The question how individuals experience and respond to competing logics has recently received intensified attention, but current theories remain incoherent, and research is restricted to situations with stable constellations of logics. To elaborate on these issues, we use insights from identity control theory, and develop a model for individuals’ considerations during interactions characterized by institutional complexity. We argue that individuals engage with several logics, unless these logics are related to conflicting identities that become salient simultaneously. Conflicting identities encourage individuals to choose the logic that is linked to the identity higher up in their “self.” In situations where the conflict is not clear from the beginning, individuals may distance themselves from the logic that is related to a lower level identity, to maintain self-esteem. This article contributes to research by clarifying the competing perspectives on individual considerations when there are multiple institutional logics and extends research to dynamically evolving situations.
AlfordR. R.FriedlandR. (1985). Powers of theory: Capitalism, the state, and democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2.
AspersP. (2015). Phenomenological identity theory in economic sociology. In AspersP.DoddN. (Eds.), Re-imagining economic sociology (pp. 252-274). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
3.
BattilanaJ.DoradoS. (2010). Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. The Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1419-1440.
4.
BergerP. L.LuckmannT. (1995). Modernity, pluralism and the crisis of meaning. Gütersloh, Germany: Bertelsmann Foundation.
5.
BoltanskiL.ThévenotL. (2006). On justification: Economies of worth (PorterC., Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6.
BurkeP. J. (2004). Identities and social structure: The 2003 Cooley-Mead award address. Social Psychology Quarterly, 67, 5-15.
7.
BurkeP. J. (2006). Identity change. Social Psychology Quarterly, 69, 81-96.
8.
BurkeP. J. (2007). Identity control theory. In RitzerG. (Ed.), The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology (pp. 2202-2207). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
9.
BurkeP. J.CastA. D. (1997). Stability and change in the gender identities of newly married couples. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60, 277-290.
10.
BurkeP. J.ReitzesD. C. (1991). An identity theory approach to commitment. Social Psychology Quarterly, 54, 239-251.
11.
BurkeP. J.StetsJ. E. (2009). Identity theory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
12.
CastA. D.BurkeP. J. (2002). A theory of self-esteem. Social Forces, 80, 1041-1068.
13.
CreedW. E. D.DeJordyR.LokJ. (2010). Being the change: Resolving institutional contradiction through identity work. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1336-1364.
14.
CreedW. E. D.ScullyM. A.AustinJ. R. (2002). Clothes make the person? The tailoring of legitimating accounts and the social construction of identity. Organization Science, 13, 475-496.
15.
DeauxK.BurkeP. J. (2010). Bridging identities. Social Psychology Quarterly, 73, 315-320.
16.
DiMaggioP. J. (1997). Culture and cognition. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 263-287.
17.
FineG. A.HallettT. (2014). Group cultures and the everyday life of organizations: Interaction orders and meso-analysis. Organization Studies, 35, 1773-1792.
18.
FligsteinN.McAdamD. (2011). Toward a general theory of strategic action fields. Sociological Theory, 29, 1-26.
19.
GeorgeE.ChattopadhyayP.SitkinS. B.BardenJ. (2006). Cognitive underpinnings of institutional persistence and change: A framing perspective. Academy of Management Review, 31, 347-365.
20.
GiorgiS.WeberK. (2015). Marks of distinction: Framing and audience appreciation in the context of investment advice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 60, 333-367.
21.
GrayB.PurdyJ. M.AnsariS. S. (2015). From interactions to institutions: Microprocesses of framing and mechanisms for the structuring of institutional fields. Academy of Management Review, 40, 115-143.
22.
GreenwoodR.RaynardM.KodeihF.MicelottaE. R.LounsburyM. (2011). Institutional complexity and organizational responses. The Academy of Management Annals, 5, 317-371.
23.
KraatzM. S.BlockE. S. (2008). Organizational implications of institutional pluralism. In GreenwoodR.OliverC.Sahlin-AnderssonK.SuddabyR. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 243-275). New York, NY: Sage.
24.
LeungA.ZietsmaC.PeredoA. M. (2014). Emergent identity work and institutional change: The “quiet” revolution of Japanese middle-class housewives. Organization Studies, 35, 423-450.
25.
LoewensteinJ.OcasioW.JonesC. (2012). Vocabularies and vocabulary structure: A new approach linking categories, practices, and institutions. The Academy of Management Annals, 6, 41-86.
26.
LokJ. (2010). Institutional logics as identity projects. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1305-1335.
27.
LuoX. (2007). Continuous learning: The influence of national institutional logics on training attitudes. Organization Science, 18, 280-296.
28.
McCallG.SimmonsJ. L. (1978). Identities and interactions (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
29.
McPhersonC. M.SauderM. (2013). Logics in action: Managing institutional complexity in a drug court. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58, 165-196.
30.
MeyerJ. W.RowanB. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340-363.
31.
MeyerR. E.HammerschmidG. (2006). Changing institutional logics and executive identities: A managerial challenge to public administration in Austria. American Behavioral Scientist, 49, 1000-1014.
32.
MintzbergH. (1973). The nature of managerial work. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
33.
MoodyM.ThévenotL. (2000). Comparing models of strategy, interests and the public good in French and American environmental disputes. In LamontM.ThévenotL. (Eds.), Rethinking comparative cultural sociology: Repertoires of evaluation in France and the United States (pp. 273-306). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
34.
NachH. (2015). Identity under challenge: Examining user’s responses to computerized information systems. Management Research Review, 38, 703-725.
35.
PacheA.-C.SantosF. (2013). Embedded in hybrid contexts: How individuals in organizations respond to competing institutional logics. Research in the Sociology of Organizations: Institutional Logics in Action, 39B, 3-35.
36.
PatriottaG.GondJ.-P.SchultzF. (2011). Maintaining legitimacy: Controversies, orders of worth, and public justifications. Journal of Management Studies, 48, 1804-1836.
37.
PowellW. W.SandholtzK. W. (2012). Amphibious entrepreneurs and the emergence of organizational forms. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 6, 94-115. doi:10.1002/sej.1129
38.
ReayT.HiningsC. R. (2009). Managing the rivalry of competing institutional logics. Organization Studies, 30, 629-652.
39.
ShepherdD.HaynieJ. M. (2009). Family business, identity conflict, and an expedited entrepreneurial process: A process of resolving identity conflict. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33, 1245-1264.
40.
SillinceJ. A. A. (1995). Shifts in focus and scope during argumentation. Journal of Pragmatics, 24, 413-431.
41.
SmetsM.JarzabkowskiP.BurkeG.SpeeP. (2015). Reinsurance trading in Lloyd’s of London: Balancing conflicting-yet-complementary logics in practice. Academy of Management Journal, 58, 932-970.
42.
SnowD. A.BenfordR. D. (1988). Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilization. International Social Movement Research, 1, 197-217.
43.
StetsJ. E.BurkeP. J. (2000). Identity theory and social identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 224-237.
44.
StetsJ. E.BurkeP. J. (2003). A sociological approach to self and identity. In LearyM. R.TangneyJ. P. (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 128-152). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
45.
StetsJ. E.BurkeP. J. (2005). New directions in identity control theory. Advances in Group Processes, 22, 43-64.
46.
StetsJ. E.TsushimaT. M. (2001). Negative emotion and coping responses within identity control theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 64, 283-295.
47.
StrykerS. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A social structural version. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings.
48.
StrykerS.BurkeP. J. (2000). The past, present, and future of an identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 284-297.
49.
StrykerS.SerpeR. T. (1982). Commitment, identity salience, and role behavior: A theory and research example. In IckesW.KnowlesE. S. (Eds.), Personality, roles, and social behavior (pp. 199-218). New York, NY: Springer.
50.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW. (2008). Institutional logics. In GreenwoodR.OliverC.SuddabyR.Sahlin-AnderssonK. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 99-129). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
51.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW.LounsburyM. (2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure and process. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
52.
WryT.LounsburyM.GlynnM. A. (2011). Legitimating nascent collective identities: Coordinating cultural entrepreneurship. Organization Science, 22, 449-463.
