The concept of co-optation offers vocabulary to discuss how concerns and demands of feminist movements are transformed on their way to, and within, mainstream organizations and policymaking. However, applications of this concept can have problematic implications, failing to grasp the complexity of social change efforts and contributing to divisions, rather than alliances, between different groups that work and fight for gender equality. This article argues that conceptual tools from organizational institutionalism can help to avoid these pitfalls by capturing the ambivalence of organizational change initiatives, and allowing us to identify not only counterintentional effects, but also subtle and unexpected opportunities of organizational gender equality work. I illustrate my arguments with empirical examples from research on gender equality work in Austrian universities.

No description available.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第24307号 / 経博第659号 / 新制||経||302(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)准教授 WANG Tao, 教授 澤邉 紀生, 教授 山内 裕, 准教授 Thinley Tharchen / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

This thesis focuses on how popular ideas in society influence corporate behavior, as corporations adapt to normative ideas in society in order to achieve legitimacy. However, we need more knowledge about how ideas influence organizations and what happens when ideas enter in an organizational context. Hence, this thesis deals with the following research question: ‘How do actors transform ideas on being socially and environmentally responsible into practice?’ This question is studied empirically within corporations in the Swedish financial services sector. The thesis contributes to organizational institutional theory and to knowledge on the translation of ideas in organizational contexts. Based on analyses of the empirical observations six translation processes are identified. Incorporation is used to incorporate already legitimate external CSR elements into the organization. Localizing is used to give an idea local character by inscribing the idea into the history of the organization. De-coupling is used to translate ideas simultaneously and over time by adjusting the presentation of the organization’s business according to the relevant audience. Co-optation is used to incorporate external actors with know-how and legitimacy into internal processes. Organizing is used to gain internal acceptance for the idea. Blending is used to translate the idea into a modest adaptation to make it fit existing practice in the firm’s core business. Several of these translation processes are at work at the same time. As demonstrated in the study, new ways of presenting the organization as well as new activities appear as outcomes of translation. Translation processes that both influence presentation and practice are necessary for gaining legitimacy for the idea. The adoption of CSR in the studied financial services corporations could only partly be strategically planned. Results from the study also point to unintended and unexpected consequences of integrating social and environmental responsibility. / <p>QC 20110526</p>

Effective implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is dependent on Member States’ national water institutions and organizations, often designated as ‘competent authorities’. Although substantial research relating to the Directive itself has been carried out, less is known about the extent to which competent authorities have the organizational capacity to deliver it. The literature notes that conceptual understanding of capacity has been hampered by lack of definitional clarity making both its management and assessment challenging. In this contribution, several conceptualizations of organizational capacity found in the literature are used to construct a set of core qualitative organizational components that encourage analysts to consider the ways in which legal authority, information and knowledge, skills, resources and leadership shape a competent authority’s ability to deliver the WFD. Malta, the smallest European Member State, is the case study used to test the application of these components. Qualitative empirical data collected from policy documents, face-to-face semi-structured interviews and online news media articles, provided the evidence to thematically explore and evaluate the Maltese competent authorities’ organizational capacity across the implementation of three main WFD provisions that are in focus: Article 8, 9 and 14. As a result, the core components of organizational capacity are expanded and refined to produce an organizational capacity thematic map. The results show that competent authorities experience influences across the institutional frameworks they work in as well as external factors (primarily political). The results also support the idea of the organizational capacity components being highly interlinked and the presence (or lack thereof) of one component having knock-on effects on others within an organization. The combination of these two factors highly affect management options and outcomes in the implementation of the WFD. In the small state context of Malta these highlight the need to channel support in a coordinated manner from European counterparts to the Maltese water network. In turn, the water network can have positive knock-on effects on the organizational capacity of the Maltese competent authorities, which currently struggle to perform and seize available opportunities due to low possession of human resources and time availability. The approach and findings presented in this research provide a mechanism and evidence base that can facilitate bilateral discussions between Member States as well as with the European Commission, and help inform the WFD review process planned by end of 2019.

More and more institutions have begun to implement digital transformation. Identifying the reasons behind institutions’ digital transformation can help them make the right strategies. This thesis focuses on the digital transformation taking place in the financial industry and uses organizational institutionalism theory to analyze the influence of external pressures, and what responsible strategies institutions may adopt. We use qualitative methods to conduct the research. We interview eight employees from different institutions in the financial industry in China. Our findings show how coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures affect these financial institutions differently, and in responding to these pressures, these financial institutions develop office management systems and new digital products and services. The study evaluates to which extent the new digital reality fits the theory of the influence of external pressures on institutions. For managerial practice, the findings provide guidance in describing and diagnosing external pressures that drive digital transformation, and in coping with these pressures appropriately to formulate effective digital transformation strategies.

Stockholms stadsteater (Stockholm’s city theatre) is a public theatre in Stockholm, Sweden. During the last ten years, the theatre has increased its audience by 40 percent, has been called a ”success story” by culture politicians in Stockholm as well as others in the cultural field, and is today the largest theatre in the Nordic countries. At the same time, there is a recurring debate, primarily in the national morning papers’ culture sections, concerning Stockholms stadsteater. The debate often concerns the theatre’s ongoing organizational changes, usually in the form of a constant striving towards a more effective organization, as well as its negative results in the annual employee surveys. Despite usually positive reviews of its productions, Stockholms stadsteater has also been criticized for choosing to set up what by some is considered to be mainstream and commercial productions (for example musicals) at the expense of smaller, more artistic, ones. The main purpose of this study is to analyze different descriptions of Stockholms stadsteater during the years 2004-2013, by using the development of the Swedish cultural policy as background, and institutional organizational theory as the frame of reference. How cultural policy ideas are used in the different stories about Stockholms stadsteater, and the potential conflicts that exist between these different descriptions, is analyzed by using institutional theories about editing, translation and carriers of ideas. The study, based on text analysis and interviews, shows that Stockholms stadsteater is described as a role model and a recipe for success, as well as an effective and modern organization. The theatre is also described as a trademark, as well as part of a defense of democracy and the intrinsic value of culture. The analysis further shows that the different ideas about the theatre are sometimes used – that is, edited and translated – in different ways by different people and in different contexts. It also suggests that the idea of an effective organization can be considered as the main idea in the descriptions of Stockholms stadsteater. In the material studied, the thought of effectiveness is almost always present and something that other ideas often need to relate to in order to be perceived as legitimate. On the other hand, although the idea of effectiveness is important, it can also be controversial. For this reason, it can be edited to fit other cultural policy ideas better. One example is describing the intrinsic value of culture, in this case theatre, as something which is protected by organizations becoming more effective, and thus being able to use their resources to produce more qualitative theatre for more people.

No description available.

Les Grands Projets d’Infrastructure constituent un secteur économique majeur. Leur gouvernance a évolué, avec la sélection, de plus en plus fréquente, des grands fournisseurs, via des d’Appels d’Offres internationaux très normés, dans le cadre d’un contexte concurrentiel ouvert, et institutionnellement plus complexe. Face à cette évolution, les théories commerciales et marketing actuelles, apparaissent insuffisantes: elles font peu de cas des situations d’Appels d’Offres normés, et prennent insuffisamment en compte la complexité du système institutionnel, inhérent à ces Grand Projets. En outre ces deux faiblesses sont accentuées par la faible légitimité de l’action commerciale, face au Management de Projet et à l’institution Achats. Le recours aux théories néo-institutionnelles constitue une approche novatrice, permettant de prendre en compte le Grand Projet, comme un système complexe, dynamique et unique, qui s’institutionnalise progressivement (une notion qui diffère de celle de milieu). Cette posture permet de définir une nouvelle grille de lecture des relations entre les acteurs impliqués au sein de ces Grands Projets, et de proposer les principes d’une action commerciale proactive envers ce système institutionnel complexe. La thèse développe une méthodologie constructiviste, au travers de l’étude de deux cas concrets dans les infrastructures de télécommunications et du contrôle aérien, renforcée par des interviews de professionnels. Elle permet de proposer des recommandations, théoriques et pratiques, pour une action commerciale institutionnelle proactive, permettant aux industriels d’institutionnaliser leurs avantages compétitifs. Il s’agit d’une nouvelle approche commerciale, portée par un socle théorique intégrant des apports de la sociologie aux théories Commerciales & Marketing : un Néo-Marketing Institutionnel. / Large Infrastructure Projects’ stakes are major in terms of economics. Their governance has evolved over the past years, with formal Call for Tenders becoming a classic way to select suppliers, within a more competitive and institutionally complex environment. Current theoretical methodologies, structuring marketing & sales action, appear somewhat inappropriate to tackle this evolution: they neither really take into account the consequences of the very formal Call for Tenders, nor the institutional systemic complexity involved in such Large Projects; besides, Sales & Marketing suffer from a basic lack of legitimacy compared to Project Management and Purchasing, which carries on the powerful myth of Competition. Calling in New Organizational Institutionalism theories provides a new approach, allowing to consider such a Large Project as a complex, unique and dynamic institutional system, which institutionalizes itself progressively (a concept that differs from the so called milieu) Such an approach allows to define a new analysis methodology to asses interactions among all actors involved into the project, and to propose key principles for innovative proactive Sales & Marketing actions towards such complex institutional systems. This PhD research work develops a constructivist methodology based on interviews with key actors and in-depth analysis of two case studies in telecommunications and air traffic control infrastructure. The author proposes actual, theoretical and practical, areas for improvement of the Sales & Marketing methodology, allowing industrial corporations to institutionalize their competitive advantages. Ultimately, this research work leads to a new Sales approach, based on a theoretical framework, incorporating modern Sociology inputs into current Sales & Marketing theories: a New Institutional Marketing.

The aim of this thesis is to create knowledge on processes of change in the contemporary organizing of Swedish voluntary sport and the systems of meaning at work in these processes. The thesis proceeds from the assumption that the contemporary public sport policy climate is characterized by a pressure on organized sport to change in order for sport to better serve as an implementer of non-sport goals. In attempting to capture the possible ramifications of this pressure on the organizing of voluntary sport, the thesis work relies on the argument that processes of change are best captured in instances where new and established ideas are confronted with one another. Following this argument and drawing upon the concept of theorization, the first research question treated in the thesis concerns how legitimacy is established for a new practice (reported in Article 1). The second research question addressed is how, why, and with what consequences new ideas on organizing are implemented in sport organizations (reported in Article 2 &amp; 3). In relation to this question, the concepts of translation and organizational identity are mobilized in the analysis. Empirically, these two questions are addressed using data from 29 interviews covering the emergence and organizing of organized spontaneous sport, so-called Drive in sport, in four Swedish municipalities. The analysis relating to these two questions shows that the same systems of meaning invoked to legitimize and specify Drive-in sport as a practice that has the potential to remedy problems being faced by both the Swedish society and the Swedish sports movement, also made Drive-in sport an unlikely developmental direction for the majority of implementing sport clubs. This process is understood with reference to a mismatch between the organizational identity of the clubs and the cultural material of the idea of Drive-in sport. This insight is brought into the formulation of the third research question treated in the thesis, which is concerned with sport clubs’ readiness, willingness, and ability to respond to policy changes (reported in Article 4). Building on data from short, qualitative interviews with representatives from 218 randomly selected sport clubs, 10 organizational identity categories are constructed. Between these categories, there is a variety of clubs’ core purposes, practices, and logics of action. The implications of this heterogeneity, in terms of sport clubs’ role as policy implementers, are discussed with reference to what clubs in each category might "imagine doing." The analysis provided in the thesis as a whole suggests that at stake in processes of change in the contemporary organizing of Swedish voluntary sport, is the very definition and meaning of sport.