SOCI 210: Sociological perspectives

Agenda

  1. Administrative
  2. (New) institutional analysis
  3. Discussion:
    University courses as institutions
  4. Institutional isomorphism

(New) institutional analysis

Foreground: a military drill sergean from behind, looking at the background. Background: an orderly group of soldiers in fatigues holding guns

Institutional analysis

What is “institutional analysis”?

  • Perspective in sociology that aims to explain the forms and behavior of institutions in society

Ok then … what is an “institution”?

  • “Institution” is a very broad term in sociology.
  • At its most general, an institution is a set of persistent regularities in behavior that has some sense of durability.
    E.g. Religions, legal systems, companies, industries, family, …
  • The “institution” in institutional analysis is usually less abstract that that—most commonly (though not always) refers to formal institutions.
    E.g. corporations, governments, militaries, schools, non-profits, hospitals, social movement organizations, student groups, …

Institutional analysis

Max Weber

  • One of the earliest theorists concerned with what we would call institutional analysis
  • For Weber, bureaucracy was natural outcome of the rationalization of social institutions
  • Characterized as the “iron cage” of rationalization—a form that would spread to all institutions due to drive toward efficiency

Institutional analysis

Institutional analysis

New institutionalism

A man stands in a large sterile room with a single set of office desks in the center

New institutionalists critical of these perspectives

  • Behavior of organizations is not always rational.
  • Empirically, inefficient organizations (and inefficient practices) can stick around for a very long time.

Bringing culture to institutional analysis

  • N.I. recognizes that institutions are social.
  • Institutions act reflexively, actors within them understand their own practices in light of practices of others.
  • Therefore, we should talk about institutions from a cultural perspective.

New institutionalism

Institutions as meaning-makers

  • John Meyer and Brian Rowan:
    "Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony” (1977)
  • Institutions do not just try to achieve pragmatic goals
  • Institutions also provide a framework for making sense of individual actions
    “An important part of organizational life [has] to do with the spinning of carefully orchestrated representations of reality.” (Mohr 2000)
clip from 'What we do in the Shadows'. A bland-looking man sits at a table with three anachronistically dressed people saying 'I mean, at every office I've worked at they always say 'We're a big family here' and it does motivate people to work harder and and neglect their actual families and put up with all sorts of degrading shit'

Institutional logics (revisited)

  • Basis of institutional logics discussed previously
  • Unifying ways of shaping the goals, justifications, relevant facts, and appropriate means of an organization’s culture

University courses as institutions

Course assessments through a
neo-institutionalist lens

  1. In groups of 2–4:
  • Discuss the graded work (essays, exams, assignments, …) of the courses you are in right now
  • Consider the specific forms that the assessments take -- timing, format, weight, grading schemes, how they are distributed and turned in
  • Consider the assessments and their forms feel typical or unusual
  • For a few specific aspects of the assessments, discuss why that form may have been chosen? What might the instructor have been considering when making those choices?
  1. As a class:
  • Discuss the similarities across these institutional forms
  • Discuss institutional processes that may lead to convergence

Institutional isomorphism

Low-angle photo of three bland office towers against a dark blue sky

Institutional isomorphism

'They're the same picture' meme template. Top panel shows two photos of open-plan offices with caption 'Corporate needs you to find the differences between this picture and this picture'. Bottom pannel shows a smug-looking woman saying 'They're the same picture'

DiMaggio & Powell (1983)

  • "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields"

  • A defining piece in organizational analysis and new institutionalism

  • Seeks to explain institutional isomorphism

Institutional isomorphism

  • “Isomorphism is a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions.” (149)
  • Traditionally seen in terms of the natural selection narrative of institutional behavior.
  • DiMaggio and Powell argue for a different explanation.

Institutional isomorphism

Institutional isomorphism

Institutional isomorphism

Mechansisms of institutional isomorphism
DiMaggio & Powell's (1983)

Coercive isomorphism

  • “formal and informal pressures exerted on organizations by other organizations upon which they are dependent and by cultural expectations in the society within which organizations function” (150)
  • E.g. legal requirements preventing country clubs from excluding people based on race or gender

Mimetic isomorphism

  • “When organizational technologies are poorly understood… when goals are ambiguous, or when the environment creates symbolic uncertainty, organizations may model themselves on other organizations” (151)
  • Safety in imitating organizations understood to be as successful

Normative isomorphism

  • Professionalization of a field leads to norms of conduct that are adhered to just because that is the way it is done
  • Filtering of personnel: only allowing the “appropriate” type of people in (based on personal history, viewpoints, etc.)
  • Legitimation through credentials

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