Damned if we do, damned if we don't: how organizations manage the dilemma of conflicting institutional demands (RV of 2009/12/EFE/OB/ISIC)
Author: Pache, Anne-Claire ; Santos, Filipe M.INSEAD Area: Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise ; Organisational Behaviour Series: Working Paper ; 2009/47/EFE/OB/ISIC (revised version of 2009/12/EFE/OB/ISIC) Publisher: Fontainebleau : INSEAD Social Innovation Centre (ISIC) 2009.Language: EnglishType of document: INSEAD Working PaperAbstract: Institutional theory suggests that organizations are strongly influenced by the pressures for compliance exerted by their institutional referents. Yet, organizations are often subject to conflicting demands imposed by their institutional environment which makes full compliance impossible to achieve because satisfying some demands will require ignoring or rejecting others. Although prior work suggests that organizations develop strategic responses to situations of conflicting institutional demands, this work lacks predictive power since it ignores the internal dynamics of organizational responses. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a model of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands that takes into account intra-organizational political processes. We argue that organizational fields that are fragmented and moderately centralized are particularly likely to impose conflicting demands on organizations. We then discuss the likelihood of adoption of different organizational responses based on the nature of conflicting demands and their internal representation. Our key contribution is exploring the conflict dimension of institutional pressures and providing a more precise model of organizational responses, including the identification of situations in which conflicting institutional demands may lead to organizational breakup. Previous title: Damned if we do, damned if we don't: organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands - Pache, Anne-Claire;Santos, Filipe M. - 2009 - INSEAD Working Paper Next title: When worlds collide: the internal dynamics of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands (RV of 2009/47/EFE/OB/ISIC) - Pache, Anne-Claire;Santos, Filipe M. - 2010 - INSEAD Working Paper| Item type | Current location | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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Europe Campus Archives | Available | BC008798 |
Institutional theory suggests that organizations are strongly influenced by the pressures for compliance exerted by their institutional referents. Yet, organizations are often subject to conflicting demands imposed by their institutional environment which makes full compliance impossible to achieve because satisfying some demands will require ignoring or rejecting others. Although prior work suggests that organizations develop strategic responses to situations of conflicting institutional demands, this work lacks predictive power since it ignores the internal dynamics of organizational responses. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a model of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands that takes into account intra-organizational political processes. We argue that organizational fields that are fragmented and moderately centralized are particularly likely to impose conflicting demands on organizations. We then discuss the likelihood of adoption of different organizational responses based on the nature of conflicting demands and their internal representation. Our key contribution is exploring the conflict dimension of institutional pressures and providing a more precise model of organizational responses, including the identification of situations in which conflicting institutional demands may lead to organizational breakup.
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