Institutional change and professional practices: The case of French doctoral education

Aubépine Dahan () and Vincent Mangematin
Additional contact information
Aubépine Dahan: LATTS - Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL

Abstract: Based on empirical research on the effect of doctoral schools in French university, this paper analyses under which conditions the implementation of a new institution impacts work practices i.e. the ways by which individuals and collective actors perform their activity. It focuses on the micro-practices of actors, in order to shed new light on the micro-level works which put the new institution into action. The paper contributes to existing theory in three different ways. First, it shows that institutional change does not generate new practices per se. Institutional change impacts work practices if the pre-existing practices are close to the new desired norm as promoted by the new institution. It thus emphasises proximity as a main mechanism of new practice diffusion, when actors are interdependent on each other. Second, in professional contexts based on practices distant from the new desired norm, actors adopt the new institution and change their practices if they are able to solve unaddressed problems. Such a dynamic is mainly based on the creation of new organisational arrangements or tools which mediate and enable problem solving activities. Finally, it proposes a delayed and indirect effect of the introduction of the new institution. By generating new interactions among actors, the new institution creates opportunities for comparisons across professions, legitimating one amongst the several existing norms in the field. Comparison amongst actors or disciplines leads to some categorising themselves as deviants, who lose legitimacy and power in the organisation.

Keywords: professional practices; institution; institution change; university (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://grenoble-em.hal.science/hal-00424486v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in AoM Conference, 2007, Philadelphia, United States

Downloads: (external link)
https://grenoble-em.hal.science/hal-00424486v1/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:gemptp:hal-00424486

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().