Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-15T21:31:50.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Leadership as institutional work: a bridge to the other side

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2009

By
Matthew S. Kraatz
Edited by
Thomas B. Lawrence ,
Roy Suddaby  and
Bernard Leca
Thomas B. Lawrence
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Roy Suddaby
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
Bernard Leca
Affiliation:
ESC Rouen
Get access

Summary

The great deed of the supreme hero is to come to the knowledge of this unity in multiplicity and then to make it known.

– Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The most important thing is integrity. Once you figure out how to fake that you've got it made.

– Variously attributed

Current interest in the phenomenon of institutional work was seemingly foreshadowed by Selznick (1957) in his Leadership in Administration. Therein, he developed a powerful theory of the institution which granted a central role to a particular type of institutional worker: the leader or “statesman.” He saw leaders as playing an essential part in institutionalization processes, and focused in particular on the ways in which they help institutions develop, adapt, and endure. Selznick's concept of institutional leadership would thus appear to link quite well with the more contemporary concept of institutional work, which Lawrence and Suddaby (2006: 215) have defined as “purposive action of individuals and organizations aimed at creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions.” However, this linkage remains a latent and largely undeveloped one. Lawrence and Suddaby's (2006) exhaustive review of the burgeoning literature on institutional work cited no studies of institutional leadership and made no explicit reference to Selznick's concept or his 1957 book. While this omission may reflect an oversight on those authors' part, it also says something about the current state of the field. Contemporary institutionalists have become increasingly interested in agency, practice, power, entrepreneurship, and like issues.

Type
Chapter
Information
Institutional Work
Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations
 , pp. 59 - 91
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansell, C. A. (1997) Symbolic networks: the realignment of the French working class, 1887–1894. American Journal of Sociology, 103(2): 359–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, J. M. (1978) Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. (1949) The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. J. & Powell, W. W. (1991) Introduction. In Powell, W. W. & DiMaggio, P. J. (eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, pp. 1–38. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, L. (1995) American Anti-Management Theories of Organization: A Critique of Paradigm Proliferation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Emirbayer, M. (1997) Manifesto for a relational sociology. American Journal of Sociology, 103(2): 281–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fligstein, N. (2001) Social skill and the theory of fields. Sociological Theory, 19(2): 105–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, R. H. (1988) Passions within Reason: The Strategic Role of Emotions. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Glynn, M. A. (2000) When cymbals become symbols: conflict over organizational identity within a symphony orchestra. Organization Science, 11(3): 285–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glynn, M. (2008) Beyond constraint: how institutions enable identities. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Suddaby, R. & Sahlin-Andersson, K. (eds.), Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, pp. 413–440. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Glynn, M. A. & Abzug, R. (2002) Institutionalizing identity: symbolic isomorphism and organizational names. Academy of Management Journal, 45: 267–280.Google Scholar
Gouldner, A. W. (1955) Metaphysical pathos and the theory of bureaucracy. American Political Science Review, 49: 496–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwood, R. & Hinings, C. R. (1996) Understanding radical organizational change: bringing together the old and the new institutionalism. Academy of Management Review, 21: 1022–1054.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, J. (2007) The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316(5827): 998.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hargrave, T. & Ven, A. (2006) A collective action model of institutional innovation. Academy of Management Review, 31(4): 864–888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, M. D. (2006) Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Heclo, H. (2002) The statesman: revisiting leadership in administration. In Kagan, R. A., Krygier, M. & Winston, K. (eds.), Legality and Community: On the Intellectual Legacy of Philip Selznick, pp. 295–310. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Heimer, C. A. (1999) Competing institutions: law, medicine, and family in neonatal intensive care. Law & Society Review, 33(1): 17–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heracleous, L. & Barrett, M. (2001) Organizational change as discourse: communicative actions and deep structures in the context of IT implementation. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4): 755–778.Google Scholar
Hirsch, P. M. & Lounsbury, M. (1997) Putting the organization back into organization theory. Journal of Management Inquiry, 6(1): 79–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaeger, G. & Selznick, P. (1964) A normative theory of culture. American Sociological Review, 29: 653–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellerman, B. (2004) Bad Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.Google Scholar
Knudsen, C. (1995) The competence view of the firm: what can modern economists learn from Philip Selznick's sociological theory of leadership? In Scott, W. R. & Christensen, S. (eds.), The Institutional Construction of Organizations: International and Longitudinal Studies, pp. 135–163. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Kraatz, M. S. & Block, E. S. (2008) Organizational implications of institutional pluralism. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Suddaby, R. & Sahlin-Andersson, K. (eds.), Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, pp. 243–276. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Krygier, M. E. (2002) Philip Selznick, normative theory and the rule of law. In Kagan, R. A., Krygier, M. & Winston, K. (eds.), Legality and Community: On the Intellectual Legacy of Philip Selznick, pp. 19–49. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Lacey, M. (2002) Taking ideals seriously. In Kagan, R., Krygier, M. & Winston, K. (eds.), Legality and Community, pp. 67–81. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Lawrence, T. & Suddaby, R. (2006) Institutions and institutional work. In Clegg, S., Hardy, C., Nord, W. R. & Lawrence, T. (eds.), Handbook of Organization Studies, pp. 215–254. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Love, E. G. & Kraatz, M. S. (2008) Character, conformity or the bottom line? How and why downsizing affected corporate reputation. Academy of Management Journal, forthcoming.
Machiavelli, N. (1998) The Prince, trans. Mansfield, H. C.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. (1981) Footnotes to organizational change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26(4): 563–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. (1999) The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
March, J. G. & Olsen, J. P. (1976) Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations, 2nd edn. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
March, J. G. & Weil, T. (2005) On Leadership. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mead, G. H. (1934) Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. & Rowan, B. (1977) Institutionalized organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83: 340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, T. (1986) The View from Nowhere. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nesse, R. M. (2001) Natural selection and the capacity for subjective commitment. In Nesse, R. M. (ed.), Evolution and the Capacity for Commitment. New York: Sage.Google Scholar
Oakes, L. S., Townley, B. & Cooper, D. J. (1998) Business planning as pedagogy: language and control in a changing institutional field. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43: 257–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, C. (1991) Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16(1): 145–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, J. F. & Ansell, C. K. (1993) Robust action and the rise of the Medici, 1400–1434. American Journal of Sociology, 98: 1259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrow, C. (1986) Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay, 3rd edn. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, J. (1981) Management as symbolic action: the creation and maintenance of organizational paradigms. In Cummings, L. L. & Shaw, B. M. (eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, 3: 1–52. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Pondy, L. (1983) The role of metaphors and myths in organizations and in the facilitation of change. In Pondy, L. R., Frost, P. J., Morgan, G. & Dandridge, T. C. (eds.), Organization Symbolism, pp. 157–166. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Pratt, M. G. & Foreman, P. O. (2000) Classifying managerial responses to multiple organizational identities. Academy of Management Review, 25: 18–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, H. (1994) The social construction of reputation – certification contests, legitimation, and the survival of organizations in the American automobile-industry – 1895–1912. Strategic Management Journal, 15: 29–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rost, J. C. (1991) Leadership for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Schneiberg, M. & Clemens, E. (2006) The typical roots for the job: research strategies in institutional analysis. Sociological Theory, 24:3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, W. R. (2001) Institutions and Organizations, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R. & Davis, G. F. (2007) Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural and Open System Perspectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1949) TVA and the Grass Roots. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1952) The Organizational Weapon. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1957) Leadership in Administration. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1969) Law, Society and Industrial Justice. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1992) The Moral Commonwealth: Social Theory and the Promise of Community. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1996) Institutionalism “old” and “new.”Administrative Science Quarterly, 41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selznick, P. (2000) On sustaining research agendas – their moral and scientific basis: an address to the Western Academy of Management. Journal of Management Inquiry, 9(3): 277–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strandgaard Pedersen, J. & Dobbin, F. (2006) In search of identity and legitimation. American Behavioral Scientist, 49: 897–907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stryker, R. (2000) Legitimacy processes as institutional politics: implications for theory and research in the sociology of organizations. Organizational Politics: Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 17: 179–223.Google Scholar
Suddaby, R. & Greenwood, R. (2005) Rhetorical strategies of legitimacy. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(1): 35–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsoukas, H. & Chia, R. (2002) On organizational becoming: rethinking organizational change. Organization Science, 13(5): 567–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washington, M., Boal, K. B. & Davis, J. N. (2008) Institutional leadership: past, present and future. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Suddaby, R. & Sahlin-Andersson, K. (eds.), Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, pp. 721–737. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Weber, K. & Glynn, M. A. (2006) Making sense with institutions: the role of context in Karl Weick's sensemaking perspective. Organization Studies, special issue in Honor of Karl Weick, 27: 1639–1660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weick, K. (1976) Educational organizations as loosely-coupled systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21: 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westphal, J. D. & Zajac, E. J. (1994) Substance and symbolism in CEOs' long-term incentive plans. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39: 367–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zott, C. & Huy, Q. N. (2007) How entrepreneurs use symbolic management to acquire resources. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(1): 70–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuckerman, E. W. (1999) The categorical imperative: securities analysts and the illegitimacy discount. American Journal of Sociology, 104(5): 1398–1438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×