Micro Processes and Isomorphic Adaptation: Insights from the Struggle for the Soul of Economics at the University of the Holy Spirit
Hamid Bouchikhi (hamid.bouchikhi@essec.edu) and
John R. Kimberly
Additional contact information
Hamid Bouchikhi: ESSEC Business School
John R. Kimberly: University of Pennsylvania
Working Papers from HAL
Abstract:
As of July 1, 2010, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of the Holy Spirit (UHS) has a single Department of Economics. However, in the seven prior years, there were two economics departments, one that was resolutely mainstream and the other that was just as resolutely heterodox. What accounts for this unusual organizational arrangement? We show that this arrangement was part of a protracted conflict about the kind of economics that befits the Catholic identity of UHS that resulted, ultimately, in a full embrace of mainstream economics in July 2010. We draw on and amend Oliver's (1991) typology of organizational responses to institutional processes and investigate why and how UHS went from deliberate avoidance to full acquiescence to mainstream economics. Our analysis suggests that while organizations may be compelled to adapt to dominant norms, as institutional theorists contend, the process of adaptation involves a variety of conflicting moves and counter moves that engage identity and power and that require forceful leadership to resolve.
Keywords: Institutional Isomorphism; Micro-processes; Organizational Adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ger, nep-hme and nep-hpe
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://essec.hal.science/hal-00993435
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://essec.hal.science/hal-00993435/document (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00993435
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD (hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr).