Putting an Anti-Bullying Law in Place: Implementation Styles in Schools

• In Event: 369 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work. Making Organizational Compliance Real

Abstract

How do organizations vary in how they substantively implement laws? Organizational scholars have illustrated the motivations organizations have for complying with laws, and cases in which organizations fail to or only partially incorporate laws into their daily practices. In contrast to this previous work, we argue for the value of understanding empirical variation in how organizations actually implement laws and policies, what we call implementation styles. Using the case of a 2011 New Jersey anti-bullying law, we draw on interviews with school personnel from 23 public middle schools in New Jersey about how they reacted to and implemented certain provisions of the law. Schools differ in how they interpreted the criteria for assessing bullying and in implementing a procedural aspect of the law, when to pursue a formal bullying investigation. We find three dimensions of variance and provide a typology of six different implementation styles. Finally, we analyze how different styles of implementation shape student outcomes. Specifically, we examine the relationship between how the anti-bullying policy was being implemented and students’ assessment of school climate and the extent of peer harassment, and their personal experiences at the school. We argue for the importance of looking at more nuanced implementation styles rather than broadly characterizing organizational compliance.

Authors

• Hana Shepherd, Rutgers University

• Idit Fast, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey