In this article, the authors argue that discourse in organizations about the natural environment challenges the traditionally enacted boundaries between the firm and the environment and therefore is an important source of deinstitutionalization. Using data gathered from their research project on sustainability, the authors show that attention by organizational members to meaningful cues embedded in terminology, expressions, and stories undermines existing institutional logics operating in firms and helps establish newer ones.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berger, P. , & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. London: Penguin Books.
2.
Blake, W. (1972). Complete writings (G. Keynes, Ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
3.
Boden, D. (1994). The business of talk. Cambridge, England: Polity.
4.
Boden, D. , & Zimmerman, D. (Eds.). (1991). Talk and social structure: Studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Cambridge, England: Polity.
5.
Bourdieu, P. , & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
7.
Daly, H. , & Cobb, J. B. (1989). For the common good: Redirecting the economy toward community, the environment and a sustainable future. Boston: Beacon.
8.
DiMaggio, P. (1988). Interest and agency in institutional theory. In L. G. Zucker (Ed.), Institutional patterns and organizations. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
9.
Friedland, R. , & Alford, R. (1991). Bringing society back in. In W. W. Powell & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
11.
Garud, R. , & Rappa, M. (1994). A socio-cognitive model of technology evolution: The case of cochlear implants. Organization Science, 5, 344-362.
12.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
13.
Gephart, R. P. (1984). Making sense of organizationally based environmental disasters. Journal of Management, 10, 205-225.
14.
Gephart, R. P. (1996). Simulacral environments: Reflexivity and the natural ecology of organizations. In D. Boje, R. P. Gephart, & T. J. Thatchenkery (Eds.), Postmodern management and organization theory (pp. 202-222). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15.
Gergen, K. (1985). The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. American Psychologist, 40, 266-275.
16.
Gergen, K. (1991). The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life. New York: Basic Books.
17.
Glaser, B. G. , & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine.
18.
Jennings, P. D. , & Zandbergen, P. A. (1995). Ecologically sustainable organizations: An institutional approach. Academy of Management Review, 20, 1015-1052.
19.
Jennings, P. D. , Zandbergen, P. A., & Clark, V. (1996). Organizations and ecosystem sustainability: An institutional study of water quality in the Lower Fraser Basin. In M. Healey (Ed.), Sustainability of the Lower Fraser Basin. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
20.
Latour, B. (1987). Science in action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
21.
Marsden, R. (1993). The politics of organizational analysis. Organization Studies, 14, 93-124.
22.
Martin, J. (1992). Culture in organizations: Three perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.
23.
Mauws, M. , & Phillips, N. (1995). Understanding language games. Organization Science, 6, 322-334.
24.
Miles, M. B. , & Huberman, M. A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
25.
Oliver, C. (1992). The antecedents of deinstitutionalization. Organization Studies, 13, 563-588.
26.
Potter, J. , & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London: Sage.
27.
Powell, W. W. , & DiMaggio, P. J. (Eds.). (1991). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
Purser, R. E. , Park, C., & Montuori, A. (1995). Limits to anthropocentrism: Towards and ecocentric organization paradigm?Academy of Management Review, 20, 1053-1089.
29.
Rorty, R. (1989). Contingency, irony and solidarity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
30.
Scott, W. R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
31.
Scott, W. R. , & Meyer, J. W. (Eds.). (1994). Institutional environments and organizations: Structural complexity and individualism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
32.
Van Maanen. (1988). Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
Weick, K. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Zucker, L. G. (1987). Institutional theories in organizations. In W. R. Scott (Ed.), Annual review of sociology (Vol. 13, pp. 443-464). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
