Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution

Institutional theory and structuration theory both contend that institutions and actions are inextricably linked and that institutionalization is best understood as a dynamic, ongoing process. Institutionalists, however, have pursued an empirical agenda that has largely ignored how institutions are created, altered, and reproduced, in part, because their models of institutionalization as a process are underdeveloped. Structuration theory, on the other hand, largely remains a process theory of such abstraction that it has generated few empirical studies. This paper discusses the similarities between the two theories, develops an argument for why a fusion of the two would enable institutional theory to significantly advance, develops a model of institutionalization as a structuration process, and proposes methodological guidelines for investigating the process empirically

Leaving Nothing to Chance: Modeling the Proactive Structuration of a New Technology

Adaptive structuration theory (AST, DeSanctis and Poole 1994) describes how people come to understand and use a technology. In this paper we develop the idea of proactive structuration--how social networking can be proactively managed in order to speed the comprehensive adaptation of a technology within a community of users. We examine two facets of proactive structuration--formal institutionalization of a community of practice and socialization of users--and stochastically model the impact of proactive structuration on comprehensive adaptation latency. Implications for the effective management of new technology adoption are discussed.

An investigation of the relation of space to society: a discussion on A. Giddens, H. Lefebvre and space syntax

This thesis is dealing with the relation of society and space as a main characteristic for elucidating the design process. More particular is based on the problem which appears both in spatial and social theories of relating entities which ‘are in different scales’. This is the relation of space, which is a local notion, to society, which is a global idea or the relation of society to the everyday life, which is also local and spatial. Thιs thesis attempts to investigate the relation of society to space through this core problem by examining three theories which seem to deal with this issue. These are the Space Syntax Theory of Hillier and Hanson, the Structuration theory of Giddens and the theory of the Production of Space of Lefebvre. The first has an architectural and urban point of view of the matter, the second a sociological and the third a politico-economic. The discussion of the three theories shows that all three grasp an interrelation between society and space although each theory sees this interrelation in a different way. For the Structuration theory space has an important role in the structuration of society, for Space Syntax a constructive role of the generic forms of society and for Lefebvre an instrumental character

Reconciling structure and agency in strategy -as-practice research: Towards a strong- structuration theory approach

An overwhelming focus of research on the micro agency of strategic actors has led to the literature being characterized as demonstrating a micro-myopia, resulting in a micro-isolationism. This means we know little about how the micro interrelates with the macro in strategy work. We address this problem in our conceptual article which adopts a structurationist stance to explicate how strategy-as-practice (SaP) research could be enhanced and extended by paying equal attention to both agency and structure. Specifically, we advance strong structuration theory (SST), a promising development from Giddens’ seminal work on structuration theory, to show how strategic activity can be understood as an ongoing process of structuration unfolding over time. We argue for the use of both types of methodological bracketing (context and conduct analysis), advocating systematic attention to the interplay between macro-societal and micro-local levels of analysis. Our discussion concludes with guidance for researchers inviting them to undertake empirical fieldwork that overcomes SaP’s current micro-myopia, creating a more balanced corpus of work

Rice Value Chain : a Structuration Theory Approach

The value chains of rice has created a significant impact in the domestic rice price as well as in Indonesia. As we know from many literatures that providing rice product in time and at different places in the market is very important, especially in Indonesia. The facts that import rice is cheaper than domestic rice price has give a negative impact to the farmers. Thus, the performance of a value chains of rice is related to its structure and strategies of the actors operating these chains or channels are important to be considered by government. Value chain analysis is the sequence analysis of related business activities (functions) from specific inputs for a particular product to primary production, transformation, marketing and up to final consumption. In other words, we can say that value chains is perfoming several functions i.e start from producer (rice producer or farmers), processors (farmer or trader), traders (retailer or wholesaler) and transporter (transportation and storage are important functions in the rice channel distributuion system). Reffering to the description of the rice market in Indonesia, we would like to emphasize that there is some room for value chains based on informal collaboration concering exchange information and financial arrangement between farmers and rice traders and rice traders to others. This study analyse construct from three different theory and models namely value chains, structuration theory and institutional economics related with rice condition in Indonesia. The result of this study are nine proposition that will be tested for futher research. Further, it will be applied for analyzing in more detail all types of agents/actors that perform different chains functions in the rice domestic market in Indonesia

American and European social embeddedness in IS research: the case of structurational approaches.

Whether in Europe or in North America, Structuration Theory has been widely applied in Information System research. Looking at some structurationists’ trajectories, it seems that European and American researchers correspond each to specific sub-theoretical streams. After having put forward institutional explanations of the overall dynamic, we suggest analysing the situation from an epistemological point of view: the various conceptions of management enacted by the different structurationist leaders. This results in the disappearance of the apparent continental dichotomy we first raised. As a conclusion, we propose two perspectives for the new European academy of management.Key-words: Structuration theory; social embeddedness of management research; research trajectories; epistemology

Strong Structuration Theory in Accounting Research

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the interdisciplinary use of strong structuration theory and consider the impact of this for accounting research. The paper also provides an overview of the contributions advanced by the other papers in this special issue of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ). Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws together and identifies key issues and themes related to the rapidly evolving interdisciplinary use of strong structuration theory and considers the relevance of these issues to accounting research. Findings: The paper highlights that there is a growing use of strong structuration theory in a number of disciplines, such as in healthcare, learning studies, management, migration studies and childcare as well as in accounting. Within the accounting discipline, whilst the interest began in management accounting and control, there are ongoing studies of the not-for-profit sector, social and environmental accounting, financial reporting standards and audit. Using strong structuration theory, researchers are more interested in the people (individually or collectively) and their analysis of their conduct and context. They are moving forwards from an overly static use of the quadripartite framework to a more dynamic approach that also includes the other important central elements of strong structuration that focus on the issue of agency in situ rather than on structure cut off from agency. Research limitations/implications: The paper provides important insights into emerging issues and developments in strong structuration theory that have clear relevance to accounting research and practice as well as other disciplines. Originality/value: This paper, and other contributions to this special issue of AAAJ, provide a basis and a research agenda for accounting scholars seeking to undertake empirical research using Stones’ strong structuration theory.</p

Women?s health in mid-life: life course social roles and agencyas quality

Data from a prospective British birth cohort study showed that women who were childless, lone mothers or full-timehomemakers between the ages of 26 and 54 were more likely to report poor health at age 54 than women who occupiedmultiple roles between these ages. To explain this finding we developed and tested a theory of role quality based on theconcept of agency by drawing on Giddens? theory of structuration and Doyal and Gough?s theory of human needs.According to our theory, the patriarchal structuration (drawing on Giddens? term) of work and family roles provides bothlimitation and opportunity for the expression of agency. Doyal and Gough?s theory of human needs was then used toidentify the restriction of agency as a possible influence on health. This theory of role quality was operationalised using ameasure of work (paid and unpaid) quality at age 36 and a measure of work and family stress between ages 48 and 54. Therelatively poor subjective health in mid-life of lone mothers was explained by work and family stress and adult social class.In contrast, the poor health in mid-life of long-term homemakers and childless women was less easily explained.Homemaker?s excess risk of reporting poor health at age 54 remained strong and significant even after adjusting for rolequality and socioeconomic indicators, and childless women were at an increased risk of reporting poor health despite thesocial advantage inherent in attaining educational qualifications and occupying professional or managerial occupations.This study highlights the need to develop measures of role quality specifically designed to capture agency aspects of socialroles

A situated cultural approach for cross-cultural studies in IS

Cultural anthropology seeks to understand the similarities and differences among groups of people in the contemporary world. Although there are many different models of national culture, most IS research has tended to rely almost solely on Hofstede’s cultural model (Keil et al., 2000; Straub, 1994; Tan et al., 1995; Watson et al., 1994; Myers and Tan, 2002; Kirkman et al. 2006).). This paper, provides a comprehensive framework of situated culture approach to study culture within IS discipline. This is achieved via an articulation of Structuration Theory and the provision of an approach to study cross-cultural phenomena within IS discipline. The paper proposes two main components of the Structuration Theory based analysis model which is proposed as a way to study culture within IS discipline. First, the paper presents ideas behind the practice lens for studying the use of technology, as proposed by Orlikowski (2000). Secondly, the paper presents a Structurational analysis approach as detailed by Walsham (2002). The paper argues that using a practice lens contributes to identifying the mediated shared structures between actors through understanding the actions of the actors within the phenomena. Then, using a Structurational analysis approach contributes to identifying the cultural dimensions that are embedded in the identified mediated shared structures

Writing new scripts: redefining managerial agency in Cuba

Transitional societies are faced with particularly challenging and pressing problems. These usually involve the passage from a centralised, socialist-based society, to a decentralised, market-based economy. This paper addresses a somewhat different case: that of Cuba. According to the official discourse, the island is not in a state of transition. On the contrary, it is assumed that the conquests of the revolution are there to stay. Nonetheless, significant changes are taking place. The market logic is being adopted in a growing number of cases, ranging from empresas mixtas to the weak signals of entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on a series of eight focus groups with a total of 106 Cuban executives and management scholars, this paper addresses the uniqueness of the Cuban case on the basis of the theory of structuration. The paper reports how the need to keep the faith is being added with the adoption of Western management practices, and how the interplay between planned and emergent change is sculpting transition through the redefinition of managerial scripts.Cuba, managerial scripts, agency, structuration theory, focus groups