Social media echo chambers create serious issues for organisations

When an organisation miscommunicates with its stakeholders, they can spread their anger through social media, write Madeline Toubiana and Charlene Zietsm

Organizing sustainably: Introduction to the special issue

To confront the climate crisis requires fundamental system change in order to break the convention of relentless economic exploitation of nature. In this Special Issue we extend understanding of the opportunities for an organizing perspective on sustainability in order that organization studies might contribute more effectively to the challenges of organizing sustainably. This organizing perspective is particularly sensitive to (1) a variety of forms and practices of sustainable organizing in different societal spheres and on different levels, (2) the social institutions, logics and value systems in which these forms and practices are embedded, (3) the power and politics of promoting (or blocking) sustainable organization, and (4) the ways in which work, voice, participation, and inclusion are organized and contribute to developing societal capabilities. These features formed the basis of our original call for papers and we review selected literature on sustainability, including the contribution of organization studies and the articles in this Special Issue, through this organizing perspective. In so doing we identify four key themes of a future research agenda that builds from the foundations of existing research and addresses key current limitations in both theory and practice: sustainability requires social justice; connecting local and global scale shifts; democratizing governance; and acting collectively. We conclude with some implications for our own scholarship in organization studies if we are to meet the twin challenges of the need for new theorizing in combination with devising practically relevant support for change

The interplay of agency, culture and networks in field evolution

We examine organizational field change instigated by activists. Contrary to existing views emphasizing incumbent resistance, we suggest that collaboration between incumbents and challenger movements may emerge when a movement's cultural and relational fabric becomes moderately structured, creating threats and market opportunities but remaining permeable to external influence. We also elucidate how lead incumbents' attempts at movement cooptation may be deflected through distributed brokerage. The resulting confluence of cultural and relational "structuration" between movement and field accelerates the pace but dilutes the radicalness of institutional innovation, ensuring ongoing, incremental field change. Overall, this article contributes to the emergent literature on field dynamics by uncovering the evolution and outcomes of collaborative work at the intersection of social movements and incumbent fields

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Determinants and processes of institutional change in the B.C. coastal forest industry

This dissertation was motivated by a dramatic story of institutional change in the BC coastal forest industry after years of active resistance to such change. Individuals, organizations, stakeholders of those organizations, members of the organizational field, and changes in the broader external environment all played a part in bringing the change about. The highly publicized nature of the issue, and the 'extreme' characteristics of the setting offered a unique opportunity to address the research question: "How does institutional change occur within organizations and fields?". This dissertation has focused on identifying determinants and processes of institutional change at multiple levels of analysis. Rich data from multiple sources was collected over the period from 1980 to 2001 in the BC coastal forestry context. These data included interviews with organizational field members, field notes/texts from public speeches, presentations, and a protest trip, media accounts, organizational documents and websites, and other academic reports. These multiple sources were triangulated and analyzed qualitatively using a grounded theory approach featuring recursive iterations between data and theory. Issues examined included a) organizational responses to stakeholder influence attempts (Chapter 3), b) intra-organizational learning and change processes at the institutionally entrepreneurial firm (Chapter 4), and c) multilevel determinants and processes of institutional change (Chapter 5, synthesizing the insights of Chapters 3 and 4). This dissertation contributes new insights and offers refinements to existing perspectives on institutional change, organizational learning and stakeholder theory. Specifically, changes in field membership, relational patterns, interpretations and stakeholder salience were found to interact with one other to create the conditions for institutional change. While prior literature has identified contextual conditions as impacts on organizational responses to institutional pressures (Oliver, 1991), in this study it was found that contextual conditions were in part enacted by a focal firm's attentional and relational patterns. Furthermore, some members of an organization had divergent interpretations and distinctive relationships. When these members had social skills for meaning-making, and were able to obtain sufficient power or endorsement, organizational level change could occur. Such change in an institutionally entrepreneurial firm could trigger change in the organizational field. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.Business, Sauder School ofOrganizational Behaviour and Human Resources, Division ofGraduat

Toward Permeable Boundaries of Organizations?

Ringel L, Hiller P, Zietsma C. Toward Permeable Boundaries of Organizations? In: Ringel L, Hiller P, Zietsma C, eds. Toward Permeable Boundaries of Organizations?. Research in the Sociology of Organizations. Vol 57. Bingley: Emerald; 2018: 3-28