Institutionalization under crisis and crisis of institutionalization: Multi-level, measurable analysis, real-time in the real-world

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 16: Theorizing Organizations

Abstract

We begin by addressing the crisis of institutionalization, whereby we ask, “what is the problem? What is holding us up” in terms of the utility of this theoretical lens to address crisis in scholarship and action. We make claims about tendencies, gaps, and misspecifications in the trifecta of theory, method, and empirical case selection. We also underscore key areas at the intersections of each that illuminate our obstacles and opportunities to address crisis, notably in terms of the effects on disenfranchised and minoritized areas of society. Next we provide an explication of a way forward by mobilizing recent multi-level theorizations of institutionalization for real-time analysis in ways that capture qualitiatively different, yet measurable manifestations of degrees. Here we provide a delineation of three core tenets that we argue are necessary to engage in measurable, real-time analysis of institutionalization under crisis in service to scholarship and taking action. We conclude with our approach, notably to treat institutionalization as an abstraction through a novel combination of our prior work on the concept of actors in institutional theory and connecting that work to a recent strand of institutional theory that incorporates critical theories of inequalities. Doing so provides 1.) a blueprint for assessing the quality of theorized constructs and analyses of institutionalization; 2.) a means of assessing and measuring the character and impact of crises on the systems and structures that shape the short and long term effects on the lived experiences of people; and 3.) a better alignment between the loci where the impact of crises are observed and the loci where action is best taken.

Authors

• Jeannette Anastasia Colyvas, Northwestern University

• Hokyu Hwang, UNSW Sydney