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Institutional Work: Taking Stock and Making It Matter

Item

Title

Institutional Work: Taking Stock and Making It Matter

Abstract/Description

In this chapter, we have two aims: to review the first decade of research on institutional work,and to explore how the institutional work perspective can have a greater impact on institutions“that matter”. We structure our review around the “what”, “who” and “how” of institutional work to highlight key developments and identify problematic gaps. We find that scholarship in this tradition has focused primarily on middle-range institutions with limited scope, relatively homogenous actor networks, and the use of symbolic work. This has come at the expense of research on large-scale institutions with cross-field impacts, heterogeneous actor networks, and the use of material as well relational work. We argue it will be crucial to address these shortcomings if we are to enable the institutional work perspective to become a practical and impactful tool for addressing major social problems. This chapter encourages scholars to develop research on institutional work to tackle the challenges surrounding the institutions that matter.

Date

Pages

558-590

Resource type

Background/Context

Medium

Print

Background/context type

Conceptual

Open access/free-text available

Yes

Peer reviewed

Yes

Citation

Hampel, C. E., Lawrence, T. B., & Tracy, P. (2017). Institutional Work: Taking Stock and Making It Matter. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, T. B. Lawrence, & R. E. Meyer (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism (pp. 558–590). https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446280669.n22

Resource status/form

Published Text

Scholarship genre

Theoretical

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