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PAPER DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP ON POWER AND INSTITUTIONS
Sponsored by Organization Studies, the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Sage Publications, the Organization & Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management, and the Judge Business School
To be held at:
Judge Business School,
University of Cambridge
April 27-28, 2012
From its inception, Organization Studies has invited explorations of how power relates to institutions and organizations. Indeed, in its very first year (more than 30 years ago) it published several articles dealing with power (e.g., see Hinings 2010). Despite such efforts, if we are to believe Barley (2010), Clegg, Courpasson and Phillips (2006), Lounsbury (2003) or Marti and Mair (2009), the criticality of power still goes highly understated in organization theory (Courpasson, Arellano-Gault, Brown, and Lounsbury, 2008)-especially with regard to institutional dynamics (Lawrence, 2008). Combine that with contemporary events related to the financial crisis, globalization of work, privatization of the public sector, escalating top management compensation etc, and it appears that there is a greater need today than perhaps ever before to bring power back into our often sterile studies of institutions and institutionalization.
There is of course no escape from power. The processes of institutionalization or de-institutionalization inevitably present a conflict between groups with different degrees of power. The notion of institutional entrepreneurship (DiMaggio 1988; Munir and Phillips, 2005; Maguire, Hardy and Lawrence 2004) presents another view of power where (often) powerful actors use the resources at their disposal to maintain or create new institutional orders. However, not everywhere is power attributed to individual actors or organizations. For example, Khan, Munir and Wilmott (2007) claim that rather than residing in a particular place or in a particular agent, power operates hegemonically in many settings (e.g., in postcolonial ones where the values of the colonial power are routinely privileged in framing, interpreting and addressing important issues). Lawrence (2008) emphasized the need to distinguish systemic forms of power (e.g., discipline and domination) from episodic power (e.g., influence and force) and how actors might be able to resist institutional control and agency (see also Lukes, 2004).
Since power remains a critical, contested and yet understudied concept within institutional studies of the organizational world (Clegg 1989), more work is needed on how power operates in institutional settings to create, maintain or delegitimize institutions. We also need to focus attention on phenomena and actors that have previously been understudied-especially core capitalistic institutions such as financial markets as well as non-western organizational and institutional fields, and fields where actors are marginalized and lack resources. In addition, it would be useful to understand how the establishment of new categories and concepts (e.g., sexual harassment, affirmative action, 'manager') relates to power configurations across different fields.
Given the theoretical and practical importance of understanding power and institutions to contemporary organizational studies, and the need to cultivate better scholarship on the topic, we are organizing a workshop that is designed to assist advanced doctoral students and junior faculty in developing and refining their existing papers on the topic.
About the Workshop
Who is it for?
This workshop offers an opportunity for young scholars to develop their ongoing work related to Institutions and Power, which they might like to eventually submit to Organization Studies (although there is no obligation to do so). The workshop will be developmental - each paper will have a senior Editor or a Senior scholar as a discussant. Authors will also receive feedback from peers with similar research interests.
It should be of special interest for colleagues recently graduated with a Ph.D. with manuscripts under development. At the same time, it is suitable for papers that would benefit from presentation, commentary, and discussion. Thus, papers should fit the conference theme and the stage of development. Selection of papers will be done through submission of extended abstracts (maximum 5 pages). The deadline for submission of abstracts is January 1, 2012. Full papers will be required by April 1, 2012.
Logistics and Support to Participants
Organization Studies, a leading European journal in organizational theory and management, with the support of EGOS and its publisher Sage, is pleased to jointly organize this workshop with Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and the OMT Division of the Academy of Management. Judge Business School and various colleges of the University of Cambridge will host the event. The OMT division will sponsor travel for up to 5 PhD students, advanced in their research, who can attend the conference. The conference will consist of around 30 young faculty, student participants and senior colleagues who will discuss papers and offer developmental advice. The atmosphere is expected to be collegial, informal, but centered on making working papers progress and deepening our understanding of coordination within and across organizations. Organization Studies's editorial team will discuss the "Do's and Don'ts" of top publications and share their experience of the publication process.
Accommodation (for 2 nights) and meals will be provided to all participants. However, participants must make their own travel arrangements.
Contacts for questions on the conference and submission of abstracts:
Kamal A. Munir, k.munir@jbs.cam.ac.uk
Michael Lounsbury, michael.lounsbury@business.ualberta.ca
References
Barley, Steve. (2010). "Building an Institutional Field to Corral a Government: A Case to Set an Agenda for Organization Studies" Organization Studies June. 31: 777-80
Clegg, S.R. (1989), Frameworks of power, Sage, London, UK.
Clegg, S.R., Courpasson, D. and Phillips, N. (2006). Power and Organizations. London: Sage.
Courpasson, D., Arellano-Gault, D., Brown, A. and Lounsbury, M. (2008). Organization Studies on the Look-out? Being Read, Being Listened To. Organization Studies, 29: 1383-1390.
DiMaggio, P. (1988) 'Interest and agency in institutional theory'. In Institutional patterns and culture, L. Zucker (ed.), Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company: 3-22.
Hinings, C. R. (2010). "Thirty Years of Organization Studies: Enduring Themes in a Changing Institutional Field" Organization Studies June. 31: 659-675.
Khan, F., Munir, K. and Willmott, H. (2007) "A dark side of institutional entrepreneurship: soccer balls, child labour and postcolonial impoverishment." Organization Studies, 28(7): 1055-1077
Lawrence, T.B. (2008). Power, Instituts and Organizations. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, S. Sahlin-Andersson & R. Suddaby (Eds.) Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism (pp. 170-197). London: Sage.
Lounsbury, Michael. (2003). The Problem of Order Revisited: Towards a more Critical Institutional Perspective. In R. Westwood & S. Clegg (Eds.) Debating Organization: Point/Counterpoint in Organization Studies (pp. 210-219). Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.
Lukes, Steven. 2004. Power: A Radical View. NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Maguire, S., Hardy, C., & Lawrence, T., (2004), "Institutional Entrepreneurship in Emerging Fields: HIV/AIDS Treatment Advocacy in Canada", Academy of Management Journal, 47(5): 657-679.
Martí, I. & Mair, J. (2009). Bringing Change into the Lives of the Poor: Entrepreneurship outside Traditional Boundaries. In Lawrence, T.B. Suddaby, R., & Leca, B (Eds). Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organization, pp.91-119. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Munir, K.A. and Phillips, N. (2005) "The birth of the Kodak moment: institutional entrepreneurship and the adoption of new technologies." Organization Studies, 26(11): 1665-1687.
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Professor Michael Lounsbury
Associate Dean of Research
Thornton A. Graham Chair
Alberta School of Business
PI, National Institute for Nanotechnology
Director, Technology Commercialization Centre
Co-Editor, Organization Studies
University of Alberta
4-40J Business Building
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6 CANADA
ph (780) 492-1684; fax (780) 492-3325
email: ml37@ualberta.ca %20web">ml37@ualberta.ca
web: www.business.ualberta.ca/mlounsbury