Expectation States Theories and Organizations

Abstract

The group-level status dynamics described by expectation states theories happen within organizational environs. And yet, with a few important exceptions, expectation states theorists do not consider organizational-level phenomena when conceptualizing and operationalizing status processes. To encourage new research that includes organizational forces, this chapter presents an integration of one research orientation from organization studies, the new institutional logics perspective, with the expectation states research agenda. The author begins by demonstrating how the concepts of status beliefs and institutional logics have intersecting properties that allow researchers from both fields to incorporate their studies into each other’s theoretical frameworks. The institutional logics perspective is then used to reinterpret past studies of expectation states theories as also contributing to this research agenda from the organizations discipline. Finally, the author imparts new theoretical devices and recent methodological innovations that will help scholars incorporate the new institutional logics perspective into expectation states research.