Summary
Contents
Subject index
"It is now three decades since the "new"institutionalism burst on the intellectual scene and a most appropriate time to take stock of missteps, accomplishments, and future directions. This theoretical thrust has revitalized many scholarly arenas across the social sciences, but none more so then organization studies. Royston Greenwood and his co-editors have assembled a stellar stable of scholars who collectively provide a comprehensive assessment if this vibrant field."—W. Richard Scott, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University"Institutional theory has become the dominant conversation in organization theory. In this volume many of its leading exponents show where it is going, what it can do and how it engages with related fields."—Stewart Clegg, Aston Business School and University of Technology, Sydney"This Handbook is "must reading" for any organization and management scholar. It provides a timely and comprehensive update of institutional theory and its relationships with other organization theories."—Andrew H. Van de Ven, Vernon Heath Professor of Organizational Innovation and Change, Carlson School of Management, University of MinnesotaInstitutional theory lies at the heart of organizational theory, yet until now, no book has successfully taken stock of this important and wide ranging theoretical perspective. With insight and clarity, the editors of this handbook have collected and arranged papers so the readers are provided with a map of the field and pointed in the direction of new and emerging themes. The academics who have contributed to this handbook are respected internationally and represent a cross section of expert organization theorists, sociologists and political scientists. Chapters are a rich mix of theory, how to conduct institutional organizational analysis and empirical work.
Institutionalism and the Professions
Institutionalism and the Professions
The study of the professions, as they are defined in the developed world, has been deeply intertwined with institutional theory and topics central to institutional theory (legitimation, symbolism, isomorphism, decoupling, power, agency, and organizational fields). The professions represent the quintessential triumph of Durkheimian occupational communities over and above the mass-society-based anonymity of impersonal markets and the grinding rigidity of bureaucracies. But, as we'll see, the classic autonomous, peer-oriented professional practice is under pressure from institutional constituents interested in lower costs, more accountability, and ethical transparency at the same historical moment that technological changes put pressure on traditional, institutionalized methods for delivering professional services. The combination of new places, new people, new technologies, and new clients has pushed professionals in new and uncharted directions.
In this chapter, we examine recent developments in the study of professional work through the lens of institutional theory. The delivery of professional services is undergoing changes in the markets, organizational forms, and technologies that provide fertile ground for the use and extension of institutional theory. The institutional norms of several key professional sectors are changing drastically as well as the assumptions about market structures and the nature of technological changes currently at the forefront.
For the purposes of this chapter, we define professional work as occupational incumbents: (a) whose work is defined by the application of theoretical and scientific knowledge to tasks tied to core societal values (health, justice, financial status, etc.), (b) where the terms and conditions of work traditionally command considerable autonomy and freedom from oversight, except by peer representatives of the professional occupation, and (c) where claims to exclusive or nearly exclusive control over a task domain are linked to the application of the knowledge imparted to professionals as part of their training (Leicht and Fennell 2001: 25–30). This definition encompasses the traditional classic professions (physicians, lawyers, and university professors) but also includes other abstract workers and symbolic analysts such as accountants, pharmacists, engineers, and scientists.
In the next two sections we look briefly at the more traditional literature on the professions, and then move on toward contemporary institutional theory and the ways in which it has addressed the professions and the organizational structures where professional work is done. Finally, we develop an updated version of an institutional analysis of the professions, focusing on change within professions themselves, change in the relative importance of institutional and technical environments, and demands for greater transparency and accountability following well-known ethical scandals that resulted in significant harm to clients and employees. Our analyses throughout will draw heavily (though not exclusively) from research on the health and medical professions, where the impact of institutional change has been substantial.
Prior Literature on the Professions and Professional Practice
Sociological theory on the professions moved away from trait theories (theories that defined professions based on a series of fixed characteristics such as credentials, codes of ethics, and knowledge mastery) in the late 1960s and 1970s. The prevailing movement was toward models of professional organizations and knowledge claims (Leicht and Fennell 2001). These new models of professions and professional practice moved beyond the conception of professional organization as a rational, goal-oriented system designed around core tasks carried out and controlled by professionals themselves toward organizational and institutional claims regarding professionals and their activities. Other classic studies of ‘professionalism’ as a historical process have emphasized the political and social power of professional groups in medicine (Larson 1977; Starr 1982), and management accounting (Johnson and Kaplan 1987). More recent historical work on the professions has examined the export of western professional ideals on economic and legal systems to Latin America (Garth and Dezalay 2002), emphasizing the impact of local political struggles on the success or failure of such export attempts.
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