Nils Brunsson

The organization of hypocrisy : talk, decisions and actions in organizations

Part 1 Organizations and inconsistent norms: institutional environments inconsistent environments. Part 2 The political organization principle: the ideal type of action organization the ideal type of political organization organizations in the real world - politics and action politics in organizational processes. Part 3 Politics in practice: attempts at action produce politics politics again inconsistencies in ideologies and roles the dominance of politics. Part 4 Decisions as transition between politics and action: the case of Greaton decision-makers as defensive scrutineers opinion-making implementation decision-makers as bearers of responsibility. Part 5 Responsibility as an impediment to influence - the case of budgeting: budgeting budgeting under stagnation roles and actors in the budget process the allocation of responsibility control - supply and demand budgeting as an instrument for external financing. Part 6 The responsible organization: society as hierarchy implementation or legitimation an illustration Stanby - implementation or legitimation? the role of politics. Part 7 Projects and organizations: two projects strategies for meeting external demands - delegation, rationality and ideology. Part 8 Ideas, decisions and actions in organizations: ideas and actions alternative interpretations of organizational decision-making decision-making and the allocation of responsibility decisions as legitimation four roles of decisions. Part 9 The dynamics of hypocrisy: the paradoxes of presentation and result public organizations and the publicness of organizations implications for organizational stakeholders.

A world of standards

In this insightful discussion of the phenomenon of standardization in organizations and society at large, the authors regard standards as a form of regulation enabling a higher degree of global o ...

The irrational organization : irrationality as a basis for organizational action and change

Organizations and Change The Irrationality of Action and Action Rationality Rationalities, Uncertainties and Actions Action Rationalization - Injecting Action Rationality into Rationalistic Decision Processes Ideologies and Change Action Ideological Change Change Actions in Political Organizations Summary and Implications References Index.

Organization outside organizations: the significance of partial organization

It is common practice in organizational research to restrict the concept of organization to formal organizations, and to describe the world outside these entities by such other concepts as institutions or networks. It is argued in this article that the concept of organization can be fruitfully broadened to include some aspects of the order that exists outside and among organizations. A broader concept includes not only complete, formal organization, but also ‘partial organization’. Both types of organization are based on decisions, but whereas complete organizations have access to all elements of organization, partial organization is based on only one or a few of these elements. Like complete organization, partial organization is a common phenomenon that not least characterizes much of the contemporary global order. The authors discuss how partial organization arises, how and why institutions and networks sometimes become organized, and the consequences of organization for change, transparency and accountability.

The Dynamics of Standardization: Three Perspectives on Standards in Organization Studies

This paper suggests that when the phenomenon of standards and standardization is examined from the perspective of organization studies, three aspects stand out: the standardization of organizations, standardization by organizations and standardization as (a form of) organization. Following a comprehensive overview of existing research in these three areas, we argue that the dynamic aspects of standardization are under-represented in the scholarly discourse. Furthermore, we identify the main types of tension associated with standardization and the dynamics they generate in each of those three areas, and show that, while standards and standardization are typically associated with stability and sameness, they are essentially a dynamic phenomenon. The paper highlights the contributions of this special issue to the topic of standards as a dynamic phenomenon in organization studies and makes suggestions for future research.

Ideas and actions: Justification and hypocrisy as alternatives to control

Abstract Popular hierarchical models of organizations and societies contain two assumptions about the relation between the ideas of constituencies and leaders on the one hand and organizational, and societal actions on the other: that ideas and actions are consistent, and that ideas control actions. In this article some practical difficulties in achieving consistency and control are discussed. Consistency is difficult to achieve when what can be done cannot be said and vice versa, and control is difficult to combine with consistency when ideas change more rapidly than action. The difficulty of achieving consistency and control can be partially overcome by combining ideas and actions in two other ways. One combination involves justification, and the other hypocrisy.

Deciding for responsibility and legitimation: Alternative interpretations of organizational decision-making

Abstract Standard prescriptive theories of decision-making and the use of information for making decisions in organizations presume that decisions serve the purpose of choice. In this article it is argued that organizational decisions sometimes play one or more of three other roles: mobilizing organizational action, distributing responsibility or providing legitimacy. Different roles imply different designs of decision processes, different usages of information, different costs and different needs for making decisions at all. The degree of rationality in decision processes tends to vary according to the roles adopted. High degrees of rationality can be interpreted as attempts to prevent action, evade responsibility or support organizational legitimacy in a complex environment.

The Organization of Markets

Markets have sometimes been described as vastly different from and even opposite to formal organizations. But markets and organizations share a similarity as well. Both are organized – by the use of decisions on membership, rules, monitoring, sanctions or hierarchy. Market organization creates differences among markets, and specific dynamics, which can be explained by the actions and interactions of market organizers: profiteers, ‘others’, sellers and buyers. The concept of market organization is an analytical tool, which can be used for analysing why and how markets are created, why they get their specific form and how they change.

The Dynamics of Standardization

In modern organizations and societies, standards are proliferating. They occur in most fields (e.g., corporate governance, financial and social auditing, product development, technical design), take many forms (e.g., membership standards, multi-stakeholder standards), and are particularly relevant when we are thinking about regulating organizations beyond national boundaries (Brunsson &Jacobsson 2000; Djelic & Sahlin-Andersson 2006). In a broad sense, we can define standards as a particular type of rules: voluntary rules that are explicitly formulated to pertain to a wide set of actors (individuals or organizations). Many organizations are involved in developing, sustaining, and implementing standards. Such organizations include, but are not limited to, standard makers, adopters, monitoring and certification agencies, and the wider public. Standards and standardization are often addressed as part of the wider discussion of organizational regulation. Regulation involves creating and propagating more or less explicit rules and thus fosters the formation of social order. Hence, studying standards allows us to consider both the “demand side” of order, i.e., how organizations and individuals are affected by organizing efforts, and the “supply side,” i.e., how organizing elements are produced. Despite their pervasiveness and significance in modern life, social scientists have given comparatively little serious attention to standards. It is only within the last few years that researchers have started to systematically explore standards and the process of standardization. Apart from research on individual standards such as ISO 9000 (e.g., Beck & Walgenbach 2005), CSR standards (e.g., Déjan et al. 2004) or accounting standards (e.g., Perry & Noelke 2005), there are now also attempts to explore the logic of standards per se (e.g., Mörth 2004). In this special issue of Organization Studies we want to bring together the various strands of theorizing in this nascent area of research. We do so to take stock of the developments and to advance the research agenda. We are particularly (but by no means exclusively) interested in exploring the various dynamics underlying standardization: those involved in standards development, standards adoption, standards following, and standards enforcement. By focusing on the dynamic aspect of standards and standardization, we can look into the social interactions, political maneuvers, power relations, manipulative practices, and external pressures that shape the production and adoption of standards by organizations. Researching the dynamic character of standards also implies a close examination of the evolution, growth, maturation, and disappearance of standards in society. We are interested in discussing the organization and production standards on the macro level (i.e., society) and the micro-level institutional practices that standard implementation brings about. Thus, we call for papers that deal with the various aspects and dynamics of standardization. We are interested in conceptual and empirical studies that draw on a variety of theoretical perspectives, such as institutional theory, micro-political approaches, social theories of practice, and in quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. Possible topics for contributions include, but are not limited to, the following issues:

How much do meta-organizations affect their members?

In the contemporary world there is a large and growing number of formal organizations. There are more states, firms and associations than ever before (Drori et al.2006). Many firms and associations transgress state boundaries and can be called international or transnational. International associations – often called “international organizations” – have spurred considerable interest from scholars studying international relations, internationalization and globalization. The interest demonstrated by scholars studying organizations in general has been weaker. Most scholars in the field of organizations studies have concentrated more on the study of firms than of associations, let alone international associations.