Jill M. Purdy

Conflicting Logics, Mechanisms of Diffusion, and Multilevel Dynamics in Emerging Institutional Fields

We examine the evolution of a new population of organizations (state offices of dispute resolution) in an emerging institutional field, focusing on how actions at multiple levels interact recursively to enable multiple logics to diffuse. Logics became institutionalized as organizational practices within the field of alternative dispute resolution through four diffusion mechanisms: transformation, grafting, bridging, and exit. By describing the interplay among entrepreneurial efforts, strategic responses to resource dependencies, and mechanisms of institutionalization over 22 years, we identify the conditions that enabled multiple practices supported by conflicting logics, rather than a single, dominant organizational form, to be institutionalized.

Advancing the Scholarship of Teaching Through Collaborative Self-Study

Self-study research is a mode of scholarly inquiry in which teachers examine their beliefs and actions as educators and explore pedagogical questions. A three-phase model of collaborative self-study research is offered as a framework for university faculty to engage in self-study for the purpose of improving teaching and creating new knowledge.

When a Good Idea Isn't Enough: Curricular Innovation as a Political Process

Curricular innovations are needed to maintain the relevancy of business schools in a dynamic world, but innovations are not always implemented and sustained even ii their technical merit is high. B...

Building a Strong Foundation: Using a Computer Simulation in an Introductory Management Course

This article examines how computer-based management simulations can help meet the objectives of the introductory management course. Seven criteria are developed to evaluate the appropriateness of simulations for the introductory management course. Using these criteria, the authors evaluate 11 currently available computer-based simulations that (a) address a broad array of issues including production, marketing, human resources, and accounting and (b) allow team play. Finally, suggestions for course design are offered to facilitate the integration of a computer simulation into an introductory management course.

Merging Reflective Inquiry and Self-Study as a Framework for Enhancing the Scholarship of Teaching

This article provides a model for improving teaching practice and developing new knowledge about teaching. The reflective self-study approach to pedagogical inquiry is rooted in reflective inquiry and self-study as found in nursing and education literature, respectively. The model offers nurse educators a mechanism by which they can better understand themselves as teachers and how their teaching affects students. Essential features of the model include interdisciplinarity and collaboration. Using the framework outlined in this article will help establish reflective self-study research as an accepted model of inquiry and further the dialogue on teaching in higher education.

Practice Variation as a Mechanism for Influencing Institutional Complexity: Local Experiments in Funding Social Impact Businesses

Abstract Institutional complexity shapes what is perceived as possible by framing cultural debates about practices, but organizations in turn shape how logics interpenetrate fields, suggesting that we must consider both the degree of compatibility between logics and the degree of practice variation in a field. Our exploratory study of three entrepreneurial impact finance organizations considers how they situate their practices between the market and community logics. We offer a recursive view that considers how multiple institutional logics shape practices and how entrepreneurial organizations adapt and invent new practices that, through their continued use, can influence the institutional complexity of a field.

Are Logics Enough? Framing as an Alternative Tool for Understanding Institutional Meaning Making

Understanding institutions requires attending both to their social fact qualities and to the bidirectional nature of institutional processes as they influence and are influenced by actors. We advocate for frames and framing as tools to elucidate meaning making activities, and to explain whether and how meanings subsequently spread, scale up, and perhaps become widely institutionalized. Frames as cognitive structures provide resources for actors and shape what they see as possible, while framing as an interaction process is a source of agency that is embedded in the everyday activities of individuals, groups, and organizations. In making the case for the framing approach, we consider how the extensive use of the logics approach in organization theory research has created confusion about what logics are and how they accommodate both structure and agency. We conclude with a discussion of the phenomenological and ontological potential of frames and framing.

Learning About Governance Through Nonprofit Board Service

Business educators have a responsibility to ensure that future managers, employees, and shareholders are well versed in governance. Governance provides a vital link between organizations and society, allowing people to place their trust in an organization, support its mission, and ensure a continuing flow of resources to accomplish the mission. This article discusses coursework in board governance that combines a 5-month internship on a community nonprofit board with academic class work on governance topics to create a unique learning opportunity. The course combines elements of internship, mentorship, and service learning with more traditional academic activities such as lectures, guest speakers, research, and analysis. Students gain greater awareness of the needs of the broader community and the challenges of serving them. The community gains from a growing pool of people with governance knowledge and skills who understand the value of community service.

Institutional Complexity and the Authenticity of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

Stakeholders frequently regard CSR initiatives as inauthentic gestures even when the corporation is trying to behave responsibly. In this study we develop theory about which initiatives are likely ...