Constructing a legitimate history: crisis, legitimacy, and the atlantic schools of Business Conferences

Abstract

The Atlantic Schools of Business (ASB) conference is one of the longest running academic business conferences in Canada. It continued without the structure of an organizing committee for 34 years. In its 35th year, however, a formal structure was adopted. The adoption of formal structure provides an opportunity to look critically at the change process from various perspectives. This paper takes three interrelated approaches: reviews of archival material to provide context; surveys of ASB membership to ascertain individual perceptions of the organization's purpose; and interviews with key individuals involved in the change process to examine the decision to formalize. Our analysis shows that perceived organizational crisis and a search for enhanced legitimacy can precipitate isomorphism and exclude alternative avenues for change. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organizing a precarious black box: An actor‐network account of the Atlantic Schools of Business, 1980–2006

“…In their examination of the ASB, Long, Pyper, and Rostis () argued that perceived organizational crisis led, isomorphically, to the formalization of an executive committee in 2005. Then, in 2006, PhD students at Saint Mary's University began writing histories and/or narrative accounts of the ASB; these included Durepos (), MacAulay, Mills, and Durepos (), Murray (), and Hartt () on ANT and the ASB; Campbell () on scholars' curricula vitae (CVs); Murray () on doctoral students' identity construction; Genoe McLaren and Mills () on awards discourse; and Barragan and Mills () on the conference's social construction.…”

“…In their examination of the ASB, Long, Pyper, and Rostis (2008) argued that perceived organizational crisis led, isomorphically, to the formalization of an executive committee in 2005. Then, in 2006, PhD students at Saint Mary's University began writing histories and/or narrative accounts of the ASB; these included Durepos (2006), MacAulay, , Murray (2007), and Hartt (2009) Amid these accounts of the social construction of ASB over time are many rich narratives about the conference's significance (or lack thereof) to management scholarship.…”

The role of accreditation in establishing academic legitimacy in graduate level non-profit management education

“…The more programs an agency accredits, the more likely such an agency is legitimate. Long et al (2008) provided an account of constructing legitimacy for the larger field of business and also described the effect isomorphism had on shaping the legitimacy of the field. Long et al's (2008) study contributed to understanding how legitimacy is connected to formalized processes and how these formalized processes potentially limited collegiality, flexibility and reinvention.…”