Organizing professional work and services through institutional complexity – how institutional logics and differences in organizational roles matter

Gry Cecilie Lunder Høiland,Lars Klemsdal

doi:10.1177/0018726720970274

Gry Cecilie Lunder Høiland, Lars Klemsdal

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726720970274

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Abstract

How is the complexity of contemporary professional work and services organized differently by management at the strategic level and professionals at the operational level? And what are the implications for managing this complexity? Drawing on literatures on institutional complexity, organizational roles and the analyses of case study data from interviews, observations and documents at a large public service provider in Norway, this article advances the understanding of management in complex organizations and makes the following three contributions to the institutional logics literature. First, we show how multiple institutional logics have different functions at strategic and operational levels, resembling a dynamic interplay in organizing professional work and services. Second, we show how these differences in handling multiple logics are contingent upon the different roles of the strategic managers and operational professionals. Finally, we advance the understanding of what institutional complexity may involve in organizations by disclosing how the significant conflicts stem not only from the presence of multiple logics, but also from differences within the organizations in how multiple logics are handled. Our findings have implications for the planning and management of organizational design and implementation strategies and demonstrate the utility of the institutional complexity perspective for managing complexity in contemporary organizations.

Highlights

Managing complexity is a key contemporary challenge for the organization of professional work that has been recently addressed in organization theory via the literature on complexity of institutional logics; this literature has posed the presence of multiple logics as constituting one of the major management issues for contemporary organizations (Kodeih and Greenwood, 2014; Kraatz and Block, 2017)
We ask the following research questions: How are multiple institutional logics handled at the strategic and operational levels, respectively, organizing contemporary professional work? What implications does this have for the constitution and management of complexity in professional work organizations?
The purpose of this article is to enhance our understanding of the varying functions of multiple institutional logics in the organization of professional work

Summary

Introduction

Managing complexity is a key contemporary challenge for the organization of professional work that has been recently addressed in organization theory via the literature on complexity of institutional logics; this literature has posed the presence of multiple logics as constituting one of the major management issues for contemporary organizations (Kodeih and Greenwood, 2014; Kraatz and Block, 2017). Theorizing of management of institutional logics has largely been grounded in studies of professional work and professional service organizations, such as hospitals, law firms and insurance companies, providing important insights into how societal forces are at play in professional work settings (Reay and Hinings, 2009; Reay et al, 2017; Smets and Jarzabkowski, 2013; Smets et al, 2015). This literature tends to be divided into two loosely coupled approaches. Complexity has been reported to be handled structurally through different mechanisms of organizing, such as segmentation (Goodrick and Reay, 2011) and compartmentalization of activities (Jarzabkowski et al, 2013; Kraatz and Block, 2017), deflecting or refocusing the influence of the complexity of logics (Martin et al, 2017), facilitation through dialogue and collaborative relationships (Reay and Hinings, 2009) or even recruitment or socialization practices (Battilana and Dorado, 2010)

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