Sociological neo-institutionalism

The Sociological Neoinstitutionalismus is a theoretical approach of the sociological theory of organization , whose bases the American sociologist John W. Meyer have developed and Brian Rowan in the late 1970s.

Basic concepts

The theoretical approach explains structures and modes of operation of organizations through reference to norms , expectations and models of the institutional environment. Through processes of isomorphism , organizations align themselves with organizations that are considered exemplary, rational and effective. Not for the technical-economic efficiency , but legitimacy is the primary design goal for the environment, they tend rationality myths to create and build rationality facades.

Another concept of this approach is the concept of the organizational field introduced by Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell to denote the structural alignment of organizations and the homogeneity of management practices for a particular class of organizations. They formulated the hypothesis that the more one organization is dependent on another, “the more it will adapt to that organization in terms of its structures, culture and behavior”.

criticism

A critical objection to this theoretical approach was that it rejects the model of the rational and autonomous acting actor and replaces it with the unreflective and routine acting actor. Neither social change nor innovations can be explained with this approach . Meyer and Rowan have put this criticism into perspective with the decoupling thesis. It says: The organization maintains the façade required by the environment in its formal structures, but with the activities in the technical core area that are decoupled from them, it does not meet its requirements with rational decisions . This additional hypothesis is controversial even among proponents of this theoretical approach, as it undermines the initial theoretical assumptions.

See also

• Organizational sociology

literature

• Raimund Hasse / Anne K. Krüger (ed.): Neo-Institutionalismus. Criticism and further development of a social science research program . transcript, Bielefeld 2020, ISBN 978-3-8376-4302-2 .
• John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan: Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony . In: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 83, No. 2 (Sep., 1977), pp. 340–363, Stable Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778293
• W. Richard Scott: Institutions and Organizations . Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA 1995, ISBN 0-8039-5653-3 .
• Michael Schmidt, Andrea Maurer (ed.): Economic and sociological institutionalism . Metropolis, Marburg 2003, ISBN 3-89518-415-2 .
• Konstanze Senge, Kai-Uwe Hellmann (Ed.): Introduction to Neo-Institutionalism . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-15070-7 .
• Peter Walgenbach , Renate Meyer : Neo-institutional organization theory . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-17-019088-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ John W. Meyer, Brian Rowan: Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony . In: American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 83, 1977, pp. 340-363.
2. ^ Paul J. DiMaggio, Walter W. Powell: The Iron Cage Revisited: Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields . In: American Sociological Review. Vol 48, 1983, pp. 147-160.
3. ^ Peter Walgenbach, Renate Meyer: Neoinstitutionalist organization theory . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, p. 36.
4. ^ John W. Meyer, Brian Rowan: Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony . In: American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 83, 1977, p. 357.
5. ^ Peter Walgenbach, Renate Meyer: Neoinstitutionalist organization theory . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, p. 52f.
6. ^ Walther Müller-Jentsch: Actors, Interests, Institutions . In: Michael Schmidt, Andrea Maurer (ed.): Economic and sociological institutionalism . Metropolis, Marburg 2003, p. 250.