Suhaib Riaz

Institutional Work Amidst the Financial Crisis: Emerging Positions of Elite Actors

We draw on the institutional work literature to analyse the rhetoric in mainstream media spawned by the global financial crisis. We identify the emerging positions (status quo, neutral and change) of actors on major themes (policy, practices, recovery and regulation) related to the crisis and the rhetorical processes used (appeals to expert authority, finding someone to blame, use of scenarios, and avoidance of critical discussion) to communicate these positions. We find that academics lead the charge for change in policy, relying mostly on rhetorical processes that involve the use of past scenarios and blame, but also often avoid critical discussion through over-generalization. In contrast, banks focus on changes in practices, mostly using future scenarios, finding specific others to blame, and also appealing to expert authority. The US Federal Reserve takes the lead on maintaining the status quo on regulation-related issues, largely through using various scenarios and appeals to expert authority. We also find a large number of neutral positions and interpret this as tacit support for existing institutions. We conclude by charting out a broader research agenda for further investigation of the actors-institutions interplay, particularly within the context of the financial crisis.

Bringing inequality back in: The economic inequality footprint of management and organizational practices

In this article, I argue for ‘bringing inequality back in’ to organizational research in order to investigate the role of management and organizational practices in macro-level economic inequality. To set an agenda in this area, I suggest considering three loci where the links between organizations and inequality may be observed: the organizational locus comprising the producer/employee, investor and consumer dimensions; the inter-organizational locus to help disentangle issues related to the distribution of economic rewards across value chains, large financial versus non-financial organizations, and across occupations and organizations in general; and socio-political system as a locus where issues related to social change, political influence and the institutional system may be unpacked. In addition, I suggest considering the link between organizations and inequality from other important vantage points: elites, demographics, global inequality and debt. I also briefly highlight issues related to data and analyses. Throughout, I discuss the contributions of the five articles in the special issue and how they push us towards this agenda. Finally, I suggest that it may be helpful to think of an ‘inequality footprint’ of management and organizational practices, potentially leading organizations to reduce and reverse this footprint and ensure that economic benefits reach wider society.

Rhetoric of epistemic authority: Defending field positions during the financial crisis

In this article we explore how elite actors respond to a field-wide crisis. Drawing from a study of CEOs of large US banks in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis, we show how elite actors use rhetorical strategies to defend their dominant position in the field. Specifically, we show how actors strengthen their epistemic authority – the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of an actor – through four distinct but interwoven rhetorical strategies. Actors used two internally-directed means of strengthening epistemic authority by providing rational guarantees and expressing normative responsibilities, and two externally-directed strategies that sought to strengthen their own epistemic authority by lowering the epistemic authority of others through critiquing judgments and questioning motives. We contribute to research on defensive institutional work by highlighting how elite actors rhetorically defended their position following a field-wide crisis.

Emergence of a New Institutional Logic: Shaping the Institutionally Complex Field of Community Radio in India

We draw on an in-depth investigation into the phenomenon of community radio in India to identify the emergence of an institutional logic in a field. We delineate five stages of emergence, starting with problematization of dominant logics and ending with formation of an institutionally complex field. Further, we highlight how such a process results in organizational forms that reflect ongoing struggles among dominant logics and the emerging logic. We contribute to neoinstitutional studies on the emergence of social objects and also draw the attention of emergence theorists to the contested manner in which emergence takes place in the social world.

Categorizing Competence: Consumer debt and the reproduction of gender-based status differences

We examine how gender inequalities are reproduced through categorization processes in mainstream discourse. Drawing from an analysis of six years of US media coverage of credit card borrowers throughout the recent financial crisis, we show how categorization processes facilitate gender-based status differences by categorizing male and female credit card borrowers based on competence. We find that three dimensions of competence—savviness, responsibility, and agency—are constructed through two discursive mechanisms: accounts and vocabularies. Additionally, we highlight how vocabularies work to amplify stereotype-consistent accounts, yet undermine stereotype-inconsistent accounts. We contribute to research on institutional maintenance by highlighting the role of categorization processes in the reproduction of institutionalized relations of inequality. Further, we contribute to research on gender inequality by offering an in-depth examination of the micro-processes involved in the social construction of gender-based status differences. In this way, we shed new light on the cultural means through which gender inequalities are reproduced.