Skip to main content

Institutions, Logics, and Power

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Cadbury Code and Recurrent Crisis
  • 391 Accesses

Abstract

Codes are an important part of the institutional framework that governs the operations of corporations and their boards of directors. This chapter provides a grounding in institutional theory, its emphasis on how structures determine outcomes, and how it can fail to take into account underlying issues of power. It discusses how institutional theorists have turned to two approaches—‘logics’ and ‘work’—to overcome the weakness and account for greater agency of social actors. It argues that a rhetorical view of logics and concern for discourse in work help explain contests over power in codes of conduct and the process of codification.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Toulmin (2001) also pointed to the need for ‘reasonable’ argumentation, rather than narrowly rational approaches, owing to the complexity of social relations. For its relevance in corporate governance, see Nordberg (2018).

References

  • Dewey, J. (1929). Experience and nature. London: George Allen & Unwin.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio, P. J. (1988). Interest and agency in institutional theory. In L. G. Zucker (Ed.), Institutional patterns and culture (pp. 3–32). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, M., & Wildavsky, A. (1982). Risk and culture: An essay on the selection of technological and environmental dangers. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowding, K. M. (1991). Rational choice and political power. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedland, R., & Alford, R. R. (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In W. W. Powell & P. DiMaggio (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 232–263). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gendron, Y. (2002). On the role of the organization in auditors’ client-acceptance decisions. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 27(7), 659–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0361-3682(02)00017-X.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, S. E., Jr., Li, Y., & Nohria, N. (2009). Suspended in self-spun webs of significance: A rhetorical model of institutionalization and institutionally embedded agency. Academy of Management Journal, 52(1), 11–36. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.36461725.

  • Greenwood, R., & Suddaby, R. (2006). Institutional entrepreneurship in mature fields: The Big Five accounting firms. Academy of Management Journal, 49(1), 27–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood, R., Suddaby, R., & Hinings, C. R. (2002). Theorizing change: The role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 58–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraatz, M. S. (2011). Two cheers for institutional work. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20(1), 59–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492610387223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, T. B., & Suddaby, R. (2006). Institutions and institutional work. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, T. B. Lawrence, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organization studies (2nd ed., pp. 215–254). London: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Marquis, C., & Lounsbury, M. (2007). Vive la résistance: Competing logics and the consolidation of U.S. community banking. Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 799–820.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, J. W., & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, D. A., Tetlock, P. E., Tanlu, L., & Bazerman, M. H. (2006). Conflicts of interest and the case of auditor independence: Moral seduction and strategic issue cycling. Academy of Management Review, 31(1), 10–29. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2006.19379621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morriss, P. (1995). Book review: Keith M. Dowding, Rational choice and political power, Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1991, pp. 208. Utilitas, 7(1), 181–184. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0953820800001977.

  • Nordberg, D. (2018). Edging toward ‘reasonably’ good corporate governance. Philosophy of Management, 17(3), 353–371. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-017-0083-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North, D. C. (1991). Institutions. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5(1), 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.5.1.97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puxty, A. G., Willmott, H. C., Cooper, D. J., & Lowe, T. (1987). Modes of regulation in advanced capitalism: Locating accountancy in four countries. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12(3), 273–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(87)90041-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahaman, A., Neu, D., & Everett, J. (2010). Accounting for social-purpose alliances: Confronting the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. Contemporary Accounting Research, 27(4), 1093–1129. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1911-3846.2010.01040.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rao, H., & Giorgi, S. (2006). Code breaking: How entrepreneurs exploit cultural logics to generate institutional change. Research in Organizational Behavior, 27, 269–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(06)27007-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spira, L. F., & Slinn, J. (2013). The Cadbury committee: A history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, P. H., Ocasio, W., & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure, and process. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Toulmin, S. (2001). Return to reason. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toulmin, S. (2003). The uses of argument (Updated ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Willmott, H. (2015). Why institutional theory cannot be critical. Journal of Management Inquiry, 24(1), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492614545306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald Nordberg .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Nordberg, D. (2020). Institutions, Logics, and Power. In: The Cadbury Code and Recurrent Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55222-0_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics