Learning Institutional Logics

• In Event: 373 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Paper Sessions. Institutional Logics and Institutional Complexity

Abstract

Why do nurses think differently than equity traders? Why is the market logic colonizing professional domains that originally emerged to counteract the guile of the market? To explore these questions we conduct an inductive, qualitative comparative study of the vocabulary of finance and nursing textbooks to identify central types of cognitive schemas learned by individuals during educational and professional socialization. We link research in social psychology to the sociological view of institutional logics to theorize how individuals make sense of their world by forming particular types of schemas that shape professional decision-making. We find that professional training results in individuals learning four types of cognitive schemas: (1) a pragmatic reasoning schema; (2) an implicit theory of attributes; (3) an implicit theory of agency; and (4) an implicit theory of morality. We build on these findings to articulate how professional decision-making is associated with institutional logics. This paper contributes to our understanding of the micro foundations of institutional theory and suggests implications for the sociology of professional ethics, theories of morality, and the spread of the market logic.

Authors

• Vern Glaser, University of Alberta

• Jochem Kroezen, University of Cambridge

• Patricia H. Thornton, Texas A&M University