Contentious logics: Institutional logics and decision-making during the Covid-19 pandemic

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: States and Institutions

Abstract

This paper explores variations in evocating institutional logics during institutional stability and disruption periods. The setting is CONITEC, an organization within the Brazilian Healthcare Ministry responsible for making decisions about adopting medical protocols in the nation’s public healthcare system. I analyze the global pandemic's impact to assess how multiple external pressures—including, but not limited to, the uncertainty brought about by COVID-19—shaped organizational behavior. Specifically, I employ qualitative content analysis to recordings of CONITEC’s deliberative meetings to compare the invocation of different institutional logics across various contexts. I show that during the pandemic, actors within the organization did not rely on different societal logics to construct their standpoint within discussions. Yet, they strategically deviated from the organization’s procedures and selected different elements of those same logics to create legitimate perspectives within CONITEC. Thus, I demonstrate how the decomposability of societal-level logics affords organizational actors broader repertoires for action, which are more flexible than accounted by existing punctuated equilibrium models of institutional action and change.

Author

• Pedro Arthur de Miranda Ma Pontes, University of Notre Dame