Institutional Decoupling Research Articles

Discursive Navigation in Institutional Decoupling: a Critical Analysis of the Dynamics of Ideational Power Communication in the Formation of Regional Apparatuses in Palopo City

This study aims to assess the extent to which institutional discursive navigation influences the occurrence of institutional decoupling in the formation of regional apparatuses in Palopo City. Using a qualitative descriptive method with data collection techniques, including interviews, observation, and documentation, the study analyzes data through a coding process using NVivo 12 Plus software. The findings reveal that "power over ideas" is the most dominant form of discursive power in shaping means-end and policy-practice decoupling. Actors within the Palopo City government use their power to control discourse, limit public participation, and direct the interpretation of regulations. Practically, the ability of local actors to control and communicate discourse becomes a critical factor in determining the implementation of national policies at the local level. The originality of this research lies in the finding that discursive power, particularly in the communication of "power over ideas," functions as a mechanism that enables and sustains decoupling practices within the context of decentralization.

Endorsement or Detachment? Examining Individual Responses to Institutional Decoupling

Endorsement or Detachment? Examining Individual Responses to Institutional Decoupling

Climate-Sensitive Programming in International Security: An Analysis of UN Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions

ABSTRACT Over the past three decades, United Nations (UN) Peace Operations have become increasingly multidimensional and integrated. Blue helmets, originally deployed to provide security and enforce cease-fires, are now engaging in multi-domain activities aimed at sustaining long-term peace. As part of this trend, the UN Security Council has begun mandating Peacekeeping Operations (PKOs) and Special Political Missions (SPMs) to engage in climate-sensitive programming. Questions, however, remain over the effectiveness of climate-related activities in peace operations. This study, using a large textual dataset, provides a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the state of climate-sensitive programming in PKOs and SPMs. The findings indicate that while mandates and programming activities related to climate change have been on the rise, most field operations have failed to integrate climate-sensitive programming into their work. Moreover, the agenda on climate security appears to have led to a process of institutional decoupling between organizational arrangements and field activities.

Organization and Human Resource Management in the Era of Technological Revolution: Lessons from Actor-Network Theory

본 연구는 기술이 혁명적으로 발전하고 있는 상황에서 이러한 기술 발전이 조직과 인간에 미치는 영향을 설명하는 기존의 이론들은 일정한 한계를 보이고 있다는 문제의식에서 출발하고 있다. 인공지능이 인간의 전유물로 여겨졌던 판단 및 의사결정의 영역에서 적극적으로 활용되면서 단순한 도구에서 벗어나 행위자로서의 역할을 빠르게 확대해 나가고 있는 반면, 기술과 기계를 객체적 수단으로만 바라보는 기존의 이론들에서는 이러한 기계나 기술의 확대된 역할이나 행위자로서의 역할을 이론적으로 설명하거나 포용하기 어렵다. 저자들은 행위자 네트워크 이론이 이러한 한계를 뛰어 넘을 수 있는 중요한 이론적 관점을 제공할 수 있다는 입장을 취한다. 이 이론에서는 기계나 기술 등과 같은 사물에게도 행위자의 자격을 인정하기 때문이다. 사물인터넷, 인공지능, 자율주행차 등 기계의 자율적 행위 역할이 증가하는 현상을 이해하고 시사점을 줄 수 있다는 장점에도 불구하고 인사조직 분야에서는 이 이론에 대한 이해나 활용이 매우 부족한 것이 현실이다. 이 연구는 행위자 네트워크 이론을 소개하는 한편이 이론이 기술혁명 시대에 조직과 사람관리에 주는 시사점을 검토하는 것을 목적으로 하고 있다. 이를 위해 본고에서는 먼저 기존 이론들에서 나타나는 기술에 대한 다양한 관점을 검토한 후 본격적으로 행위자 네트워크 이론의 주된 주장을 정리해서 설명하고 있다. 논문의 말미에서는 이러한 이론이 조직과 인사관리에 제공하는 시사점을 과정관점 및 자원개념의 확대, 그리고 협업지성을 통한 인사관리, 번역 매개인으로서의 인사부서 등 4개로 정리해서 제시하고 있다.Acknowledging that technological innovation shapes human behaviors as well as social structure, this study presents a theoretical view to further understand how organizations can effectively cope with high-velocity technological changes. In particular, in this study, we pay attention to Actor-Network theory (ANT hereafter), drawn from French Structuralism. ANT presumes that everything in the social world, which is constructed by human beings, and in the natural world, which exists surrounding human beings, is associated with each other, forming networks of relationships. From this standpoint, science and technology is articulated and implemented to explicate the natural phenomena to be shared through the social world. Thus we can understand the ontology of science and technology as the artifacts from the process in which humans and non-humans, as all structurally-equivalent actors, interact with each other in practical or symbolic ways. This suggests that technology, as our reality, exists as a product from an actor-network at a certain time period as well as an artifact yielded from the ongoing technology-human interactions. Based on this understanding, we investigate how organization theory can embrace ANT. Specifically, we first review the relevant theories which deal with the roles of technology in organizational processes and figure out the theoretical position of ANT among various organization theories related to technology. Then, we draw theoretical and practical implications from this theoretical amalgamation. Given that “translation” is understood as the core mechanism of constructing actor-networks among humans and non-humans, we suggest that the department of human resource management, as a translating agent, plays a critical role in effectively forming the actor-networks and thus in preventing organizations from being fallen into an institutional decoupling in their decision-making processes.

Assessing multiple sources of data to detect illegal fishing, trade and mislabelling of elasmobranchs in Greek markets

Elasmobranchs, extremely charismatic and threatened animals, still are an important economic source for fishers in many parts of the world, providing significant income through trade. Even though Greek seas host at least 67 elasmobranch species, our knowledge about their biology and ecology is to a large extent unknown. In the present study the integration of conventional (legislation, official data from fisheries landings and fish market value and import/export data) and unconventional (social media) sources of data, accompanied with the use of genetics, aim at outlining the elasmobranch fisheries and trade in Greece and identifying “weak spots” that sabotage their conservation. Results revealed that: (a) about 60% of the 68 specimens collected in fish markets were mislabelled, with that being very common for Prionace glauca and Mustelus spp., (b) Illegal fishing is a reality, c) Greece represents one of the top-three European Union southern countries in terms of elasmobranch market size, (d) Aegean Sea and especially its Northern part (Thermaikos Gulf and Thracian Sea) contributed to more than half of the M. mustelus Greek fisheries landings and (e) wholesale prices of elasmobranchs have remained stable during the last decade. Mislabelling and illegal trade of elasmobranchs are common ground in Greece. This context stems from incoherent and complex fisheries legislative framework due to institutional decoupling, discrepancies in the collection and analysis of fisheries-related data, thus substantially reducing the efficiency of the fisheries management in Greek seas.

Institutional decoupling and the limited implementation of certified environmental technologies

New environmental policies and initiatives increasingly drive firms to develop sustainable technologies, yet it is unclear why firms often decide not to capture value from the technologies that they create. We argue that the under-implementation of environmental technologies can be explained by the concept of institutional decoupling, which suggests that organizations may engage in symbolic actions without necessarily taking the risk of implementing a new technology in a less established market when there is no decisive evidence of its commercial viability. Focusing on the Korean Green Certification Program, a government-initiated review system for environmental technologies, we find that the timing of certification is a key source of variation in the implementation of certified technologies. Our findings also show that the main effect is conditioned by performance feedback and niche density—the factors that shape a firm's risk perceptions. Implications for organization studies, sustainable innovation, and environmental policies are discussed.

Factors Affecting Employment Satisfaction with People with Disabilities: From an Institutional Decoupling Perspective

Factors Affecting Employment Satisfaction with People with Disabilities: From an Institutional Decoupling Perspective

Institutional Decoupling: Conceptual Review and Future Research

본 논문은 지난 40여 년간 진행된 신제도주의 조직이론 연구를 제도적 디커플링 개념에 초점을 맞추어 검토한다. 신제도주의는 대표적인 조직이론 패러다임으로 국내외 조직 연구에서 확고한 입지를 차지하고 있으나, 새로운 이론 패러다임의 도출 및 검증이나 다른 패러다임 간 대화와 통합에 미치는 근본적인 기여 측면에서 학문적 입지에 걸맞은 영향력을 앞으로도 유지해 나갈 수 있을 것인지 의문도 제기되는 상황이다. 제도적 디커플링 개념은 신제도주의 조직이론의 가장 초기 시점부터 등장하여 최근까지 수많은 연구에 활용되기에 이러한 상황을 신제도론이 발달한 역사적 맥락에서 조망하는 데 유용하다. 본 논문은 제도적 디커플링 개념이 신제도주의 조직이론에서 갖는 의미를 논의하되, 관련 연구 동향을 단순 소개하는 것에서 벗어나 지금까지 연구가 신제도론의 핵심주장을 명확하게 반영하고 이론 패러다임의 확장에 기여했는지 근본적 수준에서 재고찰한다. 신제도주의 조직이론에 따르면 조직은 사회구성원이 바람직하고 당연하다고 여기는 가치와 규범을 반영하는 공식구조를 일률적으로 채택하도록 동형화 압력을 받는다. 그러나 제도화된 구조는 개별 조직의 특이성을 반영하지 못하므로 일상적 조직활동의 효율성을 높이려는 기술적 합리성 추구와 상충될 수 있다. 이처럼 의례적 규율로서 공식구조를 채택해야 하는 제도적 요구와 일상 업무의 기술적 요구가 서로 다른 경우 공식구조와 실제 운영 사이에 생겨나는 괴리 현상이 디커플링이다. 본 논문은 디커플링 개념이 처음 제시된 이후 연구자들이 이를 해석하고 실증분석을 실시하는 과정에서 개념적, 맥락적 범위가 상당히 확장되었음을 밝힌다. 그러한 확장이 신제도론의 발전에 끼친 긍정적 효과로서 제도론적 관점을 적용한 연구의 폭이 넓어지고 인접한 다른 이론 패러다임 간 학문적 대화와 통합이 촉진되었다. 그러나 개념이 지나치게 확장되어 모호성이 증가하고 방법론적 엄밀성 제고에 어려움이 가중되는 등 시급히 해결해야 할 과제도 생겨났다. 본 연구는 이러한 과제 해결의 실마리가 될 만한 중요한 쟁점을 논의하고 향후 연구 방향을 제시한다.This study focuses on the concept of institutional decoupling and critically examines whether and how it contributes to the conceptual and contextual extension of neo-institutional approaches to organization studies. A general premise of neo-institutionalism is that organizations adopt formal policies, practices, and structures, not because there is strong empirical evidence that they improve organizational performance, but because they have become so-cially accepted as appropriate, desirable, or proper. However, scholars have noted that formal adoption does not necessarily lead to actual implementation as a result of two conflicting forces: the generalized institutional pressures to require formal adoption and the organization-specific technical demands to avoid operative inefficiency associated with the adoption. In this paper, we review and critique recent studies guided by the concept of institutional decoupling and show that it has great potential not only for promoting theoretical novelty but also for facilitating productive dialogue between neighboring para-digms in organization studies. We also point to a recent increase in the number of conceptual and empirical studies as well as the diversity of such studies in terms of empirical contexts. Yet our review suggests that the concept of institutional decoupling has been over-extended in some studies, leading to theoretical ambiguity and misinterpretation. We conclude our review by examin-ing critical issues to resolve conceptual over-extension and providing several avenues for future research.

문화정책의 형식주의화에 대한 제도주의적 이해 : 지역문화진흥법 사례를 중심으로

이 연구는 문화정책의 형식주의화의 양상과 원인을 신제도주의 이론을 활용하여 이해하고자 했다. 지역문화진흥법 제정 과정에서 각 조항들의 변화 양상을 분석한 결과, 형식주의 입법에 해당했음을 확인할 수 있었다. 세부 법 조항들을 분석해본 결과, 이전 문예진흥법의 일부 조항을 새로운 정책이념에 맞춰 ‘층화’ ‘전치’한 ‘연속적 제도변화’로서 새로울 것이 없었다. 그리고 몇몇 새로 이식된 제도요소는 실효성 없게 ‘상징적 동조’ 수준에 그치거나 ‘표류’한, ‘형식적 제도변화’ 양상을 보였다. 입법에 관련된 이해관계자들이 주장했던 지역문화진흥 관련 담론들과 법률안에 담긴 담론요소들을 추출하여 ‘문화정체성’ ‘문화자치’ ‘문화복지’ ‘문화경제’ 문화행정’ 다섯 가지 담론으로 분류하는 질적 코딩과 매핑을 통해 비교분석했다. 그 결과 국회의원들이 발의한 지역문화진흥법안이 문화복지 담론을 강조하면서 입법수요자들이 중시했던 문화자치 등 다른 지역문화진흥의 의미는 애당초 충분히 담아내지 못한 ‘담론편향’의 양상을 띠고 있었음을 확인했다. 지역문화진흥이라는 정책언어의 다의성, 문화융성이라는 정책 슬로건과 문화복지 담론을 강조한 ‘탈정치화 틀 짓기 전략’, 이를 활용한 입법 활동 주체들의 ‘상징적 동조’ 또는 ‘제도적 디커플링’이 이런 형식주의화의 원인이 된 것으로 파악했다. 이와 같은 ‘정책 언어의 다의성과 모호성에 따른 불완전한 제도화’는 새로운 정책이 도입될 때 기저에 깔리는 가장 근본적인 형식주의로 파악되어야 한다. 본 연구는 새로운 문화정책이 현장과 괴리된 ‘담론편향’의 형식주의에 빠지지 않기 위해, 담론 형성 단계에서부터 정제된 ‘담론’보다는 거친 ‘여론’을 폭넓게 받아들여야 할 필요성을 제시한다. 그리고 맥락을 무시한 제도의 수입, 하향식(Top-down)의 ‘창의적 기획’과 ‘탈정치화한 슬로건’으로 정책을 선포하기보다는 문화의 가치에 대해 치열한 논쟁을 시작해야 한다고 주장한다.

How U.S. Corporations Changed Executive Compensation after Enron: Substance and Symbol

This study analyzes how and why the fall of Enron in 2002 triggered substantive and symbolic changes to executive compensation among U.S. corporations. In particular, we examine the significant legitimacy challenges arising in the post-Enron decade regarding executive stock options, a signature practice normatively advanced by agency theory advocates. We develop a socio-political perspective that considers contestation at the societal, field, and firm levels to explain how and why the post-Enron criticism of stock options generated not only new regulations, but also more complex forms of compensation. We use our framework to predict how differences in intrafirm power (senior management vs. board) and external pressures (media vs. shareholders) drove variance in firm-specific responses to these field-wide changes, testing our predictions using a longitudinal dataset comprised of S&P 500 firms and their senior executives. Our findings reveal that these responses involved both substantial and symbolic changes in compensation, with firms responding more symbolically when CEOs had more power over their boards. We discuss the implications of our approach and findings for future research on executive compensation, corporate governance, and institutional decoupling.

Decoupling of Institutional Decoupling: Differential Utilization of Voluntary Environmental Policy

The importance of organizational learning and technological innovation for environmental sustainability is well noted, yet little is known about why and how firms choose not to implement what they ...

The Decoupling of Institutional Decoupling: Differential Implementation of Voluntary Environmental Programs between Initial Innovators and Early Adopters

While the importance of organizational learning and technological innovation for environmental sustainability is well noted, little is known about why and how firms choose not to implement what they learn and innovate. We examine the learning-doing gap in an empirical context of sustainable innovation and environmental technologies, the domain where social constituents increasingly consider environmental performance to be significant evaluative criteria. Building upon institutional perspectives, we suggest that the increased popularity and social attention toward sustainable innovation may serve as externally imposed pressures that are difficult for firms to ignore, thus leading to the creation and development of novel technologies aligned with the normative pressures. Our key argument is that such technologies are not fully implemented, a situation referred to as decoupling. This argument is empirically supported by our analysis of data from the Green Certification Program, a relatively new, government-initiated certification system for legitimating green technologies in Korea. More importantly, we find that decoupling is further differentiated in terms of adoption timing between initial innovators and early adopters, two groups of firms that develop different risk perceptions of the consequences of certification implementation. Implications for organization studies, sustainable innovation, and environmental policies are discussed.

Business School Legitimacy and the Challenge of Sustainability: A Fuzzy Set Analysis of Institutional Decoupling

Business schools face growing institutional pressure to respond to the sustainability agenda, especially since the financial crisis highlighted the need to educate business leaders who engage with issues beyond a profit imperative. Although business schools increasingly signal their engagement with global issues, such as sustainability, there are also suggestions that they decouple their espoused commitments from their practices. Rather than institute actual change and include sustainability in organizational activities, business schools may merely indicate that such change is taking place. We examine the key organizational and strategic conditions under which business schools decouple their sustainability policies from their practices. We draw on interviews with 40 deans of U.K. business schools and analyze the data using fuzzy set (fs) qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA), a method that investigates combinations of individual conditions. We find evidence to suggest that tight coupling is associated...

The Silent Implementation of Controversial Practices:Korean Firms’ Alternative Forms of Decoupling

While studies of the diffusion of controversial practices have uncovered how and why firms decouple their public adoption of the practice via non- implementation, we introduce the analysis of a second possible form of decoupling, whereby firms implementing the controversial practice of downsizing, are publicly silent about their adoption decision. We thus expand the analysis of diffusing practices to consider four distinct firm-level responses to institutional pressures for adoption: substantive adoption (to say and do), substantive rejection (to not say or do), symbolic adoption (to say but not do), and silent implementation (to not say but do). We then propose a multi-level perspective to consider how antecedent conditions such as firm performance history and board of director backgrounds will likely influence the specific firm- level response observed. We contextualize this analysis by focusing on the period directly following the Asian financial crisis, when large South Korean firms faced unusually strong economic pressures for downsizing, combined with longstanding social norms to protect employee positions in return for employee loyalty. We find that Korean firms with more U.S. directors and U.S.- educated Korean directors were more likely to announce but not implement downsizing (symbolic adoption), while those firms with more Korean-born and Korean-educated directors tended to implement downsizing while avoiding any public announcement of it (silent implementation). We also show which types of decoupling (symbolic adoption and silent implementation) contributed to a firm’s future performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on the diffusion of practices and the literature on institutional decoupling.

Resistant to Change? The European Commission and Expert Group Reform

This article examines how the European Commission has responded to external criticism and demands for the democratisation and reform of the way it uses expert groups in EU policy making. The article analyses the nature and character of the Commission’s dialogue with its critics and the degree and extent to which it was prepared to adapt its existing internal processes and procedures to the reform agenda. Recent theories inform us that organisations respond in different ways to external criticism and demands for reform, including full adaptation, evasion, institutional decoupling and reinterpretation. The main findings suggest that the Commission was not completely resistant to changing its approach to the use of expertise. The Commission reinterpreted its critics’ demands by introducing reforms that defused this external pressure, while protecting the effectiveness of its existing internal ideology and processes. These findings serve to enhance the Commission’s image as an increasingly normalised bureaucracy and reinforce the importance of knowledge and expertise as a key source of Commission legitimacy.

Institutional Change, Continuity and Decoupling in the Indonesian Industrial Relations System

This article analyzes long run change and continuity within the Indonesian industrial relations (IR) system. Although focused more on labour reform in the post-Soeharto era, the analysis also extends the time line backwards to review key aspects of the Old and New Order periods so as to provide perspective for more recent developments. The article employs institutional theory in the analysis and highlights the roles of different actors during different periods of change. Data was collected through narrative interviews with relevant IR actors and taken from a range of secondary sources. While acknowledging profound changes in the logics and structures of Indonesian IR, the analysis also reveals evidence of institutional continuity across time. The article concludes that recent reforms have produced several negative outcomes for both workers and the labour movement, and have focused more on overt structural elements but less on cultural-cognitive and normative elements that determine behaviour within the new structures.

Antecedents and outcomes of information disclosure to employees in the UK, 1990—2004: The role of employee voice

We map changes in the pattern of information disclosure by management to employees over 14 years in the UK, using the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) panels for 1990—8 and 1998—2004. We use time-lagged probit regression to explore antecedents and outcomes of disclosure over the two periods, focusing on the effects of voice mechanisms on disclosure and on the impact of disclosure on performance.The results show a significant increase in disclosure over the first period but a levelling off in the second. Neither union recognition nor direct participation had a significant impact on disclosure in either period. Joint consultation did, however, have a significant positive effect on disclosure, but more so in the first than in the second period. In addition, prior disclosure had a positive effect on subsequent disclosure. An explanation of trends in terms of lock-in and institutional decoupling is developed. Disclosure has a positive effect on financial performance.

Evasion, Reinterpretation and Decoupling: European Commission Responses to the ‘External Dimension’ of Immigration and Asylum

Since 1999, the European Commission has been responsible for ‘integrating’ immigration and asylum goals into the EU's external relations. This article explores how different Directorates-General have responded to this requirement. Rejecting prevalent rationalist theories, it draws on organisational sociology to argue that administrative organisations are preoccupied with internal social and psychological tasks, and only selectively read and respond to signals from their political environment. Depending on characteristics of the organisation and policy area, one can hypothesise four ideal-typical responses: full adaptation, evasion, institutional decoupling, and reinterpretation. An analysis of Commission responses suggests that DG Justice, Liberty and Security fully adapted to the agenda, while DG External Relations adopted a strategy of institutional decoupling. DG Development shifted from initial evasion to reinterpretation, contributing to the rather incoherent mix of goals that emerged in the 2005 Global Approach. The article considers the implications of this account for theories of policy change.

A Case of Institutional Decoupling: Equality and Public Policy in Post Devolution Wales

This article develops an institutionalist perspective, and draws upon original research and the findings of two evaluation reports in order to critically assess the approach to equalities in Welsh public policy following electeddevolution in 1999. The key aim here is to determine whether the Welsh Assembly Government's stated aim of mainstreaming equality is being realised. Accordingly, attention is focussed on: the legal and institutional context presented by devolution, the political vision for the promotion of equality, and reforms aimed at establishing the institutional prerequisites for mainstreaming equality in public policy. This analysis concludes with a critical evaluation of the progress made to date, one that draws upon selected examples of Assembly Government policy and legislation.

The Social Construction of Market Value: Institutionalization and Learning Perspectives on Stock Market Reactions

This study advances a social constructionist view of financial market behavior. The paper suggests that the market's reaction to particular corporate practices, such as stock repurchase plans, are not, as financial economists contend, simply a function of the inherent efficiency of such practices. Rather, stock market reactions are also influenced by the prevailing institutional logic and the degree of institutionalization of the practice. The theory first predicts that the emergence of the agency perspective on corporate governance in the mid-1980s represented a powerful new institutional logic that would lead the market to reverse its prior aggregate reaction to stock repurchase plans in the United States. The paper then considers the potential for institutional decoupling of repurchase plans and develops competing hypotheses about how the market value of these policies might have changed as more firms formally adopted, but did not implement, the plans over time. In contrast to a financial economic perspective on market valuation, which suggests that markets should discount the value of a policy as evidence of non-implementation accumulates, this study posits that institutionalization processes might increase the market value of a policy as more firms adopt it, despite growing evidence of decoupling. Implications for institutional theory and theoretical perspectives on capital markets are discussed.