New article on History Reframing Institutional Logics
And we are happy to announce another great contribution to the ongoing debate on organizational history:
PRACTICE, SUBSTANCE AND HISTORY: REFRAMING INSTITUTIONAL LOGICS
Nottingham Business School, Nottingham trent University, Nottingham, NG1 4BU, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Correspondence: Alistair Mutch, Email: alistair.mutch@ntu.ac.uk
Abstract
The characterization by Roger Friedland of institutional logics as a combination of substance and practices opens the door to a more complex reading of their influence on organizational life. His focus suggests attention to feelings and belief as much as cognition and choice. This article uses history to develop these ideas by paying attention to the perennial features of our embodied relations with the world and other persons. Historical work draws our attention to neglected domains of social life, such as play, which can have profound impacts on organizations. The study of history suggests that such institutions have a long run conditioning influence that calls into question accounts that stress individual agential choice and action in bringing about change. Analytical narratives of the emergence of practices can provide the means to combine the conceptual apparatus of organization theory with the attention to temporality of history.
Received September 10, 2015.
Revision received May 9, 2017.
Accepted May 12, 2017.