Bernadette Bullinger

The Translation of Hospital Management Models in European Health Systems: A Framework for Comparison

In this paper we develop a framework for comparing changes in the management of public hospitals across different national health systems, drawing on insights from institutional theory. Using a range of secondary sources we show how one particular form of hospital management, pioneered originally at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, has been translated differently in four health systems: England, Denmark, Italy and France. This analysis builds on the notion of editing rules, which derive from the institutional context, and illustrates how these rules broaden our understanding of variable translations of global templates for hospital management. The paper concludes by highlighting wider implications for theory and policy.

Family Affairs: Drawing on Family Logic and Familiar Regime of Engagement to Contrast “Close-Up” Views of Individuals in Conventionalist and Institutionalist Reasoning

French Pragmatist sociology (FPS) and—more recently—the institutional logics (IL) perspective share an interest in micro-level actions, in particular, how individuals construct their identity and engage in material practices facing pluralist institutional contexts. IL researchers perceive the micro-level categories as directly determined by one or few dominant IL. In other words, the characteristics of society-level IL pervade all types of situations and are perceived as coordinating every kind of coordination between individuals. FPS, however, discusses pluralism with regard to different forms of grasping reality (regimes of engagement), which range from highly standardized situations to informal situations with little institutionalization. Only in standardized, public situations, individuals are likely to refer to higher common principles. I draw on an example that brings together family logic and the familiar regime of engagement to outline the differences between the IL and the French Pragmatist approach to individuals. Main points of departure are whether higher order common principles or logics dominate every kind of situation, what the appropriate level of analysis of micro-actions is, and how to empirically access them. I discuss the conceptual and epistemological implications for future studies.

Individuals’ Considerations When Responding to Competing Logics: Insights From Identity Control Theory

The question how individuals experience and respond to competing logics has recently received intensified attention, but current theories remain incoherent, and research is restricted to situations with stable constellations of logics. To elaborate on these issues, we use insights from identity control theory, and develop a model for individuals’ considerations during interactions characterized by institutional complexity. We argue that individuals engage with several logics, unless these logics are related to conflicting identities that become salient simultaneously. Conflicting identities encourage individuals to choose the logic that is linked to the identity higher up in their “self.” In situations where the conflict is not clear from the beginning, individuals may distance themselves from the logic that is related to a lower level identity, to maintain self-esteem. This article contributes to research by clarifying the competing perspectives on individual considerations when there are multiple institutional logics and extends research to dynamically evolving situations.

Working Identities: Individual and Organizational Identities in Women’s Narrative Identity Work

Work is an important setting for individuals’ identity work. As plural institutional contexts provide many possible courses of action, the organizational identity of one’s employer can be a means for people to express their identity. However, research on narrative identity work has so far neglected the role of organizational identity. This paper explores how individual and organizational identities are constructed in narrative identity work. Drawing on qualitative data from focus groups with women who pursue careers in technical fields, we find participants utilizing three key identities to make sense of employment and that organizational experiences as well as societal beliefs are used as resources to negotiate these identities. We also show how four forms of interrelations between organizational identities and individual identities are constructed through narrative identity work. Our study elaborates the concept of narrative identity work, and deepens our understanding of organizational identities and o...

Individual Implications of Institutional Pluralism: Actors Shifting Between Institutional Logics

Institutional pluralism describes situations, where multiple institutional spheres confront legitimacy-seeking (organizational and individual) actors with competing demands. However, the emerging f...

Der institutionelle Entrepreneur

Ausgangspunkt unserer Beschaft igung mit Entrepreneurship aus phanomenologischer Perspektive ist die Diskussion institutioneller Unternehmer innerhalb der neoinstitutionalistischen Organisationsforschung.