Academic Identity
I am assistant professor of Sociology at Barnard College. My book (and my dissertation research) is a comparative study of technology and futures trading, an ethnography of open outcry and electronic traders. My current research is on how art specialists price cultural commodities, particularly how categories and commensuration work in the secondary/resale fine arts market. I teach courses in economic sociology, organizations, and gender.
Professional Identity
I occasionally consult, focusing on organizational change, the future of technology and financial markets, and environmental markets. I do strategic assessments of markets, technology and organizational design, with qualitative and quantitative components. If you are interested, please email me.
Personal Identity
I grew up outside Chicago, and went to school(s) at Wesleyan University, USC, and Northwestern University. I currently live in New York, with a partner who is a marketing manager for an educational nonprofit. I love movies, like to cook, and I can do a mean lindy swing out. I am INTP.
July 21, 2008
Unhelpful institutional theory, real world
Filed under: Institutional — Peter @ 10:41 am
Let’s say that the CEO of an organization publicly announces during a board meeting that if the org misses its (ambitious) numbers over the coming year, she will eliminate X employees. We know that often, public announcements of impossible goals get met not by actually meeting those goals, but by shifting the goalposts down the line - (i.e., that the $10 million gap somehow gets filled at the last moment, or that fuzzy ‘productivity’ numbers come into line somehow). But just as often, those publicly-stated goalposts force company’s do make real changes, despite their often-symbolic nature (i.e., that Exxon commits itself publicly but symbolically to ‘green technologies,’ which then gives employee activists ammunition to start up a costly recycling program which otherwise the company would reject).
But when are ambitious, symbolic statements going to be decoupled from on-the-ground changes, and when are ambitious, symbolic statements going to be the impetus for on-the-ground changes? Absent a wave to ‘well-situated activists’ or somesuch, do we really have an answer here?
2 Responses to “Unhelpful institutional theory, real world”
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This site is hand-woven, and heavily borrows from the wonderful blueprint framwork. Rock on, grids!
Not quite
, but getting there..
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 am
The issue of faithful corporate announcements was tackled quite long ago in an interesting piece published here:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27850
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:25 am
I actually remember that from when it came out - and I like that the Onion is a basic part of your literature repertoire..
The purpose was more proximate, I fear. A friend’s director/CEO recently announced that he might be laid off if the org didn’t hit its super-aggressive numbers next year. But this past year, when they didn’t hit their numbers, a magical (non-Enron) accounting miracle occurred so that they ended meeting their previous impossible goal. They basically extended the time period for meeting the goal - nothing unethical, but magical.
So the question is, should he start looking for a new job, or assume that when they don’t make their numbers, some other face-saving will appear.
My own humble assessment was that making an announcement allows the director to lay off or not, depending on whether he wants to keep people - the flexibility of an aggressive, unmeetable goal means that the goal can be altered along the way with desire to do so, but it can also be offered up as a legitimate excuse for laying people off. So he probably won’t be fired, but it may be time to start looking.