Organizations as Polities: An Open Systems Perspective

Weber, Klaus; Waeger, Daniel

doi:10.5465/annals.2015.0152

Cited by 68 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 212 publications

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“…The perspective of organizations as open polities was originally proposed as an extension to social movement scholarship, with scholars seeking to integrate organizational theory with research on movements (Weber et al, 2009;Zald, 1970;Zald et al, 2005). The perspective revives insights of classic organizational theory treating organizations as polities-coalitions with divergent views and interests that operate within a formal authority system (March 1962;Selznick, 1949; for a recent review see Weber & Waeger, 2017).…”

Section: The Open Polity Framework and Institutional Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…We draw on the open polity perspective of organization-environment relationships (Weber & Waeger, 2017;Zald, Morrill, & Rao, 2005) to address these points. This perspective conceives of organizations as polities-that is, political entities composed of heterogeneous groups operating in an organizational context with formal and informal power structures (Zald, 1970; see also March 1962).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In this perspective, organizational commitments to new environmental demands flow from the stance internal groups-enabled and constrained by an organization's power structures-develop vis-à-vis these demands (Weber, Rao, & Thomas, 2009). At the heart of the open polity perspective, thus, is the question of how new external demands interact with the preexisting political constellation that reflects at least in part an imprint of historical logics (Weber & Waeger, 2017). Drawing on classic and recent work in the open polity perspective (Weber & Waeger, 2017;Zald, 1970), we propose two dimensions along which organizations' political constellations differ: (1) elite unity, which is the extent to which the identities and interests of organizational elites have historically been uniformly grounded in a common institutional logic, and (2) the centralization of authority, which is the extent to which decisionmaking authority in an organization has historically been centralized.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Institutional Complexity and Organizational Change: An Open Polity Perspective

Waeger

Weber²

2019

AMR

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Changing environments often expose organizations to institutional logics that are at odds with other logics that were imprinted into the organizations in the past, giving rise to conflict. We specifically propose that prior institutional environments imprint organizational coalitions and governance systems-the organization's polity-and that these polity imprints explain variance in organizational change processes in response to new logics. We argue that such polity imprints shape how different organizational groups construe their conflicting interests in relation to new logics, how they mobilize for and against changes emanating from these logics, and how the outcomes of group conflict become stabilized. To develop this argument, we identify four ideal types of organizational polities, based on differences in the centralization of authority and the unity of organizational elites. Each ideal type gives rise to a characteristic pattern of how organizations process the advent of new logics. Our analysis demonstrates the utility of conceptualizing organizations as open polities-political entities that interact with their external environment-and the importance of taking historically imprinted political features of organizations into account in studies of organizational responses to institutional complexity.

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Section: The Open Polity Framework and Institutional Changementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Institutional Complexity and Organizational Change: An Open Polity Perspective

Waeger

Weber²

2019

AMR

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“…Political fit entails alignment with the agendas and interests of key organisational actors. This perspective recognises that organisations consist of individuals and groups that have evolving and diverging interests and resources (Weber and Weager 2017). In the context of sustainable business education, substantive integration depends in part on internal organisational politics and the allocations of power and resources (Solitander et al 2012).…”

Section: Fit In the Context Of Sustainable Business Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Centres and Fit: How Centres Work to Integrate Sustainability Within Business Schools

et al. 2018

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For nearly as long as the topic of sustainable business has been taught and researched in business schools, proponents have warned about barriers to genuine integration in business school practices. This article examines how academic sustainability centres try to overcome barriers to integration by achieving technical, cultural and political fit with their environment (Ansari et al. in Acad Manag Rev 35(1):67-92; Ansari et al., Academy of Management Review 35 (1): 2010). Based on survey and interview data, we theorise that technical, cultural and political fit are intricately related, and that these interrelations involve legitimacy, resources and collaboration effects. Our findings about sustainability centres offer novel insights on integrating sustainable business education given the interrelated nature of different types of fit and misfit. We further contribute to the literature on fit by highlighting that incompatibility between strategies to achieve different types of fit may act as a source of dynamism.

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“…Reduction of uncertainty has been a key topic for scholars in the open-system tradition of management research. The core premise of this theoretical tradition is that organizations are intimately linked to their external environment, which shapes their structure and behaviors (Scott and Davis, 2015;Weber and Waeger, 2017). Organizations are viewed as information-processing units that are relationally embedded in their environment (Knight and McDaniel, 1979;Kreps, 1986;Smith et al, 1991;Thompson, 1967;Tushman and Nadler, 1978;Weick, 1979).…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Following in Partners’ Footsteps: An Uncertainty‐Reduction Perspective on Firms’ Choice of New Markets

Makarevich

Kim

2018

J Management Studies

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In this paper, we develop a new perspective on what determines firms’ choice of new markets for entry. First, drawing on the open‐system theoretical tradition and literature on inter‐organizational networks, we advance and empirically test the proposition that firms tend to enter new markets to which they are connected by partnership ties. We then show that this network influence is filtered through the structure of firms’ network connections to new markets and firms’ experience. Specifically, we find that multiplicity of connections to new markets, as well as the extensiveness of firms’ experience and its relevance to new markets weaken the effect of network ties on firms’ choice of new markets. The results of this study indicate that firms’ choice of new markets for entry is a nuanced process that is affected by the interplay of firms’ collaborative ties, the structure of their network, and firms’ internal capabilities. We test our hypotheses in the empirical context of the U.S. venture capital (VC) industry using panel data over a 23‐year period and find broad support for them.

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Organizations as Polities: An Open Systems Perspective

Cited by 68 publications

References 212 publications

Institutional Complexity and Organizational Change: An Open Polity Perspective

Institutional Complexity and Organizational Change: An Open Polity Perspective

Sustainability Centres and Fit: How Centres Work to Integrate Sustainability Within Business Schools

Following in Partners’ Footsteps: An Uncertainty‐Reduction Perspective on Firms’ Choice of New Markets

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