Institutional maintenance and elite sport: a case study of high-performance women’s ice hockey in Canada

From isomorphism to institutional work: advancing institutional theory in sport management research

“…The latter category involves valorizing and demonizing, mythologizing, and embedding and routinizing work. Further, the six types of institutional maintenance work primarily entail two domains: Rules and Symbols (Edwards & Stevens, 2019;Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006;Micelotta & Washington, 2013;Trank & Washington, 2009). The first category -Rulesinvolves "the use of forms of regulatory and legitimate authority" (Trank & Washington, 2009, p. 239), which entails the creation of regulations and standards, and the establishment and enforcement of policies to protect the institution (Edwards & Washington, 2015).…”

“…Since Washington and Patterson (2011) initial review of institutional theory in sport management, institutional work has gained popularity in the sport literature. Primarily, institutional work has been used in empirical settings that included national sport organizations (e.g., Dowling & Smith, 2016), NCAA (e.g., Cocchiarella & Edwards, 2020;Nite, 2017;Nite, Ige et al, 2019), anti-doping (e.g., Read et al, 2020), professional sports (Nite & Hagan, 2017;, and the sport of hockey (e.g., Edwards & Stevens, 2019;Edwards & Washington, 2015). The inclusion of institutional work within sport settings has been an effective means for addressing Washington and Patterson (2011) concerns of deeper understandings of micro and macro processes of institutional creation, change, and maintenance.…”

“…The inclusion of institutional work within sport settings has been an effective means for addressing Washington and Patterson (2011) concerns of deeper understandings of micro and macro processes of institutional creation, change, and maintenance. To date, much of the research that has used an institutional work lens has employed qualitative data collection methods, in the form of interviews (e.g., Edwards & Stevens, 2019;Edwards & Washington, 2015), policy document analyses (e.g., Dowling & Smith, 2016), historical content analyses (e.g., Nite, Ige, et al, 2019;Nite & Washington, 2017), and analyses of media accounts (e.g., Cocchiarella & Edwards, 2020;Nite, 2017;. Generally speaking, sport research has been largely confined within Lawrence and Suddaby (2006) forms of institutional work with Hampel et al's (2017) conceptualizations receiving minimal attention.…”

“…Additionally, they found that educational campaigns at the local level, along with advocacy of important local figures, and documented the successes of other hockey leagues served to develop support for change initiatives that ultimately served to maintain institutional arrangements in minor hockey. Edwards and Stevens (2019) examined the stakeholders who had been involved in Canadian women's elitelevel hockey and the impacts those stakeholders had on the developmental pathways for elite-level players. Their research illustrated institutional maintenance through the enactment of strategic processes that "allow maintenance through legitimacy, status, and power" (pg.…”

“…11). Thus, Edwards and Stevens (2019) built upon the work of Zilber ( 2009), Nite (2017), and Micelotta and Washington (2013) to further illustrate the differences in regulatory processes and symbolic processes within the context of a sport setting. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with key actors found within the institutional context of women's hockey.…”