We advance interactionist perspectives on how organizational structures emerge in new issue domains. Our study is grounded in field data collected over 18 months at a large biomedical company that sought to become more sustainable. Over that period, some sustainability-related issues became firmly embedded in formal structures and procedures, while others faltered. We identify the quality of situational interactions among organizational members as the engine behind the structuring of organizational sustainability efforts. Successful interactions generated traces of attention, motivation, knowledge, relationships, and resources that linked fleeting interactions to emergent organizational structures. Our findings point to the importance of internal advocates and distributed processes at middle and lower levels for developing organizational structures, and we show that advocates’ interests, commitments, and identities are altered in the course of repeated interactions, as are the political resources available to them. Paying attention to situation-level interactions thus results in a more dynamic view of the emergence of formal structures through political processes. We develop a process model that informs structuration perspectives on organizational change by showing how social interaction dynamics can account for divergent levels of structuring within the same domain. The model also advances political perspectives on organizational change by unpacking the situational underpinnings of advocacy efforts and collective mobilization around issues.
AguinisH.GlavasA.2017“ On corporate social responsibility, sensemaking, and the search for meaningfulness through work.” Journal of Management, published online ahead of print. DOI: 10.1177/0149206317691575.
2.
AlexanderJ. C.2004“ Cultural pragmatics: Social performance between ritual and strategy.” Sociological Theory, 22: 527–573.
3.
BansalP.2003“ From issues to actions: The importance of individual concerns and organizational values in responding to natural environmental issues.” Organization Science, 14: 510–527.
4.
BarleyS. R.1986“ Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 31: 78–108.
5.
BarleyS. R.1990“ The alignment of technology and structure through roles and networks.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 35: 61–103.
6.
BarleyS. R.TolbertP. S.1997“ Institutionalization and structuration: Studying the links between action and institution.” Organization Studies, 18: 93–117.
7.
BinderA. J.2002Contentious Curricula: Afrocentrism and Creationism in American Public Schools. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
8.
BriscoeF.ChinM. K.HambrickD. C.2014“ CEO ideology as an element of the corporate opportunity structure for social activists.” Academy of Management Journal, 57: 1786–1809.
9.
BriscoeF.GuptaA.2016“ Social activism in and around organizations.” Academy of Management Annals, 10: 671–727.
10.
BriscoeF.GuptaA.AnnerM. S.2015“ Social activism and practice diffusion: How activist tactics affect non-targeted organizations.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 60: 300–332.
11.
CampbellJ. L.2007“ Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility.” Academy of Management Review, 32: 946–967.
12.
ChandlerA. D.1962Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
13.
ChandlerD.2014“ Organizational susceptibility to institutional complexity: Critical events driving the adoption and implementation of the ethics and compliance officer position.” Organization Science, 25: 1722–1743.
14.
ChildJ.1972“ Organizational structure, environment, and performance: The role of strategic choice.” Sociology, 6: 2–22.
15.
CohenM. D.MarchJ. G.OlsenJ. P.1972“ A garbage can model of organizational choice.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 17: 1–25.
16.
CollinsR.2004Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
17.
DaftR. L.1983Organization Theory and Design. St Paul, MN: West Publishing.
18.
DaftR. L.WeickK. E.1984“ Toward a model of organizations as interpretation systems.” Academy of Management Review, 9: 284–295.
19.
DahlmannF.BrammerS.2011“ Exploring and explaining patterns of adaptation and selection in corporate environmental strategy in the USA.” Organization Studies, 32: 527–553.
20.
DelmasM.ToffelM. W.2004“ Stakeholders and environmental management practices: An institutional framework.” Business Strategy and the Environment, 13: 209–222.
21.
DeSanctisG.PooleM. S.1994“ Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: Adaptive structuration theory.” Organization Science, 5: 121–147.
22.
DobbinF.KellyE. L.2007“ How to stop harassment: Professional construction of legal compliance in organizations.” American Journal of Sociology, 112: 1203–1243.
23.
DobbinF.SuttonR. I.1998“ The strength of a weak state: The rights movement and the rise of the human resources management divisions.” American Journal of Sociology, 104: 441–476.
24.
DuttonJ. E.AshfordS. J.LawrenceK. A.Miner-RubinoK.2002“ Red light, green light: Making sense of the organizational context for issue selling.” Organization Science, 13, 355–369.
25.
DuttonJ. E.AshfordS. J.O’NeillR. M.2001“ Moves that matter: Issue selling and organizational change“Academy of Management Journal, 44: 716–736.
26.
FeldmanM. S.PentlandB. T.2003“ Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 48: 94–118.
27.
FligsteinN. J.2001“ Social skill and the theory of fields.” Sociological Theory, 19: 105–125.
GarudR.KarnøeP.2003“ Bricolage versus breakthrough: Distributed and embedded agency in technology entrepreneurship.” Research Policy, 32: 277–300.
30.
GiddensA.1979Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
31.
GiddensA.1984The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
32.
GoffmanE.1983“ The interaction order.” American Sociological Review, 48: 1–17.
33.
GonosG.1977“ ‘Situations’ vs. ‘frame’: The ‘interactionist’ and the ‘structuralist’ analysis of everyday life.” American Sociological Review, 42: 854–867.
34.
GoodwinC.HeritageJ.1990“ Conversation analysis.” Annual Review of Anthropology, 19: 283–307.
35.
GouldnerA. W.1954Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy. New York: Free Press.
36.
GrayB.PurdyJ. M.AnsariS.2015“ From interactions to institutions: Microprocesses of framing and mechanisms for the structuring of institutional fields.” Academy of Management Review, 40: 115–143.
37.
HabermasJ.1981The Theory of Communicative Action. McCarthyT., trans. Boston: Beacon Press.
38.
HafenbrädlS.WaegerD.2017“ Ideology and the micro-foundations of CSR: Why executives believe in the business case for CSR and how this affects their CSR engagements.” Academy of Management Journal, 60: 1582–1606.
39.
HallettT.2010“ The myth incarnate: Recoupling processes, turmoil, and inhabited institutions in an urban elementary school.” American Sociological Review, 75: 52–74.
40.
HambrickD. C.FinkelsteinS.1987“ Managerial discretion: A bridge between polar views of organizational outcomes.” In CummingsL. L.StawB. M. (eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, 9: 369–406. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
41.
HansonN. R.1958Patterns of Discovery: An Inquiry into the Conceptual Foundations of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42.
HartS. L.1995“ A natural-resource-based view of the firm.” Academy of Management Review, 20: 986–1014.
43.
HedströmP.SwedbergR. (eds.) 1998Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.
HoffmanA. J.1999“ Institutional evolution and change: Environmentalism and the U.S. chemical industry.” Academy of Management Journal, 42: 351–371.
46.
Howard-GrenvilleJ. A.2007“ Developing issue-selling effectiveness over time: Issue selling as resourcing.” Organization Science, 18: 560–577.
47.
JarzabkowskiP.2008“ Shaping strategy as a structuration process.” Academy of Management Journal, 51: 621–650.
48.
KelloggK. C.2009“ Operating room: Relational spaces and microinstitutional change in surgery.” American Journal of Sociology, 115: 657–711.
49.
KelloggK. C.2011Challenging Operations: Medical Reform and Resistance in Surgery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
50.
KingB. G.PearceN. A.2010“ The contentiousness of markets: Politics, social movements, and institutional change in markets.” Annual Review of Sociology, 36: 249–267.
51.
LawlerE. J.2001“ An affect theory of social exchange.” American Journal of Sociology, 107: 321–352.
52.
LeibelE.HallettT.BechkyB. A.2018“ Meaning at the source: The dynamics of field formation in institutional research.” Academy of Management Annals, 12: 154–177.
53.
LeonardiP. M.2007“ Activating the informational capabilities of information technology for organizational change.” Organization Science, 18: 813–831.
54.
LeonardiP. M.2011“ When flexible routines meet flexible technologies: Affordance, constraint, and the imbrication of human and material agencies.” MIS Quarterly, 35: 147–167.
55.
LeonardiP. M.BarleyS. R.2010“ What’s under construction here? Social action, materiality, and power in constructivist studies of technology and organizing.” Academy of Management Annals, 4: 1–51.
56.
LockeK.2001Grounded Theory in Management Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
57.
LounsburyM.2001“ Institutional sources of practice variation.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 46: 29–56.
58.
MaitlisS.2005“ The social processes of organizational sensemaking.” Academy of Management Journal, 48: 21–49.
59.
MaitlisS.ChristiansonM.2014“ Sensemaking in organizations: Taking stock and moving forward.” Academy of Management Annals, 8: 57–125.
60.
MarchJ. G.1962“ The business firm as a political coalition.” Journal of Politics, 24: 662–678.
61.
MarquisC.GlynnM. A.DavisG. F.2007“ Community isomorphism and corporate social action.” Academy of Management Review, 32: 925–945.
62.
MattenD.MoonJ.2008“ ‘Implicit’ and ‘explicit’ CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative understanding of corporate social responsibility.” Academy of Management Review, 33: 404–424.
63.
McEvilyB.SodaG.TortorielloM.2014“ More formally: Rediscovering the missing link between formal organization and informal social structure.” Academy of Management Annals, 8: 299–345.
64.
MeyersonD.2003Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders Inspire Change at Work. Boston: Harvard Business School.
65.
MeyersonD.ScullyM. A.1995“ Tempered radicalism and the politics of ambivalence and change.” Organization Science, 6: 585–600.
66.
MilesR. E.SnowC. C.1978Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
67.
NadlerD.TushmanM.1988Strategic Organization Design: Concepts, Tools and Processes. New York: Harper Collins.
68.
OcasioW.1997“ Towards an attention-based view of the firm.” Strategic Management Journal, 18: 187–206.
69.
OrlikowskiW. J.1996“ Improvising organizational transformation over time: A situated change perspective.” Information Systems Research, 7: 63–92.
70.
OrlikowskiW. J.2000“ Using technology and constituting structures: A practice lens for studying technology in organizations.” Organization Science, 11: 404–428.
71.
OrlikowskiW. J.BarleyS. R.2001“ Technology and institutions: What can research on information technology and research on organizations learn from each other?”MIS Quarterly, 25: 145–165.
72.
Owen-SmithJ.2011“ The institutionalization of expertise in university licensing.” Theory and Society, 40: 63–94.
73.
PeirceC. S.1955“ Abduction and induction.” In BuchlerJ. (ed.), Philosophical Writings of Peirce: 150–156. New York: Dover.
74.
PerlowL. A.GittellJ. H.KatzN.2004“ Contextualizing patterns of work group interaction: Toward a nested theory of structuration.” Organization Science, 15: 520–536.
75.
PowellW. W.ColyvasJ.2008“ Microfoundations of institutional theory.” In GreenwoodR.OliverC.Sahlin-AnderssonK.SuddabyR. (eds.), Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism: 276–298. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
76.
RaeburnN. C.2004Changing Corporate America from Inside Out: Lesbian and Gay Workplace Rights. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
77.
RaoH.DuttaS.2012“ Free spaces as organizational weapons of the weak: Religious festivals and regimental mutinies in the 1857 Bengal native army.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 57: 625–668.
78.
RisiD.WickertC.2017“ Reconsidering the ‘symmetry’ between institutionalization and professionalization: The case of corporate social responsibility managers.” Journal of Management Studies, 54: 613–646.
79.
RossL.NisbettR. E.1991The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
80.
SchererA. G.PalazzoG.2007“ Toward a political conception of corporate responsibility: Business and society seen from a Habermasian perspective.” Academy of Management Review, 32: 1096–1120.
81.
ScullyM. A.SegalA.2002“ Passion with an umbrella: Grassroots activists in the workplace.” In LounsburyM.VentrescaM. J. (eds.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 19: 125–168. Bingley, UK: Emerald Insight.
82.
SelznickP.1949TVA and the Grass Roots. New York: Harper & Row.
83.
SharmaS.2000“ Managerial interpretations and organizational context as predictors of corporate choice of environmental strategy.” Academy of Management Journal, 43: 681–697.
84.
SmetsM.MorrisT. I. M.GreenwoodR.2012“ From practice to field: A multilevel model of practice-driven institutional change.” Academy of Management Journal, 55: 877–904.
ThompsonJ. D.1967Organizations in Action. New York: McGraw-Hill.
87.
TimmermansS.TavoryI.2012“ Theory construction in qualitative research: From grounded theory to abductive analysis.” Sociological Theory, 30: 167–186.
88.
TrueloveE.KelloggK. C.2016“ The radical flank effect and cross-occupational collaboration for technology development during a power shift.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 61: 662–701.
VaaraE.WhittingtonR.2012“ Strategy-as-practice: Taking social practices seriously.” Academy of Management Annals, 6: 285–336.
91.
WeberK.RaoH.ThomasL. G.2009“ From streets to suites: How the anti-biotech movement affected German pharmaceutical firms.” American Sociological Review, 74: 106–127.
92.
WeberK.WaegerD.2017“ Organizations as polities: An open systems perspective.” Academy of Management Annals, 11: 886–918.
93.
WeickK. E.1979The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2d ed. New York: Random House.
94.
WeickK. E.1995Sensemaking in Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
95.
WickertC.de BakkerF. A.2016“ Pitching for social change: Towards a relational approach to selling and buying social issues.” Academy of Management Discoveries, 4 (1).
96.
WileyN.1988“ The micro–macro problem in social theory.” Sociological Theory, 6: 254–261.
97.
ZaldM. N.1970“ Political economy: A framework for comparative analysis.” In ZaldM. N. (ed.), Power in Organizations: 221–261. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
98.
ZaldM. N.MorrillC.RaoH.2005“ The impact of social movements on organizations: Environment and responses.” In DavisG. F.McAdamD.ScottW. R. (eds.), Social Movements and Organization Theory: 253–279. New York: Cambridge University Press.
99.
ZhangJ.LuoX. R.2013“ Dared to care: Organizational vulnerability, institutional logics, and MNCs’ social responsiveness in emerging markets.” Organization Science, 24: 1742–1764.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
