Robert I. Sutton

What Theory Is Not

We are grateful to Steve Barley, Max Bazerman, Daniel Brass, Gary Alan Fine, Linda Pike, Robert Kahn, James March, Marshall Meyer, Keith Murnighan, Christine Oliver, and David Owens for their contributions to this essay. This essay was prepared while the first author was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. We appreciate the financial assistance provided by the Hewlett-Packard Corporation and the National Science Foundation (SBR-9022192). This essay describes differences between papers that contain some theory rather than no theory. The~re is little agreement about what constitutes strong versus weak theory in the social sciences, but there is more consensus that references, data, variables, diagrams, and hypotheses are not theory. Despite this consensus, however, authors routinely use these five elements in lieu of theory. We explain how each of these five elements can be confused with theory and how to avoid such confusion. By making this consensus explicit, we hope to help authors avoid some of the most common and easily averted problems that lead readers to view papers as having inadequate theory. We then discuss how journals might facilitate the publication of stronger theory. We suggest that if the field is serious about producing stronger theory, journals need to reconsider their empirical requirements. We argue that journals ought to be more receptive to papers that test part rather than all of a theory and use illustrative rather than definitive data.

Acquiring Organizational Legitimacy Through Illegitimate Actions: A Marriage of Institutional and Impression Management Theories

This article links institutional and impression management perspectives in a process model of how controversial and possibly unlawful actions of members of organizations can lead to endorsement and support from key constituencies. This model is grounded in interview, archival, and observational data concerning eight illegitimate actions attributed to members of two social movement organizations. We found that institutional conformity and decoupling illegitimate activities from legitimate structures facilitated spokespersons’ efforts to use impression management tactics that shifted attention away from the controversial actions and toward the socially desirable goals endorsed by broader constituencies. As a result, these organizations used publicity generated by illegitimate actions to obtain endorsement and support from those constituencies. We discuss the implications of the model for other kinds of organizations and derive testable propositions. We also consider implications for institutional and impres...

The Stigma of Bankruptcy: Spoiled Organizational Image and Its Management

Interview, archival, and observational data from four computer firms were used to develop a theory about how Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code spoils the image of top managers and firms. We...

Isomorphism and External Support in Conflicting Institutional Environments: A Study Of Drug Abuse Treatment Units

Using institutional theory, we developed predictions about organizational units that moved from an environment making consistent demands to one making conflicting demands. Many community mental health centers have diversified into drug abuse treatment. The units providing those services face conflicting demands from the traditional mental health sector and the new drug abuse treatment sector about which clients to serve, how to assess their problems, and who should provide treatment. We propose that in response to such demands these units will adopt apparently conflicting practices. Also, isomorphism with the traditional sector will be positively associated with external support from parent mental health centers and other actors in the mental health sector. Results generally support those predictions.

Decreasing Organizational Size: Untangling the Effects of Money and People

Literature on declining organizations focuses on two indicators of decreasing size—loss of financial resources and work force reduction. This effort to integrate the decline and size literatures combines psychological and sociological perspectives to distinguish between the effects of these two variables. Following the psychological threat-rigidity thesis, loss of financial resources is proposed to cause mechanistic shifts in organizational structures and jobs. We advance a more complex model about the influence of work force reduction that combines psychological and sociological perspectives. In the short term, the threat provoked by work force reduction brings about mechanistic shifts in structures and jobs. In the long term, however, the threat wanes and, following sociological theory, a second set of shifts occurs, in which less mechanistic means of coordination and control are used for the smaller work force.

The Responses of Drug Abuse Treatment Organizations to Financial Adversity: A Partial Test of the Threat-Rigidity Thesis

This article derives hypotheses from the threat-rigidity model about organizational responses tofinancial adversity. These hypotheses are tested in a national sample of 72 randomly selected drug abuse treatment organizations. We propose that decreasing funding levels and numbers of funding sources will be associated with four classes of rigidities in organizations: (a) restriction in information processing (rigid use of existing organizational procedures), (b) constriction of control (less participative decision making), (c) conservation of resources (work force reduction), and (d) competition among members. The threat-rigidity thesis is supported by findings that decreases in total budgets are associated with rigid use of existing procedures, work force reduction, and competition among organization members. Further; decreases in number offunding sources are associated with less participative decision making, work force reduction, and more competition among members.

How and Why Theories Matter: A Comment on Felin and Foss (2009)

Theories matter because they affect behavior and can, under certain circumstances, become self-fulfilling. For a theory to become self-fulfilling, people must be aware of the theory and have the ability to make choices according to its dictates, social and physical arrangements are altered on the basis of the theorys prescriptions, and the proponents have the power to implement social arrangements consistent with the theory. Economics and other social science theories often fulfill these conditions, with implications not only for the work of scholars, but also for how we think about testing theories that can change the world they describe.

Job Stress among Primary and Secondary Schoolteachers Its Relationship to Ill-Being

The relationship between job-related stress and individual ill-being was explored in a random probability sample of 200 public schoolteachers. The responses of these teachers were used to (1) test the hypothesis that stress is positively related to personal strain; (2) explore the theoretically derived stress categories of role demands, instructional problems, and interpersonal relations as predictors of individual strain; and (3) identify individual stressors within these categories that are predictors of strain. The results indicate that teacher stress is related to strain and that role demands are the most important predictor of strain, followed by instructional problems and then by interpersonal relations. In addition, structural role conflict, interrole conflict, role overload, student discipline, and interpersonal conflict were identified as individual predictors of strain.

Technologies of status management status dynamics in e-mail communications

This chapter considers the social structuring processes that occur in groups using computer medicated communications (CMC). Building on a model of status dynamics in face-to-face groups, we develop a series of propositions that indicate how characteristic differences between face-to-face and computer-mediated communications media are likely to affect the behaviors used by individuals to manage their status in a group setting. We propose several types of behaviors or moves that appear to be used to create, negotiate, and manage status in electronically communicating groups. We use qualitative field data from on-going teams to illustrate this perspective of how communication technology can shape the informal social structures of groups.

Task Procrastination in Organizations: A Framework for Research

Procrastination in organizations may have adverse effects on both individual well-being and system effectiveness, yet studies on this topic are sparse and theoretical development appears to be nonexistent. Procrastination is viewed here as the act of putting off a task that either the focal person or other role-senders expect should be done at the present time. Hence, the emphasis here is upon aspects of the work environment that give rise to procrastination rather than on habits and personality characteristics. Three categories of situational variables are proposed as predictors of task procrastination: characteristics of the task, the relationship between the focal task and other tasks, and attributes of the organization. Furthermore, task discretion is hypothesized to moderate the relationships between these sets of predictors and procrastination. The ways in which this framework may be useful for empirical research and as a starting point for subsequent theory generation are discussed. Finally, it is suggested that future research and theory-building should not focus exclusively upon the negative aspects of procrastination.