In this essay, I respond to Alvesson, Hallett, and Spicer’s recent piece focusing on the problems stemming from organizational institutionalism’s unprecedented growth and proliferation. I focus my attention specifically on the current definitional problems in the literature and offer some suggestions for how scholars in the area might address these issues in the future.
AlvessonM.HallettT.SpicerA. (2019). Uninhibited Institutionalisms. Journal of Management Inquiry, 28(2), 119–127.
2.
BarleyS. R.TolbertP. S. (1997). Institutionalization and structuration: Studying the links between action and institution. Organization Studies, 18(1), 93–117.
3.
GlynnM. A. (2008). Beyond constraint: How institutions enable identities. In GreenwoodR.OliverC.SuddabyR.SahlinK. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 413–430). London: SAGE Publications.
4.
HallP. A.TaylorR. C. (1996). Political science and the three new institutionalisms. Political Studies, 44(5), 936–957.
5.
HirschP. M.LounsburyM. (1997). Ending the family quarrel: Toward a reconciliation of “old” and “new” institutionalisms. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(4), 406–418.
6.
LawrenceT.SuddabyR.LecaB. (2011). Institutional work: Refocusing institutional studies of organization. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20(1), 52–58.
7.
LokJ. (2010). Institutional logics as identity projects. Academy of Management Journal, 53(6), 1305–1335.
8.
MeyerJ. W.RowanB. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340–363.
9.
NorthD. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.
PowellW. W.DiMaggioP. J. (Eds.). (1991). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
11.
ScottW. R. (1987). The adolescence of institutional theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32(4), 493–511.
12.
ScottW. R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Foundations for organizational science series. London: SAGE Publications.
13.
SuddabyR. (2010). Challenges for institutional theory. Journal of Management Inquiry, 19(1), 14–20.
14.
ThelenK. (1999). Historical institutionalism in comparative politics. Annual Review of Political Science, 2(1), 369–404.
15.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW.LounsburyM. (2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure, and process. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
16.
VoronovM.VinceR. (2012). Integrating emotions into the analysis of institutional work. Academy of Management Review, 37(1), 58–81.
17.
ZietsmaC.ToubianaM. (2018). The valuable, the constitutive, and the energetic: Exploring the impact and importance of studying emotions and institutions. Organization Studies, 39(4), 423–443.
18.
ZilberT. B. (2002). Institutionalization as an interplay between actions, meanings, and actors: The case of a rape crisis center in Israel. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 234–254.
