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1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 10 June 2021

Joseph Phiri and Pinar Guven-Uslu

This paper aims to investigate funding and performance monitoring practices in Zambia’s health sector from an institutional and stratified ontology perspective. Such an approach…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate funding and performance monitoring practices in Zambia’s health sector from an institutional and stratified ontology perspective. Such an approach was deemed appropriate in view of pluralistic institutional environments characterising most African economies that are also considered to be highly stratified.

Design/methodology/approach

Blended with insights from stratified ontology, the paper draws on institutional pluralism as a theoretical lens to understand the institutional structures, mechanisms, events and experiences encountered by actors operating at different levels of Zambia’s health sector. The study adopted an interpretive approach that helped to investigate the multifaceted and subjective nature of social phenomena and practices being studied. Data were collected from both archival sources and interviews with key stakeholders operating within Zambia’s health sector.

Findings

The study’s findings indicate the high levels of stratification within Zambia’s health sector as evidenced by the three sector levels that possessed different characteristics in terms of actor responses to donor influence. This study equally demonstrates the capacity of agents operating under highly fragmented institutional environments to engage in enabling and constraining responses depending on the understanding of their empirical world.

Originality/value

Through blending insights from stratified ontology with institutional pluralism, the study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the enabling and constraining reflexive capacity of agents to exercise choices under highly fragmented institutional environments while responding to multiple demands and expectations to sustain the co-existence of diverse stakeholders. Accordingly, the study advances thinking on the application of institutional theory to critical accounting research in line with recent ontological and epistemological shifts in institutional theory.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2018

Joseph Phiri and Pinar Guven-Uslu

The purpose of this paper is to investigate accounting and performance reporting practices embraced in the midst of a pluralistic institutional environment of an emerging economy…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate accounting and performance reporting practices embraced in the midst of a pluralistic institutional environment of an emerging economy (EE), Zambia. The research is necessitated due to the increased presence and influence of donor institutions whose information needs may not conform to the needs of local citizens in many EEs.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws on institutional pluralism and Ekeh’s post-colonial theory of “two publics” to depict pluralistic environments that are typical of EEs. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 33 respondents drawn from the main stakeholder groups involved in health service delivery including legislators, policy makers, regulators, healthcare professionals and health service managers. Data analysis took the form of thematic analysis which involved identifying, analysing and constructing patterns and themes implicit within the data that were deemed to address the study’s research questions.

Findings

Findings indicate that Zambia’s institutional environment within the health sector is highly fragmented and pluralistic as reflected by the multiplicity of both internal and external stakeholders. These stakeholder groups equally require different reporting mechanisms to fulfil their information expectations.

Social implications

The multiple reporting practices evident within the health sector entail that the effectiveness of health programmes may be compromised due to the fragmentation in goals between government and international donor institutions. Rather than pooling resources and skills for maximum impact, these practices have the effect of dispersing performance efforts with the consequence of compromising their impact. Fragmented reporting equally complicates the work of policy makers in terms of monitoring the progress and impact of such programmes.

Originality/value

Beyond Goddard et al. (2016), the study depicts the usefulness of Ekeh’s theory in understanding how organisations and institutions operating in pluralistic institutional environments may be better managed. In view of contradictory expectations of accounting and performance reporting requirements between the civic and primordial publics, the study indicates that different practices, mechanisms and structures have to be embraced in order to maintain institutional harmony and relevance to different communities within the health sector.

Details

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-1168

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 October 2011

Benoît Senaux

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the increasing commercialisation of professional football in France, and its implications for clubs’ governance and management.

1182

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the increasing commercialisation of professional football in France, and its implications for clubs’ governance and management.

Design/methodology/approach

A historical analysis using a narrative approach based on historical data from various sources, will allow for identifying the emergence of and shifts in institutional logics. Due to the role of the state in the subject in question, particular attention was paid to parliamentary documents.

Findings

Rather than replacing the former logic, a new commercial logic coexists alongside this, leading to institutional pluralism.

Research limitations/implications

The paper outlines the governance implications of institutional pluralism of football clubs; thus opening up new perspectives for future research on clubs’ governance. It does not, however, provide a response to these implications and therefore further research is needed to analyse how clubs’ managers can shape organisational identity and make it more consistent.

Practical implications

Governance and management issues in football might be explained by the multiple logics clubs are facing. Football clubs’ managers thus need to take these logics into account when addressing their key stakeholders, and have to work on shaping a consistent organisational identity.

Originality/value

This article is original in that it analyses the commercialisation of football as a move towards a more complex institutional pluralism, rather than a change in the dominant logic. This perspective is valuable for managers because it helps them to identify the levers they should work on to better manage clubs’ stakeholders. It is also useful for academics in terms of opening up new ways to conceive clubs’ governance.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 July 2018

Robert Jerome, David Cavazos and Robert Horn

The purpose of this paper is to apply Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz to illustrate the individual identity issues that can arise as a result of institutional complexity in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz to illustrate the individual identity issues that can arise as a result of institutional complexity in organizations. Using Baum’s text to tell the story of four faculty members seeking the city of Oz, which in our story is a university athletic department, reveals how individuals and organizational units deal with the tensions brought about by institutional complexity. In addition to providing an entertaining, perhaps infuriating account of the typical public university, this essay reveals the importance of understanding individual struggles to deal with organizational pluralism.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use the well-established example of the university using Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz in allegorical form to illustrate the tensions that emerge from organizational units that deal with contradicting external environments as well as the sensemaking and search processes that can emerge for individuals dealing with the identity issues that can result from such tensions.

Findings

Internal tensions can emerge within organizations when there are contradictions among the various pressures such organizations generate. These tensions have implications on individual identity.

Originality/value

Individuals (in this case individuals from academic units) risk having their occupational identities compromised by divergent organizational units as these units attempt to legitimate their existence within the organization. The authors illustrate how individuals deal with such risks by engaging in search processes that seek to construct their identities and develop meaning for their actions.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 September 2023

Charles D.T. Macaulay and Sarah Woulfin

The purpose of this study is to explore the plurality of logics composing an organizational field and how that plurality affects a sport governing body's (SGB) sense of self. The…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the plurality of logics composing an organizational field and how that plurality affects a sport governing body's (SGB) sense of self. The authors sought to determine what logics exist in a specific field and how they interact according to Kraatz and Block's (2017) types of organizational responses. Finally, the authors explore how an organization's responses affect organizational outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyzed 476 unique organizational web pages and documents and 293 news media articles from four news outlets. The authors conduct a content analysis informed by Gioia et al.’s (2013) method to explore the website data to understand the logics of the field. The authors analyze the media articles for media accounts of events and determine how logics inform an SGB's actions (Cocchairella and Edwards, 2020).

Findings

The authors find institutional plurality leads to a fractured organizational sense of self, resulting in poor outcomes. The authors' findings suggest Kraatz and Block's (2017) as well as other previously theorized strategies do not lead to an organization reconciling competing logics. Rather, the strategies employed led to outcomes harming the organization's legitimacy and financial well-being.

Originality/value

There are several calls within the broader management field and the sport management field to address institutional plurality (Kraatz and Block, 2017; Robertson et al., 2022). Unlike previous research studies, this study finds detrimental effects of plurality on an organization. The authors discuss the strength of the strategies employed and why the strategies failed.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 13 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Alper Yayla and Yu Lei

The purpose of this paper is to examine challenges multinational companies face during the diffusion of their information security policies. Parent companies use these policies as…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine challenges multinational companies face during the diffusion of their information security policies. Parent companies use these policies as their discourse for legitimization of their practices in subsidiaries, which leads to value conflicts in subsidiaries. The authors postulate that, when properly crafted, information security policies can also be used to reduce the very conflicts they are creating.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed framework is conceptualized based on the review of literatures on multinational companies, information security policies and value conflict.

Findings

The authors identified three factors that may lead to value conflict in subsidiary companies: cultural distance, institutional distance and stickiness of knowledge. They offer three recommendations based on organizational discourse, ambidexterity and resource allocation to reduce value conflict.

Research limitations/implications

The authors postulate that information security policies are the sources of value conflict in subsidiary companies. Yet, when crafted properly, these policies can also offer solutions to minimize value conflict.

Practical implications

The proposed framework can be used to increase policy diffusion success, minimize value conflict and, in turn, decrease information security risk.

Originality/value

The growing literature on information security policy literature is yet to examine the diffusion of policies within multinational companies. The authors argue that information security policies are the source of, and solution to, value conflict in multinational companies.

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1994

Christos Pitelis

Aims to examine the issue of industrial strategy (IS), paying particularattention to the case of Britain. Sets out to assess the possibility andnature of an industrial strategy…

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Abstract

Aims to examine the issue of industrial strategy (IS), paying particular attention to the case of Britain. Sets out to assess the possibility and nature of an industrial strategy for Britain, in Europe, and within the global scene, taking into account the world we live in as we see it. Accordingly, the perspective is driven and shaped by a quest for a realistic, feasible and sustainable industrial strategy. In order to achieve these objectives, first examines the theoretical arguments behind much of British, and more generally, Western industrial policies. Following this, outlines and assesses British industrial policy post‐Second World War then compares and contrasts British industrial policy with that of Europe, the USA, Japan and the newly industrialized countries. Then examines recent developments in economics and management which may explain the “Far Eastern” miracle, and points to the possibility of a successful, narrowly self‐interested, IS for Europe and Britain, based on the lessons from (new) theory and international experience. To assess what is possible, develops a theoretical framework linking firms in their roles as consumers and/or electors. This hints at the possibilities and limits of feasible policies. All these ignore desirability which, in the author′s view, should be seen in terms of distributional considerations, themselves contributors to sustainability. Accordingly, discusses a desirable industrial strategy for Britain in Europe which accounts for distributional considerations, and goes on to examine its implications for the issue of North‐South convergence. Concludes by pointing to the limitations of the analysis and to directions for developments.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 September 2020

Ahmed Diab and Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally

The study aims to investigate the appearance of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices in a context where economic, communal and political institutions…

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to investigate the appearance of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices in a context where economic, communal and political institutions are highly central and competing with each other.

Design/methodology/approach

Theoretically, the study draws upon the institutional logics perspective and the theoretical concepts of logics centrality and compatibility to understand how higher-order institutions interact with mundane CSER practices observed at the case company's micro level. Empirical data were solicited in an Egyptian village community, where fishing, agriculture and especially salt production constitute the main economic activities underlying its livelihood. A combination of interviews, informal conversations, observations and documents solicits the required data.

Findings

Thereby, this study presents an inclusive view of CSER as practiced in developing countries, which is based not only on rational economic perspectives – as is the case in developed and stabilised contexts – but also on social, familial and political aspects that are central to the present complex institutional environment.

Originality/value

The reported findings in this study highlight the role of non-economic (societal) logics in understating CSER in African developing nations.

Details

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, vol. 10 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-1168

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 August 2012

James P. Spillane and Allison W. Kenney

Research, spanning half a century, points to the critical role of school administration and to the successful implementation of US government policies and programs. In part these…

5783

Abstract

Purpose

Research, spanning half a century, points to the critical role of school administration and to the successful implementation of US government policies and programs. In part these findings reflect the times and a US educational governance system characterized by local control, a constitutionally‐constrained federal government, resource‐poor state governments, and an overall system of segment arrangements for governing education. However, the US education policy environment has changed dramatically over the past several decades, with standards and high stakes accountability becoming commonplace. The purpose of this paper is to examine the entailments of shifts in the policy environment for school administrative practice, focusing on how school leaders manage in the middle between this shifting external policy environment and classroom teachers.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper's focus is on how school administration manages the dual organizational imperatives of legitimacy and integrity in a changing institutional environment. This paper is an essay in which the authors reflect on the entailments of shifts in the education sector for school administration over the past quarter century in the USA.

Findings

While considerable change for school administrative practice is suggested, the authors argue that organizational legitimacy and organizational integrity are still central concerns for school leaders.

Originality/value

Although the paper's account is based entirely on the US education sector, several aspects of the framing may be relevant in other countries.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 50 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 February 2018

Helen Stuart

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the institutional logics framework adds a fresh perspective on corporate branding, particularly in times of organisational change…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the institutional logics framework adds a fresh perspective on corporate branding, particularly in times of organisational change and subsequent corporate rebranding.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines previous comprehensive approaches to corporate branding in the face of organisational transformation, applying institutional theory which adds to intelligence already developed regarding corporate branding and rebranding in this situation.

Findings

An understanding of the institutional logics framework provides insights into how corporate branding and rebranding in organisations is affected in an environment where the organisation simultaneously holds values and beliefs inherent to two or more competing institutional forms (Townley, 2002).

Research limitations/implications

Further research is required to develop a model which integrates institutional logics into previous approaches to corporate rebranding.

Practical implications

Consideration of the underlying institutional logics of an organisation and how organisational transformation results in competing institutional logics and institutional pluralism leads to profound thinking about branding and rebranding an organisation.

Originality/value

Although there are a number of studies which look at how to evolve the corporate brand in times of organisational transformation, the institutional logics approach has not yet been applied to this issue, except by the author.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

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