European Business Schools Librarian's Group

ESSEC Working Papers,
ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School

No WP1409: Micro Processes and Isomorphic Adaptation: Insights from the Struggle for the Soul of Economics at the University of the Holy Spirit

Hamid Bouchikhi () and John R. Kimberly ()
Additional contact information
Hamid Bouchikhi: ESSEC Business School, Postal: 1 AVENUE BERNARD HIRSCH, CS 50105 CERGY, 95021 CERGY PONTOISE CEDEX, FRANCE
John R. Kimberly: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Postal: Vance Hall, Suite 111 , 3733 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.6340 , USA

Abstract: As of July 1, 2010, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of the Holy Spirit (UHS) has a single Department of Economics. However, in the seven prior years, there were two economics departments, one that was resolutely mainstream and the other that was just as resolutely heterodox. What accounts for this unusual organizational arrangement? We show that this arrangement was part of a protracted conflict about the kind of economics that befits the Catholic identity of UHS that resulted, ultimately, in a full embrace of mainstream economics in July 2010. We draw on and amend Oliver's (1991) typology of organizational responses to institutional processes and investigate why and how UHS went from deliberate avoidance to full acquiescence to mainstream economics. Our analysis suggests that while organizations may be compelled to adapt to dominant norms, as institutional theorists contend, the process of adaptation involves a variety of conflicting moves and counter moves that engage identity and power and that require forceful leadership to resolve.

Keywords: Institutional Isomorphism; Micro-processes; Organizational Adaptation

JEL-codes: I20

36 pages, May 2014

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