Values and Organizational Structure

Abstract

Recent developments in organizational theory emphasize the need to examine the relationship between organizational values and structure. Values underpin organizational structure and give it meaning. Drawing on concepts of culture, institutional theory, and archetypes, this paper tests hypotheses on the value/structure relationship. The sample used for the study was a set of Canadian amateur sport organizations undergoing institutional change. This test shows that there is a fit between elite values and the nature of the institutionally prescribed organizational archetype.

The Emergence of Change in Unexpected Places: Resourcing across Organizational Practices in Strategic Change

“…For instance, while interests have been conceived as related to agents' "view of the appropriate allocation of scarce resources" (Ranson, Hinings, & Greenwood, 1980: 6), agents' values have often been treated as distinct from interests and not tied explicitly to potential resources (e.g. Cha & Edmondson, 2006;Hinings, Thibault, Slack, & Kikulis, 1996). Drawing on Bourdieu's relational framework, we consider values as forming an essential part of the relations between agents and potential resources, which in turn shape interests, as well as their willingness to challenge others.…”

For ‘Love’ and Money: A Sports Club’s Innovative Response to Multiple Logics

“…These people were chosen because they represented the managerial elite of the club, and as Hinings, Thibault, Slack, and Kikulis (1996) argued, they control or adopt the institutional values. At both times, a person from the NFF, who dealt with matters relating to the Premier League clubs and the establishment of shareholding companies, was interviewed by telephone.…”

“…Scholars have investigated changes in amateur sport organizations at the national level (Amis, Slack, & Hinings, 2004;Girginov & Sandanski, 2008;Hinings, Thibault, Slack, & Kikulis, 1996;Kikulis, 2000;Kikulis, Slack, & Hinings, 1992Stevens, 2006), and in professional sport franchises (Cousens, 1997;Cousens & Slack, 2005;O'Brien & Slack, 2004). A central theme guiding these investigations of organizational change is Hinings and Greenwood (1988) and Hinings's (1993, 1996) conception of archetypes (templates of organizing).…”

The management buy‐out arena: differential slip in a tripartite alliance?

“…The main observation, however, is the lack of responsiveness to an evolving MBO arena by the main parties involved as expressed in terms of interviewees' values and beliefs. We have taken these to be indicators of the structures and systems of their organizations (Hinings et al, 1996) and this focuses attention upon the forces for inertia in the constraints of professional organizational structures. The question then is the extent to which such structures impair the ability of professional firms to engage with shifting external phenomena and whether, in turn, these phenomena can or should institute change in professional firms.…”