Abstract
We investigate the adoption of ISO 9000 standards by the German mechanical engineering industry and analyze how organizational contingencies affect susceptibility to institutional forces. Our study’;s findings show that differences in organizational size, proportion of administrative staff, and type of production technology lead to variations in the probability of adopting ISO 9000 standards. Moreover, our findings show that despite the modern anti-bureaucratic management ideology, there has been a remarkable increase in the degree of formalization.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerman, Rolf (2001), Pfadabhängigkeit, Institutionen und Regelform.
Arthur, W. Brian (1994), Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy.
Astley, W. Graham (1985), Organizational Size and Bureaucratic Structure, in: Organization Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 201–228.
Baron, James N./Dobbin, Frank R./Jennings, P. Devereuax (1986), War and Peace. The Evolution of Modern Personnel Administration in U.S. Industry, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 92, pp. 350–383.
Boeker, Warren (1988), Organizational origins. Entrepreneurial and Environmental Imprinting at the Time of Founding, in: Carroll, Glenn R. (ed.), Ecological Models of Organizations, pp. 33–51.
Bundesverband der deutschen Industrie (1992), BDI-Firmenumfrage über die Nachfrage nach zertifizierten Qualitätssicherungssystemen von ausländischen Kunden.
Chamberlain, Gary (1980), Analysis of covariance with qualitative data, in: Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 47, pp. 225–238.
Chamberlain, Gary (1984), Panel data, in: Griliches, Zivi/Intriligator, Michael D. (eds.), Handbook of Econometrics, pp. 1247–1318.
David, Paul A. (1994), Why are Institutions the ‘Carriers of Hstory’? Path-dependence and the Evolution of Conventions, Organizations and Institutions, in: Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Vol. 5, pp. 205–220.
Delmestri, Giuseppe (2002), Institutionen, Technik und Ökonomie. Eine organisationstheoretische Untersuchung des deutschen und italienischen Maschinenbaus.
DiMaggio, Paul J. (1988), Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory, in: Zucker, Lynne G. (ed.), Institutional Patterns and Organizations, pp. 3–21.
DiMaggio, Paul J./Powell, Walter W. (1983), The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields, in: American Sociological Review, Vol. 48, pp. 147–160.
Dobbin, Frank R./Edelman, Lauren B./Meyer, John W./Scott, W. Richard/Swidler, Ann (1988), The Expansion of Due Process in Organizations, in: Zucker, Lynne G. (ed.), Institutional Patterns and Organizations, pp. 71–98.
Dobbin, Frank R./Sutton, John R. (1998), The Strength of a Weak State. The Rights Revolution and the Rise of Human Resources Management Divisions, in: American Journal of Sociology Vol. 104, pp. 441–476.
Donaldson, Lex (2001), The Contingency Theory of Organizations.
Edelman, Lauren B. (1990), Legal Environments and Organizational Governance. The Expansion of Due Process in the American Workplace, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 96, pp. 1401–1440.
Edelman, Lauren B. (1992), Legal Ambiguity and Symbolic Structures. Organizational Mediation of Civil Rights Law, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 97, pp. 1531–1576.
Fligstein, Neil (1985), The Spread of the Multidivisional Form Among Large Firms, 1919–1979, in: American Sociological Review, Vol. 50, pp. 377–391.
Galaskiewicz, Joseph/Burt, Ronald S. (1991), Interorganization Contagion in Corporate Philantropy, in: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 36, pp. 88–105.
Hannan, Michael T./Freeman, John (1977), The Population Ecology of Organizations, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 82, pp. 929–964.
Hannan, Michael T./Freeman, John (1984), Structural Inertia and Organization Change, in: American Sociological Review, Vol. 49, pp. 149–164.
VDMA (Hrsg.), o.T., http://www1.vdma.de/.
Huber, Peter J. (1964), Robust Estimation of a Location Parameter, in: Annals of Mathematical Statistics, Vol. 35, pp. 73–101.
ISO 9001 (1994), Qualitätsmanagementsystem — Modell zur Qualitätssicherung/Qm-Darlegung in Design/Entwicklung, Produkt, Montage und Wartung.
Kamiske, Gerd F./Kassebohm, Kristian/Malorny, Christian/Michael, Horst/Schulze, Hans-Dieter (1994), Qualifizierung, Auditierung und Zertifizierung im Meinungsspektrum zertifizierter Unternehmen — Resultate und Konsequenzen einer empirischen Studie, in: Riekhof, H. C. (ed.), Praxis der Strategieentwicklung, pp. 357–385.
Kelly, Erin/Dobbin, Frank (1999), Civil Rights Law at Work. Sex Discrimination and the Rise of Maternity Leave Policies, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 105, pp. 455–492.
Kieser, Alfred (1999), Managementlehre und Taylorismus, in: Kieser, Alfred (ed.), Organisationstheorien, pp. 65–99.
Kieser, Alfred/Kubicek, Herbert (1992), Organisation.
Kornai, János (1995), Das sozialistische System. Die politische Ökonomie des Kommunismus.
Malorny, Christian (1996), TQM umsetzen. Der Weg zur Business Exzellenz.
Meilich, Ofer (2000), Task Formalization and Organizational Performance: Review and Synthesis of Perspectives. Paper presented at the 2000 Academy of Management Meeting, Toronto.
Meyer, John W./Rowan, Brian (1977), Institutional Organizations. Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony, in: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 83, pp. 340–363.
Miller, Danny (1987), Strategy Making and Structure: Analysis and Implications for Performance, in: Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 30, pp. 7–32.
Ortmann, Günter (1995), Formen der Produktion. Organisation und Rekursivität.
Ostendorf, Barbara (1998), Produktionsstrukturen des ostdeutschen Maschinenbaus in der Transformation.
Palmer, Donald A./Jennings, P. Devereaux/Zhou, Xueguang (1993), Late Adoption of the Multidivisional Form by Large U.S. Corporations: Institutional, Political, and Economic Accounts, in: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 38, pp. 100–131.
Peters, Tom (1992), Liberation Management. Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey/Salancik, Gerald R. (1978), The External Control of Organizations. A Resource Dependence Perspective.
Piore, Michael J./Sabel, Charles F. (1984), The Second Industrial Divide.
Powell, Walter W./DiMaggio, Paul J. (eds.) (1991), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis.
Power, Michael (1997), The Audit Society. Rituals of Verification.
Rohwer, Götz (1993), TDA Working Paper 4–5: Ordinal Logit and Probit Models.
Scott, W. Richard (1995), Institutions and Organizations.
Scott, W. Richard (1998), Organizations. Rational, Natural and Open Systems.
Staw, Barry M./Epstein, Lisa D. (2000), What Bandwagons Bring: Effects of Popular Management Technique on Corporate Performance, Reputation, and CEO Pay, in: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 45, pp. 523–556.
Stinchcombe, Arthur L. (1965), Social Structure and Organizations, in: March, James G. (ed.), Handbook of Organizations, pp. 142–193.
Strang, David/Meyer, John W. (1993), Institutional Conditions for Diffusion, in: Theory and Society, Vol. 22, pp. 487–511.
Tolbert, Pamela S./Zucker, Lynne G. (1983), Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880–1935, in: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 28, pp. 22–39.
Tolbert, Pamela S./Zucker, Lynne G. (1996), The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory, in: Clegg, Steward R./Hardy, Cynthia/Nord, Walter R. (eds.), Handbook of Organization Studies, pp. 175–190.
Walgenbach, Peter (2000), Die normgerechte Organisation.
Walgenbach, Peter (2002), Neoinstitutionalistische Organisationstheorie. State of the Art und Entwicklungslinien, in: Schreyögg, Georg/Conrad, Peter (eds.), Managementforschung 12, pp. 155–202.
Walgenbach, Peter/Beck, Nikolaus (2002), The Institutionalization of the Quality Management Approach in Germany, in: Sahlin-Andersson, Kerstin/Engwall, Lars (eds.), The Expansion of Management Knowledge: Carriers, Flows and Sources, pp. 145–174.
Weber, Max (1958), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Weber, Max (1978), Economy and Society — An Outline of Interpretive Sociology.
Westphal, James D./Gulati, Ranjay/Shortell, Steve M. (1997), Customization or Conformity?, in: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 42, pp. 366–394.
Widmaier, Ulrich (2000), Der deutsche Maschinenbau in den neunziger Jahren.
Zucker, Lynne G. (1987), Institutional Theories of Organizations, in: Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 13, pp. 443–464.
Zwieten, J. W. v. (1972), Qualitätssicherung in einer multinationalen Industrie, in: DIN-Mitteilungen, Vol. 51, pp. 475–479.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
We are indebted to Prof. Ulrich Widmaier and the Sonderforschungsbereich 187 at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum for providing the data used in this study. We are also indebted to Frank Ettrich, Heather A. Haveman, Alfred Kieser, John W. Meyer, Walter W. Powell, Anne Tempel, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Beck, N., Walgenbach, P. ISO 9000 and Formalization — How Organizational Contingencies Affect Organizational Responses to Institutional Forces. Schmalenbach Bus Rev 55, 294–320 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03396680
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03396680