endogenous motivation led to this change initiative occurring. Routine and recognised ‘practices’ resulted in significant change through embedding the Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF) into contested medical curricula space. Opinion leaders were able, with other project members, to adopt an approach to change, understanding the prevailing conditions, identifying the project’s purpose and committing to an emerging form of practice known as ‘mirroring’. Moreover, this study explores how opinion leaders achieved change through making use of theirs’ and others’ capital resources to form a cross-field collective capital, known as system capital. Using this, they adopted a disposition in their practice beyond professions known as system centrism.

The competitiveness of the graduate business education market; concerns over graduate program relevance; and decreased provincial funding are placing destabilizing pressures on the current graduate business program offerings in business schools promoting the possibility of institutional change. Despite most academic institutions embracing online education as an option to respond, Canadian AACSB accredited business schools have not moved in this direction. The purpose of this research study was to explore the reasons for the limited adoption of online education in Canadian AACSB accredited business schools. The theoretical lens framing this research study was Institutional theory. A qualitative multiple case study research design was carried out with four Canadian AACSB accredited business schools participating. The main data collection method was semi-structured interviews with senior administration and faculty. This study revealed that the constraining forces were stronger than the enabling forces towards adoption, ultimately leading to limited adoption. The enabling forces identified were: market expansion opportunities; cost and infrastructure savings; and student demand for more online education. The constraining forces identified were: the lack of face-to-face interaction; and development and delivery cost. An examination of stakeholder influence found faculty resistance, to hold the strongest influence on organizational decision making in these business schools. Faculty resistance was concentrated mainly towards fully online graduate programs with greater acceptance for the hybrid format. The Institutional theory lens helped to understand that institutional change in academic institutions is difficult, due to the isomorphic forces acting as constraining forces to institutional change. This rendered the finding that the lack of legitimacy of this delivery medium was the main reason for the limited adoption of online education. A number of significant contributions to research in the areas of online education and institutional change in academic institutions; practical implications; and suggestions for future research in this area were also provided.

Depuis plusieurs décennies, un grand nombre de pays du Sud ont suivi un processus de généralisation de politiques de formalisation des droits fonciers via l'intervention publique, fondant leur argumentaire sur des objectifs d'augmentation des investissements productifs et d'établissement de la paix sociale. Madagascar constitue un cas d'étude de l'implémentation d'une politique « soft » d'enregistrement des droits fonciers à travers la certification foncière (2005), envisagée comme une alternative aux procédures de titrage dont les limites ont été empiriquement documentées. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans une perspective d'économie néo-institutionnelle tout en intégrant des sensibilités issues d'autres sciences sociales (socio-économie et anthropologie). Elle traite de l'influence de l'introduction de la procédure de certification sur les pratiques formelles et informelles de sécurisation des droits fonciers. Elle combine des techniques de recueil et de traitements qualitatifs et quantitatifs. Les analyses qualitative et économétrique montrent que la recherche de la sécurisation des droits fonciers est le principal déterminant du recours à la certification. En effet, ce recours est envisagé indépendamment d'éventuelles perspectives de mise sur le marché des terres dans de meilleures conditions, d'accès à un crédit formel, ou encore d'investissements productifs sur la parcelle une fois celle-ci certifiée. Les caractéristiques de la parcelle influent aussi bien sur la décision de certifier que sur le choix des parcelles à certifier au sein d'un patrimoine d'un ménage. La relative faible demande de certificat est davantage expliquée par les dispositifs locaux de sécurisation existants et par l'incomplétude du faisceau de droits des individus sur certaines parcelles, que par les coûts de la procédure de certification. La procédure de certification n'élimine pas les dispositifs locaux existants de sécurisation, très standardisés, et considérés comme légitimes. Les autorités locales (impliquées ou non dans la procédure de certification), et dans certains cas leur interprétation du nouveau cadre légal, jouent un rôle dans le maintien de ces dispositifs locaux de sécurisation après la réforme de 2005. Ces résultats invitent à discuter des orientations futures de la réforme foncière afin de poursuivre l'effort de décentralisation de la gestion foncière et le développement d'outils mieux adaptés aux besoins de sécurisation des ménages ruraux. / For several decades, a large number of countries of the South have followed policies of formalization of land rights through public intervention, establishing their argument on objectives of productive investments increase and establishment of social peace. Madagascar constitutes a case study of the implementation of a land rights recording “soft” policy through land certification (2005), envisaged as an alternative to land titles procedures for which the limits were empirically documented. This study is in a perspective of neo-institutional economy while integrating sensibilities from other social sciences (socioeconomics and anthropology). It deals with the influence of the certification introduction on the formal and informal practices of land rights securisation. It combines qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques and analyzes. Qualitative and econometric analyses show that the pursuit of securing land rights is the main determinant for certification process engagement. This engagement is considered independently of the conditions improvement for launching land market, for access to formal credit, or for investment on the land legally secure. The plot characteristics influence as well the decision to certificate as the choice of the plots of land to be certified within land in possession of a household. The relative low demand of certificate is explained more by the local land securisation practices and procedures and by the incompleteness of individuals' bundle of rights on certain plots, than by the costs of the certification procedure. Land certification does not eliminate the existing written local formalisation very standardized and considered justifiable. The local authorities (involved or not in the procedure of certification), and in certain cases their interpretation of the new legal framework, play a role in the preservation of these local land securisation. These results invite us to discuss about the future orientations of the land reform to pursue the effort of land management decentralisation and the development of tools even more adapted to the needs for rural households securisation.

This research has analyzed how the institutions of the merit-based bureaucratic system in the Korean Government changed from 1948 to 1963, applying the gradual institutional change theory of Mahoney and Thelen (2010). Though copious research has been produced on Korean economic development, little analysis has been made on the emergence of the Korean developmental state. This research aimed to fill in the analytical gap by examining how effective bureaucratic institutions was established in the Korean developmental state to draw out implications for the institutional change theory as well as the discussion on the developmental sate and state capacity. This research has found that the merit-based bureaucratic institutions of the Korean Government positively changed in a piecemeal approach from 1948 to 1963, though once disturbed from 1955 to 1959. Contrary to the existing literature, this research also has found that the institutional setting for the merit-based bureaucracy was set from the very beginning of the Syngman Rhee Administration; however, the selective implementation and enforcement of the rules in the Syngman Rhee period hindered the Weberian bureaucracy. This research has, therefore, drawn out that for positive institutional change, the role of the change agents is critical especially the vertical chain of reformative leadership and capable practitioners. The low level of opposition is beneficial for not only positive but also negative change. In the end, in the case of Korea, the initially ambiguous institutions provided the actors with considerable discretion to manipulate or misuse rules. As a result of the institutional reform the rules and regulations became detailed reducing the gap between what the rules say and how the rules are implemented. The empirical tests of this research have confirmed the basic assumptions of the gradual institutional change theory of Mahoney and Thelen (2010). Firstly, the empirical results have shown that the institutional change has more to do with a piecemeal internal process than to do with any external shock or event. Secondly, the gap between the existence and the enforcement of an institution has also been proved valid. Thirdly, the empirical tests have confirmed the influence of three change factors producing different types of change in the theory. Based on the empirical findings, this research has identified important implications for the institutional change theory with three key areas for improvement. The first is the validity of the three modes of change in the theory. The test has identified the need to address the different magnitudes of the three factors affecting change. This research has also identified the need to clarify the definition of gradualness and the concept of the change agents to solidify the theory. This research has also enriched the discussion on the developmental state and state capacity by identifying the limitations of the merit-based institution in different contexts. Based on the analysis, this research has drawn out four key lessons for developing countries and for the donors: the importance of the enforcement of rules; the synchronized reform coalition between committed leadership and competent practitioners; the importance of understanding local contexts; and the relationship between dictatorship and development. By analyzing the emergence of the bureaucratic institutions, this research has not only broadened our understanding of development and state capacity but also presented a practical policy solution to overcome the persistent state of incapacity in the developing countries today.

How do reflexive political forms within organizations and the design of innovation processes co-evolve? This paper focuses on emerging reflexive forms of power and authority, considered as regimes beyond pure domination (Clegg et al. 2006: 330 f.). We assume that preserving freedom and initiative of individuals, while not undermining the power of organizational top elites, is particularly essential for business success of organisations operating in high-tech, innovative sectors. Up to now, however, neither the development of related political forms within organisations, nor their intertwinements with innovation processes have been very well understood. Therefore this paper studies the linkages between innovation processes and reflexive political forms of organizations. More specifically, the paper aims to explore in detail the contested, antagonistic and paradoxical processes an organisation must undertake in designing a reflexive political form, a “political hybrid” (Clegg et al. 2006: 333), conducive to innovation capabilities and innovation processes in high-tech companies. Theoretical reasoning is underlined by first insights from a longitudinal case study, being part of a comparative case study program, focusing on the co-evolution of political forms and innovation process design in a SME in southern Germany. The paper contributes to the debate on power and innovation in several respects. First, we will propose a dynamic approach to exploring change and development of political forms within organisations. Most of the literature concerned with different political forms and political regimes within organisations is still centred on static typologies and its comparison (Clegg et al. 2006: 332). Second, we will examine the often neglected, contradictory processes shaping hybrid political forms in organisations. Third, we will conceptually and empirically explore linkages between innovation processes and emerging political hybrids within organizations. This study is, to the best of our knowledge, a research desideratum both in the literature on power and the literature on innovation processes (e.g. Hage and Meeus 2006; Poole and Van De Ven 2004; Vigoda-Gadot and Drory 2006; Clegg et al. 2006).

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Sociological Studies Sociology Marcela Linková Doctoral dissertation Disciplining science: The impacts of shifting governmentality regimes on academic research in the natural sciences in the Czech Republic English abstract The dissertation Disciplining science: The impacts of shifting governmentality regimes on academic research in the natural sciences in the Czech Republic is a contribution to the study of institutional changes of the academic environment. I examine changes occurring in the last two decades in academic knowledge-making, and specifically in the natural sciences. Concretely, I focus on research assessment as an increasingly dominant practice of quality control. Previous analyses of the research assessment system in the Czech Republic argue that the system has been designed to suit primarily the practices of the natural sciences (Linkova and Stockelova 2012; Stockelova 2012). In this dissertation I am therefore interested in what forms research assessment takes in the natural sciences and what impacts it is having in terms of knowledge making practices, formation of researchers' subjectivities and, lastly, in terms of the future of research in the natural sciences. With this study I contribute to research into institutional...