Greedy Institutions: A Micro-Interactional Synthesis and Call for Expansion

• In Event: 426 - Regular Session. Microsociologies

Abstract

How do organizations that make significant physical, emotional, and intellectual demands foster commitment and loyalty from voluntary participants? In Coser’s 1974 analysis of what he refers to as “greedy institutions,” he sought to answer a similar question by turning to the structural elements that foster participants’ undivided commitment to particular institutions. In this paper I argue for the expansion of Coser’s initial framework to include attention to micro-interactional processes that foster organizational commitment and loyalty. After briefly discussing Puddephatt’s (2008) call for the inclusion of interaction rituals as key elements in greedy institutions, I turn to Goffman’s (1974) concept of frame analysis and its use in research on social movement organizations and the role that framing processes play in these organizations’ mobilization of individuals. This research suggests that frameworks and framing processes may serve as powerful—yet seldom studied—tools within greedy organizations. Finally, drawing upon data from an ethnographic study of Launch, a program that prepares low-income students of color to attend elite boarding schools, I investigate how framing processes serve to increase participants’ commitment and loyalty to the program. I find that, while Coser’s initial framework captures the “greedy” structural characteristics of the program, an analysis of frames—as they are cued both discursively and interactionally—is central to understanding the more micro-interactional level of the organization’s capacity to engender participants’ commitment.

Author

• Amanda Barrett Cox, University of Pennsylvania