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Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution

Item

Title

Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution

Abstract/Description

Institutional theory and structuration theory both contend that institutions and actions are inextricably linked and that institutionalization is best understood as a dynamic, ongoing process. Institutionalists, however, have pursued an empirical agenda that has largely ignored how institutions are created, altered, and reproduced, in part, because their models of institutionalization as a pro cess are underdeveloped. Structuration theory, on the other hand, largely remains a process theory of such abstraction that it has generated few empirical studies. This paper discusses the similarities between the two theories, develops an argument for why a fusion of the two would enable institutional theory to significantly advance, develops a model of institutionalization as a structuration process, and proposes methodological guidelines for investigating the process empirically.

Date

In publication

Volume

18

Issue

1

Pages

93-117

Resource type

Background/Context

Medium

Print

Background/context type

Conceptual

Open access/free-text available

Yes

Peer reviewed

Yes

ISSN

0170-8406

Citation

Barley, S. R., & Tolbert, P. S. (1997). Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution. Organization Studies, 18(1), 93–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084069701800106

Resource status/form

Published Text

Scholarship genre

Theoretical

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