Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'New institutional organization theory'

The aim of this study was to acquire knowledge about leadership and how an organization that describes to be feminist is organized. This was done by studying how everyday tasks and institutionalised practices interact in the construction of the ”feminist” organization and its leadership. This study is a qualitative case-study based on an exploratory and investigative approach. Data was collected through observation, interviews and document study. The organization used in this study is a political youth organization with a feministic and socialistic agenda. This study is based on social constructionistic ontology and combined structural- and process perspectives on leadership and organization. The analysis was preformed using a theoretical framework comprising new institutional organization theory and a ”doing gender”-perspective.Results show that the studied organization can be described as ”feministic.” The analysis shows that there is a gap between the formal organizational structure and the informal organization. The feministic idea within the organization is mainly present at a discursive level where gender is a central aspect. The leadership within the organization is described by its members as a formal and collective leadership based on an equal leadership ideal. But analysis shows that the described leadership is contradictive. The leadership appears to be a male, gender-based construction at a symbolic level while girls in leading positions are seen as divergent as they are gendered in their leadership. The feministic idea's impact on leadership mainly consists of strengthening, supporting and developing girls as authorities within the organization. Furthermore, this study showed no evidence of a specific ”feminist leadership,” suggesting that a feminist organization does not have to bring a feminist leadership.
Syftet med denna studie har varit att utveckla kunskap om organisering och ledarskap i en organisation som beskriver sig vara feministisk. Det har skett genom att undersöka hur vardagligt görande inom organisationer och institutionaliserade praktiker samverkar i konstruktionen av den ”feministiska” organisationen och dess ledarskap. Studien är en kvalitativ fallstudie utifrån en explorativ och utforskande ansats. Data har samlats in genom observation, intervju och dokumentstudie. Organisationen som har studerats är en feministisk, socialistiskt och politisk ungdomsorganisation. Uppsatsen har utgått från en socialkonstruktionistisk ontologi och ett kombinerat struktur- och processperspektiv på ledarskap och organisering. Analysen har skett med stöd av ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av nyinstitutionell organisationsteori och ett ”doing gender”-perspektiv.Resultaten visar att den studerade organisationen kan beskrivas som ”feministisk”. Genom analysen har det framkommit att det finns ett glapp mellan den formella organisationsstrukturen och den informella organiseringen. Det yttrar sig genom att den feministiska idén främst framträder på en diskursiv nivå inom organisationen där även kön fått en central position. Ledarskapet beskrivs av organisationens medlemmar som ett formellt och kollektivt ledarskap, vilket utgörs av ett jämställt ledarskapsideal. Men analysen har synliggjort att detta ledarskap innefattar ett flertal motsägelser. Ledarskapet framstår som en manligt könsmärkt konstruktion på en symbolisk nivå inom den studerade organisationen. Tjejer i ledandepositioner får därmed en avvikande position eftersom de könas i sitt ledarskap. Den feministiska idéns inverkan på ledarskapet utgörs främst av att de inom organisationen talar om att stärka, stötta och bygga tjejer som auktoriteter. Ett särskilt ”feministisk ledarskap” har heller inte framträtt i studien, vilket visar på att en feministisk organisering inte nödvändigtvis medför ett feministiskt ledarskap.

The study aims to describe how practitioners view their assignment regarding guidance, support and treatment for normally gifted adolescents between 13-17 years with autism spectrum disorder and comorbidity. Practitioners' experience in Social service, Child and youth psychiatry and Habilitation, division of responsibility, and the needs of the target group were studied through six semi-structured interviews which were analyzed thematically and based on new institutional theory.    Results show that in the field and domain there are three players acting on different logics depending on assignment, law, target group, intervention logic and care level offered. There is a domain consensus on youths with less complex problems, where the respective level of care meets the needs according to staff. Domain claims differ and are characterized by domain conflict regarding the individuals with the greatest needs. The adolescents with most psychiatric diagnoses receive the least help from Habilitation and Child and youth psychiatry, in spite of these having the most expertise. The Social service is responsible for placement based on the responsibility logic, despite reporting a lack of specific competence. The design of the organizations governs efforts rather than the needs of the target group.

This study investigates forces and organizational structures that facilitate or hinder sustainabledevelopment to be introduced and integrated in the core activities of public institutions.Specifically, the way global national sustainable development goals find their way into thelocal curriculum and overall-encompassing strategy of a few Swedish high-schools isidentified.To facilitate the search, the study is assisted by actor-network theory to find human and nonhuman―power-brokers‖ that can ensure the adoption and continuous application of newconcepts in a school. A pre-study of several schools, consisting of explorative interviews,located and classified factors and processes of potential importance for the implementation ofactivities related to sustainable development. At the same time, the large variety ofdefinitions of sustainable development encountered was recorded.The main study expanded on the findings from the pre-study and provided a more detailedanalysis of one senior high-school (upper secondary school). Several examples oforganizational structures and other factors– macro-actors in the theoretical model - werelocated with the potential to influence the furthering of the cause of sustainable developmentin that particular school. The possibility is discussed that the school would profit fromdeveloping a common mode of communication based on exploring experiences from applyingthe many issues that can be related to sustainable development. Such an endeavor could resultin organizational change typical of a learning organization. In that case, the resilience andcapacity of the organization to handle abrupt changes in national policy would be increased aswell as the preparedness of its students – our future – to handle rapidly changing situations intomorrow‗s society.The study further suggest that a similar ―tool-box‖ of theoretical models could be applied tothe local implementation of other national issues in an institutional setting.

This study, which was conducted in Sweden, was based on four qualitative semi-structured interviews. The aim of this study was to create an understanding of how a municipality designs the sanction for youth offenders called ”youth service” based on the law that establishes the existence of such a sentence. We interviewed social workers that work at the department of youth service in the municipality of Gothenburg, who exclusively deal with youth offenders’ sentenced to youth service as their job assignment. We asked the social workers how the municipality of Gothenburg has designed and structured its youth service as well as how and why the chosen design came to be. The result was thermalized with four topics: how is youth service designed? The reasoning behind Gothenburg’s design, the adjustment of the process of evaluating the suitability of the sentence youth service for the young offender and lastly, collaboration. Our analysis was based on neo-institutional organization theory and on protective factors that protect against negative outcomes. Based on the result that the semi-structured interviews yielded we found that Gothenburg’s designed work method very well resembled the law and guidelines issued two years subsequent the date the law gained legal force. Additionally, we found that the department for youth service in Gothenburg influenced the guidelines that were issued two years after the law gained legal force. To which degree could not be determined in this study, however some of the social workers stated that Gothenburg did not have to adjust to the guidelines when they were issued and that it was satisfying for them that the National Board of Health and Welfare listened to their organization in the process preceded the issuing of the guidelines. Lastly, the interviewed social workers reported that the municipalities collaborate regarding the design of their respective youth services to increase uniformity. The interviews indicated that Gothenburg’s designed work method was considered successful in that other municipalities contacted Gothenburg in order to study how they worked with the sanction that is youth service. This collaboration might lead to an increase of municipalities acquiring Gothenburg’s work method, which in the future may lead to a nationwide institutionalization of Gothenburg’s designed work method with youth service.

Syfte: Denna studie ämnar beskriva och analysera organisationsformer och ledarskap inom svensk golfverksamhet. Svensk golf är speciell eftersom den både finns i ideell form inom Riksidrottsförbundets ramar, i kombination med ett aktiebolag och som rent kommersiell verksamhet. Svensk idrottsverksamhet lägger högt fokus på samhällsvärde, samtidigt som organisationer behöver hantera en komplex ekonomisk verksamhet. Oavsett verksamhetsform kan friktion uppstå och organisationer med multipla institutionella logiker behöver hantera de krav som skapas.   Metod: Studien utfördes genom intervjuer med nio klubbchefer inom tre olika organisationsformer. Klubbchefer valdes för att de antogs ha insyn i verksamheten. Urvalet var strategiskt för att få så stor bredd som möjligt beträffande verksamhetsform, geografi, ålder och kön. Analysen genomfördes tematiskt och utgår ifrån analysprocessen ”Big Q” (Braun, Clarke & Weate, 2016) för att studera intervjupersonernas livsvärld i den svenska idrottskontexten.   Analys: Med hjälp av ny-institutionell organisationsteori diskuteras utmaningar och strategier för de olika organisationerna och för klubbcheferna som leder dem. Ett organisationsschema över golfverksamhet i Sverige presenteras för att ge en beskrivning av den kontext studien analyserar. Här beskrivs klubbchefen som ”spindeln i nätet” vilket representerar den övergripande arbetsroll hen besitter, oavsett organisationsform. Vidare presenteras en tillämpbar praktisk modell för att sammanställa och jämföra organisationsformerna.   Slutsats: De konkurrerande logikerna visar sig kunna hanteras väl inom golfen i Sverige. Verksamheterna i denna studie arbetar med ett integrerat ledningsorgan som tar hänsyn till både den samhällsfrämjande logiken och den finansiella logiken. Klubbchefen är den hybrida individen som håller samman organisationen. En återkommande utmaning är dock hög arbetsbelastning på klubbchef på grund av bristfälliga resurser, både ekonomiska möjligheter och stöd från ideellt arbetande inom organisationen. Golfaren som medlem eller kund är en central fråga för framtiden.
Purpose: This study means to describe and analyze organizational forms and management in Swedish golf organizations. Swedish golf stands out because it governs in associations within the Swedish Sport Confederations framework, in combination with an incorporated company and as a commercialized business. Swedish sports prioritize societal value and simultaneously needs to manage a complex financial business. Regardless organizational form can tension arise and organizations with multiple institutional logics needs to manage the challenges created.   Method: The study conducted interviews with nine general managers in three different organizational forms. General managers were chosen because they assumed to have insight in the organization. The sample was made strategically to get a wide population regarding organizational form, location, age, and gender. The analyze process performed thematically was inspired by the strategy “Big Q” (Braun, Clarke & Weate, 2016) to study the interviewees workday in the Swedish sport context.   Analysis: With aid from new institutionalized theory discusses challenges and strategies for the differentialized organizations and for the general manager who leads them. A club structure is presented to describe the Swedish context. The general manager describes as “the spider in the web” which represents the comprehensive work role possessed, regardless organizational form. The study also presents a practical model is to summarize and compare the organizational forms.   Conclusion: The competing logics is shown to be handled well in Swedish golf organizations. The organizations in this study govern through an integrated management which considers both social value logic and the financial logic. The general manager is the hybrid individual which holds the organization together. A recurrent challenge is a high workload on the general manager created by inadequate resources, both economic resources and lack of support from voluntary workforce. The golfer as a member or a customer is a central question for the future.

Denna uppsats fokuserar på den etableringsprocess som har skett i Jönköpings kommun vid införandet av familjecentraler. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur införandet av familjecentraler kan förstås och genom det skapa fördjupad kunskap om etableringsprocesser i socialt arbete. Studien har genomförts i form av en fallstudie. Empiri har samlats in genom intervjuer och genom offentliga allmänna handlingar. Materialet har analyserats genom ett adhoc-förfarande inspirerat av fallstudieanalys. Teorier som använts i analysen grundar sig i agenda-settingteori och i nyinstitutionell organisationsteori. Resultatet visar att familjecentraler som idé är omtolkningsbart vilket resulterat i en omfattande översättningsprocess. I den processen har socialtjänstens roll varit decimerad, vilket avspeglas i det utrymme som socialtjänsten ges på familjecentralerna där deras roll definieras av andra professioner än de själva. Det som gör att familjecentralerna kommer att etableras är en kritik mot och från barnhälsovården rörande relationen med socialtjänsten. Detta ackompanjeras av en ökad oro för föräldraskapet samt ökade krav på billigare och bättre verksamheter inom den offentliga sektorn. Dock får familjecentralsetableringen ett abrupt avbrott i och med att studier lyfts fram som indikerar att det finns bristande kunskaper rörande familjecentralernas effekt, vilket skapar hinder för nyetableringar. Detta medför inte att befintliga familjecentraler läggs ner vilket kan förstås i att familjecentralspolicyn visar en hög grad av institutionalisering, en stark förgivettagen tro på familjecentralerna, där dessa upphör att behöva legitimeras i form av problemadressering och resultat.
This bachelor thesis focuses on the establishment process of family centers in Jönköping municipality, Sweden. The purpose of this case-study is to examine on which terms the establishment of family centers can be understood aiming for the creation of in-depth knowledge about establishment processes in social work. Data has been collected via semi-structured interviews and via open records. The data has been analyzed via ad-hoc analyses inspired by cases study analyses. Theoretical framework used in the study is Kingdon’s agenda setting theory and neo-institutional organization theory. The study presents that family centre policy is highly interpretable and therefore has been a case of policy translation, which has resulted in a decimated part for the social services in the family centers, highly defined by other professions. The establishment of family centers is a result of a critique aimed against and from the child health care services, accompanied with an increased worry for parenthood and demands for more economically efficient function within the public sector. The process is interrupted by studies that indicate insufficient knowledge about the efficiency of the family centers. However this doesn’t result in closure of family centers because the function has reached a high degree of institutionalization, where it is legitimized by presumptions and beliefs rather than results and problem addressing.

Title: IFRS 15- The new revenue recognition standard from contracts with customers.   Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration    Author: Piran Batte and Zagros Isik   Supervisor: Jean-Claude Mutiganda and Pär Vilhelmson   Date: 2021 – June    Aim: The study aims to examine how listed companies in Sweden are affected by institutional pressures in the implementation of IFRS 15 and what organizational changes the revenue standard entails.    Method: The study examines listed companies in the construction and real estate industry in the Swedish market that have implemented IFRS 15 in their revenue recognition. The study is characterized by a qualitative research approach that produced data through semi-structured interviews and literary sources which were then analyzed via coding and thematic analyzes presented in tabular form.   Result & Conclusions: The results presented in the study show that the examined companies are affected by the isomorphic factors arising from the new institutional theory in the adoption and transition to IFRS 15. The companies are strongly influenced by a mandatory isomorphism as they are listed and are thus legally obliged to comply with IFRS standards. The companies are also characterized by an imitating isomorphism in the form of cooperation with competing companies because of uncertainty regarding the handling of the new standard. A normative isomorphism has been of a lesser degree. The results show no significant changes in the company's internal operations around their internal controls, IT systems and contract design, however, these have been permeated by high workload in the early phase of the implementation process of the standard. All companies felt an overestimated effect of the standard on its internal operations.    Contribution of the thesis: The study fills the existing gap around research on IFRS 15 and its impact on listed companies that are in the Swedish market. The study contributes to the new institutional theory by showing how companies experience pressure from society and norm-setting bodies. The theoretical contribution shows that mandatory and mimicking isomorphism has affected companies in the implementation of IFRS 15. Compliance with laws and advice as well as taking inspiration and collaborating with other companies have been demonstrated. The practical contribution is that companies tend to act under pressure from the environment in the goal of achieving legitimacy.   Suggestions for future research: As the companies examined in this study have been in the construction and real estate industry, a proposal for future research may be to study other listed companies that have adopted IFRS 15 as a revenue standard.    Key words: IFRS 15, Organizational Change, Implementation, New Institutional Theory, IASB, Internal Controls, IT Systems, Contract Design and Work Tasks.
Titel: IFRS 15 – Den nya intäktsstandarden för avtal med kunder   Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi    Författare: Piran Batte och Zagros Isik   Handledare: Jean-Claude Mutiganda och Pär Vilhelmson    Datum: 2021 – Juni    Syfte: Studien syftar till att undersöka hur börsnoterade företag i Sverige påverkas av institutionella påtryckningar vid implementeringen av IFRS 15 samt vilka organisationsförändringar intäktsstandarden medför.   Metod: Studien undersöker börsnoterade företag inom bygg -och fastighetsbranschen på den svenska marknaden som implementerat IFRS 15 i sin intäktsredovisning. Studien präglas av en kvalitativ forskningsansats som samlat in data genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och litterära källor som sedan analyserats via kodningar och tematiska analyser som presenterats i tabellform. Urvalet består av tio respondenter    Resultat & slutsats: Resultaten som framställs i studien visar att de undersökta företagen påverkas av de isomorfa faktorerna som härrör den ny institutionella teorin vid antagandet och övergången till IFRS 15. Företagen påverkas starkt av en tvingande isomorfism då dessa är börsnoterade och är således lagenligt skyldiga att följa IFRS-regelverken. Företagen präglas även av en härmande isomorfism i form av samarbete med konkurrerande företag till följd av ovisshet kring hanteringen av den nya standarden. En normativ isomorfism har varit av mindre grad. Resultatet visar inga påtagliga förändringar på företagens interna verksamhet kring dess interna kontroller, IT-system och kontraktsutformning dock har dessa genomsyrats av en hög arbetsbörda vid en tidig fas av implementeringsprocessen av standarden. Samtliga företag kände en överskattad effekt av standarden på dess interna verksamheter.    Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien fyller det existerande gapet kring forskning om IFRS 15 och dess påverkan på börsnoterade företag som befinner sig på den svenska marknaden. Studien bidrar till den ny institutionella teorin genom att visa hur företag påverkas av påtryckningar från samhället och normgivningsorgan. Det teoretiska bidraget visar att tvingande och härmande isomorfism har påverkat företag i implementeringen av IFRS 15. Att följa lagar och rådgivning samt att ta inspiration och samarbeta med andra företag har påvisats. Det praktiska bidraget är att företagen tenderar att agera under press från omgivningen i mål om att uppnå legitimitet.    Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då företagen som undersökts i denna studie befunnit sig inom bygg -och fastighetsbranschen kan ett förslag till framtida forskning vara att studera andra branscher ute på börsen som antagit IFRS 15 som intäktsstandard.    Nyckelord: IFRS 15, Organisationsförändring, Implementering, New institutional theory, IASB, Interna kontroller, IT-system, Kontraktsutformning och Arbetsuppgifter

The purpose of the essay is to study why and how the Swedish Transport Administration has applied quality management and service design. This study applies the institutional theory and theory behind New Public Management. Total Quality Management and service design are used as study objects. A qualitative method with an abductive approach has been used. The authors use primary and secondary data, which have been collected through semi-structured interviews and (final) reports from the Swedish Transport Administration. According to the employees and (final) reports, The Swedish Transport administration was motivated to apply quality management due to faults in the facilities, and service design due to lack of railway descriptions. The Swedish Transport Administration's quality management work takes place, among other things, through the four-step principle, the project model and ISO standards when working on railways. The Swedish Transport Administration works with service design from an outside and in perspective, to understand its customers and to create successful outcomes in the organization. This is done by, among other things, introducing service maps and creating value for customers.
Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera varför och hur Trafikverket har tillämpat kvalitetsstyrningsarbete samt tjänstedesignarbete. Denna studie tillämpar den institutionella teorin och teorin bakom New Public Management. Total Quality Management och tjänstedesign används som studieobjekt. En kvalitativ metod med en abduktiv ansats har använts. Författarna använder sig av primär-och sekundärdata, vilka har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer samt (slut)rapporter från Trafikverket. Enligt de anställda och (slut)rapporterna, motiverades Trafikverket till att tillämpa kvalitetsstyrning på grund av fel i anläggningarna och tjänstedesign på grund av bristande järnvägsbeskrivningar. Trafikverkets kvalitetsstyrningarbete sker bland annat genom fyrstegsprincipen, projektmodellen och ISO standarder vid arbete på järnväg. Trafikverket arbetar med tjänstedesign utifrån ett utifrån- och in perspektiv, för att förstå sina kunder och skapa framgångsrika utfall i organisationen. Detta genom att bland annat införa tjänstekartor och skapa värde för kund.

Syftet med denna studie är att belysa och problematisera föreställningar om arbetsgivarvarumärkets betydelse för rekryteringsarbete inom en konkurrensutsatt bransch. Employer branding är en strategi som handlar om att marknadsföra företagets arbetsgivarvarumärke för att skapa en positiv association till arbetsgivaren. Inom IT-branschen blir denna strategi extra viktig eftersom det är en konkurrensutsatt bransch och det är ett sätt att utmärka sig från sina konkurrenter. För att kunna besvara studiens syfte har vi formulerat tre frågeställningar som kopplas till employer branding och generation y. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer där det insamlade empiriska materialet bygger på sju intervjuer med yrkesverksamma IT-rekryterare. För att analysera det insamlade materialet utformades ett teoretiskt ramverk och analysen tar sin utgångspunkt ur ett professionsperspektiv. Vi har använt oss av nyinstitutionell teori, organisationsidentitet och organisationsimage vid analys av det empiriska materialet. Teorin hjälper oss att förstå organisationers handlande och kommunikationen mellan ett företags identitet och image. Resultatet i studien visar att rekryterarnas uppfattning är att arbetsgivarvarumärket utgör en viktig roll i rekryteringsarbetet, framförallt inom IT-branschen. De menar att ett starkt arbetsgivarvarumärke lättare kan attrahera och behålla personal på ett företag samt att rekryteringsprocessen effektiviseras. I studien framkom även att kommunikationen, som handlar om att förmedla sin organisationsidentitet till en organisationsimage för potentiella arbetstagare, har visat sig vara en central del i arbetet med employer branding. Företag bör undvika en diskrepans mellan hur de faktiskt är och hur de vill uppfattas. Resultatet visar även en problematik i de föreställningar som finns om generation y som en enhetlig grupp. Det framkom att det finnas en skillnad mellan de som är födda tidigt i åldersspannet mot de som är födda sent.

Ledarskap finns på flera platser i samhället och kan se ut på olika sätt. Det är något som alla känner till eller har kommit i kontakt med på ett eller annat sätt. Likt ord som lycka eller kärlek är ledarskap subjektivt och öppet för tolkning. Vissa hävdar att ledarskap är en medfödd förmåga medan andra menar att det är en förmåga som kan tränas upp. Ledarskapets speciella karaktär med sin skiftande betydelse och utseende fick oss att skriva det här arbetet. Ledarskap är så mycket mer än att bara leda människor eller ge order. Som en social konstruktion skapas ledarskapet för att kunna styra, leda och bemöta krav från exempelvis omgivningen.Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur studenterna på Högskolan i Borås uppfattar ledarskap. Vi har valt att genomföra studien utifrån en kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod med utgångspunkt i form av enkätundersökning och intervjuer. Empirin ligger till grund för analysen och består av kännetecken och påståenden om ledarskap. Samtidigt som vi har gjort ett försök till att visa hur institutionalismen kan kopplas till ledarskap. Resultatet visar att studenterna har en bred uppfattning om företeelsen ledarskap. En ledare skall vara duktiga på flera olika saker och förfoga över egenskaper som exempelvis kommunikationsförmåga, förtroendeingivande och samarbetsvillighet.
Program: Ekonomie magisterutbildning i företagsekonomi 60 hp

I USA infördes begreppet informationsoperationer i mitten av 1990-talet och det har sedan dess skett en stor utveckling inom detta fält. Även i den svenska Försvarsmakten har konceptetinformationsoperationer införts och en utveckling och uppbyggnad av förmågor inom detta koncept pågår. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida konceptet informationsoperationers uppkomst i Försvarsmakten kan utgöra ett exempel på idéspridning. Utgångspunkten är att USA som en av världens ledande försvarsmakter är trendsättare för andra försvarsmakter i västvärlden, däribland den svenska Försvarsmakten. Med utgångspunkt i teorin om idéspridning undersöks om den amerikanska idén om informationsoperationer har spridit sig och snappats upp av Försvarsmakten som sedan översatt idén efter sina egna förutsättningar. Uppsatsen beskriver informationsoperationers uppkomst i USA och hur begreppet har fått fäste och utvecklats i Försvarsmakten. Vidare beskrivs hur idén tagit organisatorisk form i Försvarsmakten i syfte att utifrån teorin om lokal översättning undersöka hur detta skiljer sig från det amerikanska konceptet. I slutsatserna konstateras att teorin om idéspridning är tillämpbar i det här fallet och att det också skett vissa anpassningar av idén när Försvarsmakten implementerat den i sin egen organisation.

The concept of information operations was introduced in the US in the middle of the 1990’s and has since that time developed and a lot of things have happened in that field during the last decade. The development of information operations is going on in the Swedish Armed Forces as well. The purpose of this essay is to study whether the introduction of the concept of information operationsin the Swedish Armed Forces can be seen as an example of the spreading of ideas according to new institutional theory. With the premise that the US, with one of the worlds leading armed forces, functions as a trend setter for other nations in the western part of the world this essay investigates if it is the American idea about information operations that has been adopted by the Swedish Armed Forces. Furthermore it investigates whether the idea, if it has been adopted, has been copied or translated to fit the new organization. The essay starts with describing the concept of informationoperations in the US, how it was introduced and how it is currently used. Then follows a presentation about how information operations, as a concept, has developed in the Swedish Armed Forces. Differences between how the concept of information operations has been implemented in the organizations is presented and discussed in order to try the theory about local translation of ideas. The major conclusions is that the concept of information operations’ introduction in the Swedish armed forces can function as an example of the new institutional theory about the spreading of ideas and that there has been some adaptations of the concept in order to fit the organization.

Thesis (PhD) - Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, 2009.
[A thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology - 2009]. Typescript. Bibliography: p. 284-294.

The recent surge in religious studies coupled with the strict decline in religion creates the backdrop for the need for this paper. In this study, I use a fantasy theme analysis approach to analyzing data from 23 semi-structured interviews with Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) pastors. I utilize Institutional Work Theory, Symbolic Convergence Theory, and Bona Fide Group Perspective to understand how the dominant coalitions within the PCA interact to affect change in the institution. My findings highlight the difficulties associated with embedded agency and new contributions to each of the aforementioned theoretical perspectives. My project offers a perspective on the uniqueness and value of studying religious denominations as institutions.

Notre objectif est de comprendre comment les acteurs qui prennent part à la gouvernance d’une méta-organisation interviennent dans l’émergence et le maintien d’un contexte institutionnel favorable à la confiance dans les relations inter-organisationnelles (RIO). Nous réalisons deux études de cas qualitatifs de clusters des industries culturelles et créatives, en France et au Canada. Pour le cas français nous pointons les difficultés relatives à la confiance et le travail postérieur de construction de nouvelles frontières, avec une conciliation entre besoins économiques et esprit de création artistique. Pour le cas canadien : un climat initial peu propice à la confiance et un travail postérieur d’institutionnalisation de l’idée que le cluster agit dans l’intérêt de toute l’industrie. Nous proposons un cadre conceptuel pour analyser les pratiques de création et maintien d’un contexte institutionnel favorable à la confiance dans les RIO, dans une perspective structurationniste (relation récursive institutions/action). Nous distinguons des dimensions du contexte et deux types de pratiques : « d’activation » (les acteurs font intentionnellement appel à des éléments institutionnels jugés pertinents vis-à-vis de la confiance par rapport à l’interaction) ; et « de structuration », (ils structurent progressivement les bases institutionnelles de la confiance pour des interactions, actuelles et futures). Nous proposons des éléments pour une « compétence liée à la confiance », comme une capacité liée au déploiement, dans une manière perçue comme authentique, de comportements liés à la confiance et jugés appropriés vis-à-vis du rôle de l’acteur dans un contexte institutionnel donné
The aim of the research is to understand how the actors involved in the governance of a meta-organization intervene in the emergence and maintenance of an institutional context favorable to trust in inter-organizational relations (IOR). Following a qualitative approach, we carried out two embedded case studies of clusters operating within the cultural and creative industries in France and Canada. Regarding the French case, we highlighted the difficulties of trust and later work by some actors aimed at adopting new boundaries that involves new sectors, which included the search for conciliation between economic needs and the spirit of artistic creation. As for the Canadian case, we highlighted the initial climate not propitious to trust and the subsequent institutionalization work of the idea that the cluster acts in the interest of the whole industry. We propose a conceptual framework to analyze the practices of creating and maintaining an institutional environment favorable to trust in IOR, within a structurational perspective (recursive relation institutions/action). We distinguish dimensions of the context, and two types of practices: of “activation” (actors intentionally call upon institutional elements considered as relevant to trust in the current interaction); and of "structuration" (actors gradually structure the institutional bases of trust for current and future interactions). In the conclusion, we propose elements for a "trust-related competence" as a capacity related to the deployment, in in a manner perceived as authentic, of behaviors related to trust and considered as appropriate regarding the role of the actor in a given institutional context

Throughout the Cold War, the United States maintained a military prepared to confront a technologically advanced Soviet adversary. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the structure and purpose of the armed forces were called into question. In time, the U.S. military transformed from one prepared to conduct large-scale war, to one prepared to carry out a variety of missions ranging from war to humanitarian efforts. Throughout the 1990s, the U.S. Army's senior leaders engaged in a campaign to transform the organization from its warrior-oriented mindset to a service-oriented one. I report in this dissertation my findings from an analysis of the efforts of the Army's senior leaders in support of this transformation from 1991 to 1995. Specifically, I report my findings from an analysis of the discursive dimensions of their efforts.

Theoretically, this dissertation contributes to two emergent perspectives in organizational analysis: the institutional logics and institutional work perspectives. These perspectives highlight the fact that individual and collective actors are not only influenced by the structural, normative, and symbolic dimensions (i.e., the institutional logic) of the institutional environments in which they act, but those environments are shaped by their actions (by institutional work). Through my analysis of the efforts of the Army's senior leaders to disrupt and replace the Cold War institutional logic, I identified three distinct forms of institutional work. Environment work included efforts to construct an extra-organizational environment that demands change, and an intra-organizational environment hospitable to change. Organizational identity work involved the establishment of an organizational sense of self that encompassed new practices. Institutional logic work involved a recursive process of textualization that established a post-Cold War logic constituted in a well-structured discourse.

In conclusion, I consider the institutional work I identified as situated within the institutional field of the armed forces. I demonstrate how the management of organizational change can influence the logic that prevails within the broader institutional field. I conclude by highlighting the utility of focusing on the organizational level of analysis in studies of institutional change, and the benefits of considering the institutional logics and institutional work perspectives as complementary.

By investigating the business environment in Sub-Saharan Africa from an institutional theory perspective, the purpose of this thesis is to explain organizational response to the forces of this particular institutional environment. Coercive, normative and mimetic pressures serve as the basis for explaining the institutional environment. The organizations respond to these pressures by seeking legitimacy from the environment.

The study is based on a qualitative research method relying on qualitative secondary data. Additionally a questionnaire was sent out to a limited number of experts to validate the findings.

The main conclusion of this thesis is that networks are formed on the basis of norms and cultural processes working upon organizations in order to counter balance malfunctioning regulatory institutions. It has been revealed that organizations cannot rely solely on their response to coercive pressures for legitimacy. Normative aspects in networks are formed through repeated transactions that create trust and reputation between business partners that lead to legitimacy. Moreover, it is difficult for organizations to construct a proper response to cultural pressures since they stem primarily from heritage and ethnicity.

Change and stability are critical to the sustained competitive advantage of organizations. Emerging research shows the relationship that exists between human agency and institutions, but also the inter-relationship to the dynamic of change and stability. This study examines the concepts of stability and change in regard to organizational change and institutional theory, and the influence of macro- and meso-structuring mechanisms in processes of institutional reproduction and change. Specific reference is made to institutional orientations toward stability and change as primary dimensions in the analysis of micro-level explanations that contribute to understanding adoption of new organizational practices.

This participative mixed-methods study was conducted in 12 community rehabilitation programs within New York State. It showed how both agency and institutional orientations toward stability and change are influenced through structuring mechanisms, and can be identified and discerned through patterns. The depiction of these orientations were identified by conceptual mapping and pattern matching, a research method emerging in both the change and institutional theory research. The new understandings gained regarding these agency and institutional orientations will contribute to new insights as to how micro-level actions occur and contribute to macro-institutional orientations toward stability and change. This study also supports the conclusion that macro- and meso-structuring mechanisms can become strange attractors which limit organizational potential for change, and that gaining an understanding of these attractor cages can assist organizations in mapping alternative futures.

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith
A new phenomenon in teacher education, referred to as new graduate schools of education, or nGSEs (Cochran-Smith, et al., 2016), is gaining traction in the U.S. Profoundly different in program structures and arrangements from most university programs, these non-university affiliated teacher education programs have emerged during the current era of standards- and accountability-based reform. However, limited empirical research has examined how nGSEs conceptualize and enact teaching and learning and how these programs might signal a shift in the field of teacher education. This dissertation attempts to address this empirical lacuna through an in-depth qualitative case study of the first such program, located within High Tech High (HTH), a charter school network. The purpose of this study is to understand the HTH program’s core beliefs and behaviors, as well as the organization’s relationship with its institutional environment (i.e. the broader educational policy, funding, and field-level contexts). Utilizing institutional analysis and sensemaking theory, I argue that teacher education programming at HTH drew on a core logic of constructivism, which informed the school’s instructional work of teaching and learning and its organizational design. Through this constructivist approach, teacher education faculty and students were able to “practice with theory,” bridging the theory-practice dichotomy and informing a relational and actionable conception of knowledge. Finally, HTH took an active stance towards its institutional environment, developing organizational networks to both retain organizational fidelity to its mission and also enact change in accordance with this mission. My analysis has implications for teacher education, organizational analysis, and education policy. Because constructivism dually informed instruction and organizational structures, HTH offers new possibilities for the design of education organizations. The centrality of constructivist logics allowed for both remarkable consistency in values, beliefs, and goals across the organization as well as considerable agency for individual actors. The agency of HTH personnel, paired with the program’s “active stance” towards environmental forces, such as funders and field-level partners, informed how education leaders’ design choices simultaneously supported individual agency and organizational mission as well as ground-up approaches to change. Lastly, the case of HTH indicates that the nGSE phenomenon models new organizational approaches to teacher education, which can challenge and expand the ways in which we understand teaching and learning for educators
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction

This dissertation sought to develop a grounded theory explaining how ENGOs assess the environmental performance of firms, select target industries and firms, and influence those targeted industries and firms. A preliminary model based on research in the fields of social movements, neo-institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and corporate social performance was developed. The model contained 21 propositions: seven regarding assessment, nine regarding targeting, and five regarding influencing. Interviews were conducted with 33 representatives of five ENGOs: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Greenpeace, Environmental Defense (ED), World Resources Institute (WRI), and Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). NRDC and WRI served as pilot studies. NRDC, Greenpeace, and ED were considered case studies for the purpose of drawing inferences about the propositions. Insufficient interviews were conducted at WRI and UCS to draw inferences from them; however, data from these interviews was included in the dissertation to the extent it provided additional support for the inferences drawn. Qualitative methods were used to analyze the data. Results regarding the propositions were presented, as well as additional findings going beyond the propositions. A grounded theory of how ENGOs assess, target, and influence firms was developed based on the results; a model to accompany the grounded theory was also developed.
Ph. D.

Despite considerable advances in technology across the world, some scholars (Bratton, 1987; Namara et al., 2010) have argued that declining agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers in Africa remains a major bottleneck in the development of the continent. Unganai (1993) indicates that about 60% of the southern African region is semi-arid or arid and suffers from periodic droughts. In addition, World Bank (2003) notes that agricultural production is dominated by rain-fed agriculture and irrigation systems are limited. This is compounded by the scarcity and poor management of irrigation water resources. Water scarcity in agriculture has large impacts on the population, especially in rural areas, where more than 60 percent of the population are engaged in agriculture which represents their main source of food and income (FAO, 2008). On the macroeconomic level, agricultural share of the GDP is about 37 percent and 75 percent of the export value is generated from the agricultural sector globally. To this effect, management of agricultural water particularly in rain-fed systems remains imperative for improved farm level yields because the bulk of the food comes from rain-fed agriculture (FAO, 2008; Namara et al., 2010). However, increasing water scarcity and poor accessibility may become a limiting factor not only for agricultural production and the welfare of rural population but also for the entire economy. Improving the management of water resources and an efficient use of water by all sectors, including agricultural production, are therefore important if the welfare and health of the population, particularly in rural areas, are to be maintained and improved (Nyong & Kanaroglou, 1999).

How do evaluative practices become natural and ubiquitous in an organization? In this paper we integrate findings from previous empirical work on the adoption of evaluative practices in organizations with insights from institutional theory and social psychology research for advancing the understanding of possible states of evaluative practices within organizations and the processes through which organizations become permeated by evaluative practices. Our conceptual model suggests that once evaluative practices have gained a foothold in an organization, they tend to be applied to an increasing number of organiza-tional problems and become taken for granted.

This exploratory dissertation examines governmental influences during the ongoing emergence of NewSpace, which is a community of private, entrepreneurial organizations pursuing space-related business opportunities outside of the traditional NASA-Military-Industrial complex model.

While recent research has provided significant insights into how organizations, populations and communities emerge, our understanding of the influence of government in this process has been minimal. Since government is the single most important actor in the modern economy, correcting this oversight is crucial to any modeling of community emergence. As emerging communities are lacking in traditional quantitative data, and the goals of this research are exploratory rather than theory testing, an inductive, qualitative methodology is utilized. The first step towards understanding governmental influence during the emergence of a new community is documenting exactly what the government does in this environment. Chapter IV uses grounded theory methodology to produce a Taxonomy of Governmental Roles in the Emergence of High-Technology Communities. The question of whether government facilitates the creation of new industries - or whether entrepreneurs manipulate government - is of critical importance to researchers of entrepreneurship and policy. Chapter V uses historical analysis to consider the causal role of government in the establishment of the environment in which this new community of organizations is emerging. Institutional legitimacy is crucial to the survival of entrepreneurial firms as well as to new populations and communities. Chapter VI considers the government's key role as legitimizer, and proposes a theoretical model for the process of legitimacy transfer from governmental agencies to entrepreneurial firms, populations and communities.

This dissertation makes contributions to the literatures of organizational evolution, community emergence, institutional theory, entrepreneurship and policy. It offers researchers a framework to better model governmental influence. It also provides entrepreneurs with a holistic view of governmental influence on their environments and offers governmental actors a fuller understanding of the impact that their legislation and enforcement activities have on new organizations and industries.

Digital platform organizations challenges the organizational landscape by utilizing technology enabling cost efficient transactions. Uber is a commonly known example of such an organization, where tensions have arisen in various local contexts due to that the organization draw their boundary tightly around the platform to the benefit of organizational efficiency. Uber has as a consequence, been highly questioned in its liability of their primary operations: Is it a technology platform, or a transportation firm?   This thesis sets out to answer:  How is the organizational boundary of Uber challenged in various local contexts? The purpose is to provide an explanation towards how the organizational boundary of a digital platform organization could be understood in relation to local context, and how it can or cannot evolve in regards to these contexts. The results show that context matters for the boundary of Uber. In addition, a pattern amongst the context specific events emerged influencing the boundary. These can be categorized into four configurations: Adjusting, Expanding, Withdrawing and Intertwining. Each of the configurations explain the underlying reasons for the varying fluctuations the boundary of Uber show, and thus answer how the organizational boundary of Uber is challenged in various local contexts.

The explorative case study aims to understand how the reform of business support and development undergoing in Stockholm municipality addresses existing institutions, and to what extent does the institutional context have the potential to adopt and sustain the change. Two case studies, Högdalen industrial area and Årsta wholesale center, illustrate how local economic development is organized in practice. A new policy document, Näringslivspolicy, is analyzed, along with interviews with key public and private agents. Two institutional theoretical frameworks are used: a dynamic perspective on the interaction between regulations and institutions and the concept of institutional thickness. Findings indicate that the examined reform is an example of institutional policymaking as it addresses institutional foundations underlying behavioral practices. Furthermore, empirical evidence shows that the City of Stockholm intends to adopt a place- and problem-based approach to local economic development, but its organizational forms are not specified at this stage. Findings illustrate (not exhaustively) factors of efficient external collaboration that reflect those in recent literature and can be used in future policy revisions. The success of the initiated reform might provide the fundament for improvements in future local economic development initiatives.

The purpose of this study is to present an alternative way of analyzing the behavior of our leading social and governmental institutions through the employment of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, specifically Lacan's theory of discourse. Lacan used the term discourse to show that a society's primary social link is founded on language, reflected back through society in the form of discursive practices. According to Lacanian discourse theory, a subject's movement into language and the social bond that is created between people as a result of this movement are at the center of our current cultural condition. More mainstream approaches to organizational behavior have traditionally focused on observed human action to explain human behavior and the correlation of this behavior with possible remedial actions. Lacanian discourse theory, with its foundation in psychoanalytic theory, enables the formulation of a model of institutional behavior that goes beyond more mainstream approaches by focusing on behavior at the unconscious level. The central premise of this dissertation is that there has been a cultural shift in the United States from the dominant form of discourse of the modern era to a new form of discourse. This new discourse has led to serious disconnections between our current social bond and true human desire. By employing Lacanian discourse theory, changes in the deeper, structural level of how a society relates to and communicates with each other will be revealed, thus providing greater insight into the current social condition of the United States and how this condition affects the behavior of its leading public institutions.
Ph. D.

My dissertation traces the genesis and growth of the Chinese emergency management organizational field over the ten-year period since the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. I conducted my fieldwork in Beijing in 2012, using a multi-method approach that involved interviews, participant observation, and analysis of archival materials.

I found that governing elites and academic experts within the emerging field—what I call the "establishment"—relied upon insider cultural knowledge (e.g., myths) and party-state ideologies (e.g., communist folklore) to legitimize a new risk governance framework and create an emergency management policy domain separate from existing domains. The emergency management establishment enabled these legitimizing claims through its embedded position in government and academia. By using a strategy of curation, it carefully (re)assembled culturally-accepted accounts and ideas, both indigenous and adapted from afar, to create its claims. By becoming institutional evangelists, academic experts in particular entrenched the risk governance framework and propagated the ideas that helped form the field by advocating, advising, and training government officials through multiple field organizational entities.

By also incorporating Foucault's concept of governmentality, I found that the legitimacy project conducted by the establishment consisted of shaping the conduct of emergency management government officials according to its own risk governance framework. This expands current Foucauldian studies on governmentality by highlighting that not only the general population but also elites can be subjected to governmentalization. It also provides a more nuanced reading of the "hollowing of the state" thesis by highlighting how the Chinese party-state strengthened its role as the legitimate emergency manager by including the civil society and the private sector, albeit in lesser roles.

My findings draw attention to the foundational quality of cognitive legitimacy vis-à-vis pragmatic and moral legitimacy, an area which has received scant discussion in the neoinstitutional literature. It also informs the understudied topic of the interrelated influences of power relations, ideas, and experts on emerging organizational field formation within neoinstitutional theory, especially in a non-Western context. Finally, my research updates current understanding of national emergency management policies in the international arena, and especially in China.

Les grands groupes de l'industrie de la construction souhaitent intégrer le concept de prévention au sein de leurs organisations en recherchant des améliorations techniques et organisationnelles et en déployant des méthodes tantôt coercitives, tantôt participatives visant une maîtrise du facteur humain. L'objectif de cette industrie est de contrôler les risques inhérents aux chantiers dont il est possible de déterminer plusieurs classifications. Le point commun de ces dernières est leur finalité, c'est-à-dire établir une liste exhaustive d'un ensemble infini selon des critères variables. Après avoir analysé les différents facteurs influençant sur la genèse des risques dans un environnement aussi particulier qu'est celui des chantiers de bâtiment, nous proposons un modèle dynamique d'appréhension des risques et d'aide à la décision reposant sur la mobilisation de la TNI et de la théorie des représentations sociales. Plus spécifiquement, en considérant les propriétés des risques « émergents » actuels, nous nous interrogeons sur la pertinence des moyens mis en œuvre par l'organisation pour permettre leur intégration
The major companies of the construction industry wish to integrate the concept of prevention within their organizations by seeking technical and organizational improvements and by implementing coercive or participatory methods whose goal is to deal with the human factor. This industry aims at controlling the risks inherent to the construction sites of which several classifications can be determined. Those classifications have in common their purpose, which is to draw up an exhaustive list from an infinite set according to variable criteria. After analyzing the different factors that influence the genesis of the risks in such a specific environment as the building sites, we propose a dynamic model for risk understanding and decision-making, based on the mobilization of the TNI and the Theory of social representations More specifically, considering the characteristics of the current emerging risks, we wonder about the relevance of the means implemented by the organization towards their integration

Det drivs många utvecklingsprojekt inom offentlig sektor, men det saknas kunskap om hur dessa projekt kan bidra till ett hållbart utvecklingsarbete. Syftet med avhandlingen är att förstå och förklara hur resultat och kunskap från utvecklingsprojekt kan integreras i den ordinarie verksamheten i offentliga organisationer och bidra till långsiktiga effekter, som har ett värde för brukarna, organisationen och de anställda. I forskningen saknas en etablerad begreppsapparat för att studera hållbar utveckling i organisationer. En utmaning har därför varit att identifiera och analysera tidigare forskning, för att därigenom definiera begreppet hållbart utvecklingsarbete och viktiga förutsättningar för ett sådant arbete. Den teoretiska referensramen baseras på ett institutionellt perspektiv: nyinstitutionell organisationsteori kombineras med Giddens struktureringsteori och sociologisk professionsteori, som synliggör spänningar mellan konkurrerande styrformer som byråkrati, marknad och professionalism. Avhandlingen utgår från en interaktiv forskningsansats och består av två empiriska delar: en  kvantitativ enkätstudie som inkluderar 348 utvecklingsprojekt inom vård och omsorg samt en kvalitativ flerfallstudie av fyra utvecklingsprojekt. Studierna visar att olika faktorer främjade projekten på kort och lång sikt. Tydliga projektmål, styrning och kompetent projektledning hade betydelse för de kortsiktiga projektresultaten, men mycket begränsat påverkan på den långsiktiga hållbarheten. Istället var det ett aktivt ägarskap, och andra faktorer kopplade till ledningen i mottagarorganisationerna, som tydligast främjade ett hållbart utvecklingsarbete. Studierna visar även hur konflikter och motstånd i projekten påverkade förutsättningarna för långsiktig hållbarhet. Det gällde konflikter mellan olika yrkesgrupper, mellan ledning och professionella samt mellan byråkratiska och professionella styrformer. En slutsats är att en analysmodell för hållbart utvecklingsarbete behöver komplettera ett organisatoriskt och institutionellt perspektiv med ett professionsperspektiv.
There are many development projects in the public sector, but there is a lack of knowledge about how these projects can be made sustainable. The aim of the thesis is to explain how project results and knowledge can be integrated into public organizations and contribute to long-term effects and value for clients, organizations and employees. The scientific literature lacks an established conceptual framework for studying sustainability in organizations. Therefore, it has been a challenge to identify and analyze previous research in order to delineate and define the concept of sustainable change in organizations. The research is based on an institutional perspective: neo-institutional theory in combination with Giddens' structuration theory and sociological profession theory, which reveal tensions between three competing logics of control, i.e., bureaucracy, market and professionalism. The method is inspired by an interactive research approach and comprises two empirical parts: a quantitative survey study, including 348 development projects in health and social care, and a qualitative multi-case study of four development projects. The studies showed that different sets of factors supported short-term project success and long-term sustainability. Project-related factors, such as goal setting and project management, had little impact on sustainability. Instead, it was primarily active ownership, and other factors related to management of the recipient organization, that influenced the routinization of project results. The studies also exposed several conflicts and tensions that affected project sustainability. There were conflicts between occupational groups, between management and professionals, and between the logic of rational, bureaucratic management and the logic of occupational professionalism. Thus, understanding sustainable change in organizations requires a professional perspective to complement the organizational and institutional perspectives.

The People's Republic of China has become a major source country for foreign direct investment. The objectives of this research are to identify the determinants of this phenomenon, to identify the international investment strategies pursued by Chinese MNEs, and to evaluate the effect of the domestic and international institutional environments on the determinants, investment strategies and behaviour of Chinese MNEs. Particular emphasis is given to the role of cross-border business and social networks. To address these objectives a novel framework, termed the Chinese outward direct investment regime (or ODIR), is advanced and tested using methodological triangulation techniques. This is done using data obtained from several sources, namely interviews with managers at the headquarters of Chinese MNEs and Chinese government officials, a survey questionnaire distributed to Chinese affiliates in the UK and official FDI data obtained from SAFE and MOFCOM, which are used in two econometric models of global Chinese ODI. The research makes a number of major contributions. First, the ODIR framework is found to have significant explanatory power in a number of key respects, especially in relation to the influence of domestic institutional factors on the internationalisation behaviour of Chinese MNEs. Second, the importance of domestic capital market imperfections as a driver of Chinese ODI is also confirmed. Capital market imperfections as a special application of the internalisation theory (Buckley and Casson, 1976) is argued to explain certain idiosyncratic investment behaviours observed among Chinese firms, especially in relation to host country risk. Third, a number of new proxies for international business research have been developed and applied successfully in models. Fourth, New Institutional Theory, the Stages Theory and the New International Venture theory have all been tested for the first time in relation to Chinese ODI. Of these, New Institutional Theory was found to have greatest explanatory power.

As an innovation Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is designed as a tool for clinical problem solving. According to its theory of use EBP will bring a difference for policy makers, for professionals, for researchers and for service users. One question to be asked is whether EBP actually leads to the radical social change it is designed to accomplish. The aim of the study is to describe and analyse the outcome of the effort to establish EBP, with a focus on the case of social work in Sweden. The research questions are: What is EBP? Why are efforts made to establish EBP? What is the outcome of the EBP project? How can the outcome of the EBP project be explained? The case study was conducted on a critical realistic meta-theoretical ground with a focus on explanation of social change with an explicit actor-structure perspective. Methodologically, a narrative synthesis of studies was made. As a complement primary data were collected to fill empirical gaps. The state of things was described before and after the EBP-initiatives. Several helping theories – Kuhn’s theory of paradigm, program theory, neo-institutional theory and theory of diffusion – were used to analyse the empirically mapped outcome of the EBP project. The results show that the import of the original model of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) to social work is a part of a wider social movement in the helping and educational professions. The new model has influenced social work as a discipline, as a field of practice and as a field of policy. There are examples of full-scale implementations of EBP, although EBP has not reached a general status as daily practice. Some obstacles remain. The gradual adaption of EBP corresponds to criteria hold by Kuhn for a paradigm shift. Acceptance of the model has contributed to change the structure and function of social systems. At an organizational level, this change means on-going institutionalization. The innovation is influencing the way institutional actors conduct their work. Although the structural conditions have been optimal, the EBP-model has been debated with heat. The EBP-debate and policy-driven infrastructural efforts have brought a more in-depth examination of the model. So-called coercive, normative, and regulative isomorphisms were used to change organizations. The degree of institutionalization depended on the individuals and the organizations willingness and preparedness to change, to understand, and to put the model into practice. When actors used a less strict version of the original EBP model, the pace of cultural and institutional change slowed down.

On June 6, 2006 Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine ceremonially signed legislation creating the New College Institute in Martinsville, Virginia. Since achieving statehood in 1788, Virginia has directly created only three four-year colleges; the University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute, and Virginia State University. With the exception of the College of William and Mary, created in 1693, all of Virginia’s other public four-year institutions began as branch campuses, state normal schools for women, or as acquisitions of independent institutions. In addition to the extraordinary occurrence of creating a new public college in the Commonwealth of Virginia, evidence preceding the enacting legislation suggested that Martinsville might not be an appropriate place for a new college. The economic conditions in Martinsville and the entire Southside region of Virginia have undergone a dramatic transition from a production and manufacturing economy to an area beset by unemployment and lack of industry. Once considered a thriving economy based on textile, furniture and tobacco related industries, Southside Virginia has suffered resulting in a number of interrelated social and economic problems. Would a new college re-vitalize this region of the Commonwealth? Legislative studies preceding the enacting legislation provided clear evidence of the social and economic problems facing Southside communities but often ambiguous and conflicting information about the role of public policy should play with regard to creating a public organization for economic development purposes. Contrary to the historical tradition of creating a new college to meet student demand, the proposed new college in Southside Virginia would have to create post secondary educational demand to meet the needs of a new public organization. Colleges and universities can transform communities through their symbolic and legitimate structure, activities, goals and purposes. In recent research, education is described as highly institutionalized; exhibiting a socially legitimate structure and both formal and informal patterns of socialization. Educational organizations are institutionalized because they are infused with value and provide a symbolic mechanism for re-socializing and transforming individuals and communities. Institutional norms, rules and cognitions enhanced and constrained policy conversations and ultimately the decision to build a new college in Martinsville. Beyond the technical and rational arguments for constructing a new public bureaucracy, the symbolic goals and purposes of education are united with the values, beliefs and aspirations of its founders. These beliefs and values do not exist in an ahistorical space but are a condition and consequence of viewing education as highly institutionalized. This study is both an exploration and explanation of the institutional themes that created the material conditions in which policy actors negotiated and compromised in consensual solution to the problems in Southside Virginia through the creation of the New College Institute.

The primary focus of this qualitative grounded theory study was the reasons for the ability or inability of expatriate workers and their families to adjust and adapt to foreign cultures. The goal for this study was to investigate experiences of the whole expatriate family unit, including the children, to identify factors that could contribute to a successful expatriation assignment as well as develop a theory or model that could be used to help guide the success of the expatriate family tour time and decrease expatriate workers‘ failure to complete their assignments. The qualitative grounded theory method was used to analyze the whole of each expatriate family unit‘s experiences; however, hermeneutic phenomenology as theory was integrated into the study to get to the deeper meanings of families‘ actions, responses, memorabilia shared, and body language as stories were told in conversations and in response to open-ended questions. Seven family units participated in this study, for a total of 23 participants, to include children from age 7 (with parents‘ approval), and contributed to the findings of three main themes, a concept of an expatriation adaptation model, and a list of factors that are essential to global expatriation processes. The theoretical framework that guided the study consisted of family systems theory and cultural leadership theory constructs. The findings resulted from a triangulated data collection process to include questionnaire, one-on-one interviews, and group interviews. The three main themes that developed were 360-degree support, the power of knowledge, and expatriate children as future expatriates and expatriate leaders. The results also resulted in the development of an expatriation adaptation process model as well as a list of factors that could contribute to a successful expatriation assignment with the whole expatriate family unit, which would keep all family members together for the expatriation experience.

Even before the current economic meltdown, waves of downsizing, starting in the late 1970s, had swept corporate America, eroding workers’ expectations of economic security. But not only did downsizing become more prevalent during this period; its basic nature changed. Previously, firms had cut jobs temporarily, to adjust the size of their workforce during a downturn. Since the late 70s, firms have increasingly cut jobs in both good and bad times, in order to boost stock price. My dissertation examines the inter-group power dynamics underlying the transformation of workforce downsizing as a shareholder-value strategy. Examining both downsizing announcements from more than 700 leading U.S. corporations between 1981 and 2006, and actual implementation of the announced downsizing plans, I find at work in the process a shift in ideology, from an emphasis on corporate growth and conglomeration to an emphasis on profitability and shareholder value, an ideology that both reflects and intensifies the growing influence of shareholders over firms and the declining role of labor. My first empirical chapter examines the role of institutional investors and shareholder-value-oriented managers in the transformation. The second empirical chapter examines the potential resistance from labor unions and shows how the anti-union stance of the public policy regime in the 1980s weakened unions’ power to resist. The last empirical chapter examines the role of investors, unions, and executives in the implementation of announced downsizing plans and demonstrates the contested nature of the implementation process. Together, these three chapters illustrate the class politics simmering under the surface of the acceptance of downsizing for shareholder-value maximization, and emphasize the role of agency and power, as constructed by particular institutional logics, not only in promoting but also resisting the process of institutional change.
Sociology

Institutional logics create order and stability. They organize interaction and prescribe how we should behave towards each other. Such logics have generally been regarded as exclusive, in the sense that an organizational field is always guided by a single institutional logic. If there are two or more institutional logics in one setting at the same time this will create conflicting demands and contradictions. So how do organizations and individuals that act in these settings, where different institutional logics do meet, cope with the conflicting demands?    This question is researched by studying actors who organize partnerships between corporations and non-profit organizations. Institutional logics have typically been studied at field level. My study follows a more recent literature strand focusing on individuals and their way of coping with conflicting institutional logics. In this thesis, interviews, text analysis and observations are used. The interviews were conducted with CSR managers of corporations, managers of corporate partners at non-profit organizations, CSR consultants, and project managers of intermediary organizations. These actors are working in an environment where conflicting institutional logics are played out. Using a narrative approach it is shown how these actors are aware of their institutional environment and its conflicts which requires them to constantly act as translators. The study shows that the actors organize an interplay between a market-logic and a social-welfare logic by bringing together the logics and establishing limits to what extent logics can be mixed. Thus, the actors can be understood as bilingual, rather than hybrids. Furthermore, it is argued that a narrative approach provides the possibility to understand institutional logics in empirical contexts as more present and visible than they are usually considered to be. The study concludes that bilingual actors balance conflicting demands and negotiate requirements set by institutional logics in their day-to-day work.  Settings where institutional logics meet can hence be understood as both a contradiction and an ongoing interplay.

The purpose of this study was to analyze how the key staff concept is used in residential care for children and young people and which role the key staff concept plays in the organization. The study was based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with six key staff and two managers from two different residential care facilities for children and young people. The theoretical perspective used was the neo-institutional theory and Hasenfeld´s term Human service organizations. One of the conclusions of the study was that the key staff describe that they have a central role when it comes to the treatment of the children. Another conclusion showed the variety of tasks that the key staff have, like the administrative work that they do. They also have an educational role, similar to the one that parents normally have which means that they are responsible of parenting the children. They also described themselves as a link between the children and their social network. The people interviewed justified the use of the key staff concept as it gives structure for the work, security to the children and serves as a guide on how to create and maintain relationships. The institutional processes shown in the key staff concept are: the coercive, which can be seen by the obligation to follow the treatment plans. The mimetic, since it exists only a few ways to organize the work and the normative which shows that their education and/or the level of education can affect the approach that they have towards the children.

The aim of the study was to investigate how a community motivates and ensures the implementation of its values and how this document affected personnel of meaning, vision and daily operations. The study was based on semi-structured interviews, in which nine respondents were interviewed in a city in southern Sweden. Interviews dealt with three different themes, all concerned organization or set of values. The analysis was based partly on how organizations and institutions build up and maintain their legitimacy. The analysis was also explained by the new institutional theory and its concepts isomorphism. In conclusion, the study shows that the concept of value system is very subjective and means different things depending on which profession you belong to. The study also showed that officials of the municipality indicate that the values discussed continuously in operation. This picture did not fit at all agree with the care assistants who considered values almost never discussed. The study also showed that the implementation was not as successful as desired, then no time for reflection was. The study showed that the reason that there was an opportunity to reflect due to the time and resources were too scarce. Throughout officials related concepts in the study more to an organizational plan, when care assistants instead relate everything to the actual meeting with the care recipient. Instead of using values as a benchmark they instead used of the "inner compass" that consists of subjective norms and values.

Die Studie schließt an die Debatte in der vergleichenden politikwissenschaftlichen Verwaltungsforschung an, die sich mit der Rolle interner Beratungsakteure in Regierungsorganisationen beschäftigt. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die Mechanismen zu erklären, durch die interne Beratungsakteure die ihnen zugeschriebene Bedeutung im exekutiven Entscheidungsprozess erlangen. Dabei werden jene Organisationseinheiten untersucht, die proaktiv an exekutiven Entscheidungsprozessen mitwirken und mit ihrer Beratung politischer Akteure in Konkurrenz zur Ministerialverwaltung stehen können. Die Einflussmechanismen dieser Akteure in der exekutiven Entscheidungsfindung werden als Formen einer "Institutionenpolitik" aufgefasst, bei der Akteure die institutionellen Bedingungen von Politikformulierungsprozessen bzw. die "Spielregeln exekutiver Entscheidungsfindung" verändern, um ihre eigene Position bzw. die ihres "Klienten" zu stärken. Das theoretische Argument dieser Arbeit folgt der neo-institutionalistischen Wende in der Organisationstheorie und definiert Institutionenpolitik als graduelle Institutionalisierungsprozesse zwischen Institutionen und organisationalen Akteuren, wobei einem weiten Institutionenbegriff folgend die Objekte solcher Veränderungsprozesse durch regulative, normative und kognitive Säulen gekennzeichnet sind. In Anwendung des "power-distributional approach" lassen sich graduelle Institutionalisierungsprozesse durch institutionenbezogene Charakteristika erklären, d.h. die Beschaffenheit der Objekte von Institutionenpolitik, insbesondere die Interpretationsfreiheit ihrer Anwendung, sowie die Restriktionen des institutionellen Kontexts. Zudem lässt sich Institutionenpolitik durch akteursbezogene Charakteristika erklären, d.h. den Ambitionen der Akteure sich als "potentielle institutionelle Agenten" zu engagieren. Diese beiden Erklärungsdimensionen drücken sich in vier idealtypischen Mechanismen von Institutionenpolitik aus: Sedimentation, Ersetzung, Drift, und Konversion, die mit vier Agententypen korrespondieren. Die Studie untersucht die institutionenpolitischen Ambitionen der Akteure explorativ, die Relevanz des institutionellen Kontexts wird mithilfe von Erwartungshypothesen zu den Effekten von vier Merkmalen analysiert, die in der bestehenden Debatte als relevant gelten: (1) die Parteienzusammensetzung der Regierung, (2) die Strukturprinzipien von Kabinettsentscheidungen, (3) die Verwaltungstradition sowie (4) die formale Politisierung der Ministerialverwaltung. Die Studie folgt einem "most similar systems design" und führt qualitative Fallstudien zur Rolle interner Beratungseinheiten im Zentrum deutscher und britischer Regierungsorganisationen, d.h. der Regierungszentrale und dem Finanzministerium, über einen längeren Zeitraum durch (1969/1970-2005). Es werden jeweils drei Zeitperioden pro Untersuchungsland betrachtet, die britischen Fallstudien analysieren die Beratungsakteure im Cabinet Office, Prime Minister's Office und dem Finanzministerium unter den Premierministern Heath (1970-74), Thatcher (1979-87) und Blair (1997-2005). Die deutschen Fallstudien untersuchen die Beratungsakteure im Bundeskanzleramt und dem Bundesfinanzministerium unter den Bundeskanzlern Brandt (1969-74), Kohl (1982-1987) und Schröder (1998-2005). Für die empirische Untersuchung wurden die Ergebnisse einer Dokumentenanalyse mit den Erkenntnissen aus 75 semi-strukturierten Experteninterviews trianguliert. Die vergleichende Analyse zeigt unterschiedliche Muster von Institutionenpolitik. Die deutschen Beratungsakteure agieren anfänglich in Ersetzung, später vornehmlich in Sedimentation sowie Drift, d.h. ihre institutionenpolitischen Aktivitäten widmen sich nach anfänglicher Ersetzung bestehender institutioneller Grundlagen zunehmend der Addition neuer Elemente sowie der deliberativen Nicht-Entscheidung zur Anpassung existierender institutioneller Grundlagen an Umweltveränderungen. Die britischen Beratungsakteure sind zumeist in Ersetzung sowie Konversion engagiert, trotz gelegentlicher Sedimentation, d.h. einer direkten Ersetzung bestehender institutioneller Grundlagen durch neue Spielregeln exekutiver Entscheidungsfindung sowie einer bewussten Umwandlung und Neuausrichtung existierender institutionellen Grundlagen, gelegentlich auch eine Addition neuer Elemente zu bestehenden Regeln. Die institutionen- und akteursspezifischen Charakteristika sind für diese Muster von Institutionenpolitik erklärungsrelevant. Erstens weist die Studie nach, dass der institutionelle Kontext die institutionenpolitischen Aktivitäten in Deutschland beschränkt und in Großbritannien begünstigt. Zweitens ist die Interpretationsfreiheit der Anwendung institutionenpolitischer Objekte bedeutsam, wie sich anhand der institutionenpolitischen Ambitionen der Akteure im Zeitverlauf und im Ländervergleich zeigt und somit drittens bestätigt, dass diese Interessen der Akteure an Institutionenwandel die Mechanismen von Institutionenpolitik beeinflussen. Die Arbeit schließt mit der Erkenntnis, dass die Rolle interner Beratungseinheiten in der exekutiven Politikformulierung nicht nur aus ihren inhaltlichen, parteistrategischen oder medial-beratenden Funktionen für politische Akteure in Regierungsämtern folgt, sondern insbesondere aus ihren institutionenpolitischen Aktivitäten, deren Resultate die institutionellen Restriktionen aller Akteure in exekutiven Entscheidungsprozessen beeinflussen – und somit auch ihre eigene Rolle in diesen Prozessen.
This study follows the debate in comparative public administration research on the role of advisory arrangements in central governments. The aim of this study is to explain the mechanisms by which these actors gain their alleged role in government decision-making. Hence, it analyses advisory arrangements that are proactively involved in executive decision-making and may compete with the permanent bureaucracy by offering policy advice to political executives. The study argues that these advisory arrangements influence government policy-making by "institutional politics", i.e. by shaping the institutional underpinnings to govern or rather the "rules of the executive game" in order to strengthen their own position or that of their clients. The theoretical argument of this study follows the neo-institutionalist turn in organization theory and defines institutional politics as gradual institutionalization processes between institutions and organizational actors. It applies a broader definition of institutions as sets of regulative, normative and cognitive pillars. Following the "power-distributional approach" such gradual institutionalization processes are influenced by structure-oriented characteristics, i.e. the nature of the objects of institutional politics, in particular the freedom of interpretation in their application, as well as the distinct constraints of the institutional context. In addition, institutional politics are influenced by agency-oriented characteristics, i.e. the ambitions of actors to act as "would-be change agents". These two explanatory dimensions result in four ideal-typical mechanisms of institutional politics: layering, displacement, drift, and conversion, which correspond to four ideal-types of would-be change agents. The study examines the ambitions of advisory arrangements in institutional politics in an exploratory manner, the relevance of the institutional context is analyzed via expectation hypotheses on the effects of four institutional context features that are regarded as relevant in the scholarly debate: (1) the party composition of governments, (2) the structuring principles in cabinet, (3) the administrative tradition, and (4) the formal politicization of the ministerial bureaucracy. The study follows a "most similar systems design" and conducts qualitative case studies on the role of advisory arrangements at the center of German and British governments, i.e. the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Finance, for a longer period (1969/1970-2005). Three time periods are scrutinized per country; the British case studies examine the role of advisory arrangements at the Cabinet Office, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Ministry of Finance under Prime Ministers Heath (1970-74), Thatcher (1979-87) and Blair (1997-2005). The German case studies study the role of advisory arrangements at the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance during the Brandt government (1969-74), the Kohl government (1982-1987) and the Schröder government (1998-2005). For the empirical analysis, the results of a document analysis and the findings of 75 semi-structured expert interviews have been triangulated. The comparative analysis reveals different patterns of institutional politics. The German advisory arrangements engaged initially in displacement but turned soon towards layering and drift, i.e. after an initial displacement of the pre-existing institutional underpinnings to govern they laid increasingly new elements onto existing ones and took the non-deliberative decision to neglect the adaption of existing rules of the executive game towards changing environmental demands. The British advisory arrangements were mostly involved in displacement and conversion, despite occasional layering, i.e. they displaced the pre-existing institutional underpinnings to govern with new rules of the executive game and transformed and realigned them, sometimes also layering new elements onto pre-existing ones. The structure- and agency-oriented characteristics explain these patterns of institutional politics. First, the study shows that the institutional context limits the institutional politics in Germany and facilitates the institutional politics in the UK. Second, the freedom of interpreting the application of institutional targets is relevant and could be observed via the different ambitions of advisory arrangements across countries and over time, confirming, third, that the interests of such would-be change agents are likewise important to understand the patterns of institutional politics. The study concludes that the role of advisory arrangements in government policy-making rests not only upon their policy-related, party-political or media-advisory role for political executives, but especially upon their activities in institutional politics, resulting in distinct institutional constraints on all actors in government policy-making – including their own role in these processes.

In the 1990s, globalisation became the 'Zeitgeist', with commercial companies striving to become "global players". Under these globalising influences, European construction companies have to respond to a significant reorientation of their markets, which range from the Domestic to the European and the Global markets. They have, therefore, to formulate global strategies to create and sustain competitive positions. This thesis reviews organisation and management theory on global strategies, and applies this theory to examine how a sample of European contractors has approached this strategic challenge. In this thesis "global player" is defined qualitatively as a firm that regards the whole world as a playing field, and shows that some European contractors are leading global players. This research study determines the global position, applied global strategies and competitive advantage of the top European international contractors, for three market levels (Domestic, European and Global) and also for individual international markets. For this, a research model has been developed to illustrate a logical relationship of the factors and markets which influence the position of a company, via global strategies, to a proposed global organisation based on the principles of "glocalisation". In part inspired by Porter's (1990) work, competitive advantage of contractors has also been examined in relation to home country specific characteristics. Furthermore Michael Porter's (1980) 'five forces model' has been developed to the special characteristics of the construction industry, from a contractors perspective, into a 'seven forces model'. The study is carried out by means of in-depth interviews with executives from 11 UK and 11 German top international contractors. In addition, 68 interviews were conducted with European contractors in South East Asia (Indonesia 21; Laos 3; Malaysia 11; Singapore 3; Thailand 14; Vietnam 5); and the United Arab Emirates 11). Comparative analysis between the two contracting nations (UK and Germany), market levels, individual overseas markets and European contracting nations (France, Holland, Italy, Sweden) is carried out using quantitative and qualitative measurements. This information was supplemented by semi-structured qualitative case studies of European contractors as global players, so the applying a holistic approach to the research methodology. The study reveals that the power of the seven competitive forces is similar in each market, whilst the competition structure among contractors differed between each market, which is partly explained due to contractors' nationality. The study shows that successful strategies and operational performance of European global contractors in international contracting are especially dependent on certain markets and certain time periods, which makes them distinct global players. This non-homogenous market behaviour is proven by the underlying theory that positioning factors, global strategies in part and competitive advantage differ between markets and contractors. It is suggested that the top European contractors are global players. In their search for sustainable global, regional and local competitive advantage, towards the new millennium, they may be able to alleviate national barriers and differences among the markets from a superior global position in the ideal form of a global organisation. The realisation of glocalisation might then replace nation-specific advantages by global ownership.

The inability of the public sector to satisfy social needs - like poverty alleviation, social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, unemployment, health and education - are redefining the relationship between the governments and their citizens by making the latter play an active role as the provider of the welfare state. Citizens through their entrepreneurial activity have been pulled to the third sector leading to the emergence of new organizational forms like social enterprises and social franchises. The main focus of this research study is the investigation of the new interorganizational format of social franchising which has received ‘scunt’ research attention up to now. The behaviour of actors and organizations in the social economy sector are influenced by the properties and dynamics of elements coming from the political, social, organizational and individual level. We have adopted a systems approach of social network theory. A grounded theory named Social Franchise Model (SoFraM) has been induced from an exploratory empirical mixed method study conducted at various stages and from different sources during a time frame of thirty months. Primary data were raised through six case studies in the UK and Greece, more than 143 interviews with social entrepreneurs and various stakeholders and three action research projects which were the subject of analytic induction supported by archival analysis of secondary data coming from governmental, European Commission, local authority and other sources. Our findings indicate that the formation, growth and success of social franchises is heavily shaped through: firstly, law, regulations, and incentives introduced by centralized or formal institutions- both supranational and national- as well as their driving logics; secondly, the relational and structural embeddedness of actors in networks and the social norms that subsequently emerge; thirdly, the characteristics of the individual social entrepreneurship profile; and finally elements of the social innovation model adopted. The properties of the system of informal or decentralised institutions of networks have been further explored through a pilot quantitative study on mainstream franchises in the UK and Greece. An online self-administered questionnaire has been created based on our conceptual framework of the Franchise Network Model (FNM) drawn from existing scales from literature. The findings indicate that relational and structural embeddedness of actors and organizations in networks determine choices of formation, partner selection, governance mode and the subsequent performance of franchise systems.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2009.
Department of Information Systems, [Weatherhead School of Management]. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.