TY - CHAP
T1 - The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields
AU - DiMaggio, Paul J.
AU - Powell, Walter W.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative-leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.
AB - What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative-leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0011298072&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0011298072&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0742-3322(00)17011-1
DO - 10.1016/S0742-3322(00)17011-1
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:0011298072
SN - 0762306610
SN - 9780762306619
T3 - Advances in Strategic Management
SP - 143
EP - 166
BT - Economics Meets Sociology in Strategic Management
PB - JAI Press
ER -