عنوان

An investigation of change in the dominant logic of an organsational field :

Number

TLets391874

Title Proper

An investigation of change in the dominant logic of an organsational field :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

O'Brien, Daniel J.

Title Proper by Another Author

the case of senior English rugby union

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

De Montfort University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2000

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

De Montfort University

Text preceding or following the note

2000

Text of Note

In 1995, the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) decided to open theformerly amateur game of rugby union to professionalism. This thesis focused on theimpact this decision had on the organisational field of senior English rugby union. Whenthe game was declared "open, " the amateur ethos was still heavily institutionalised in theEnglish game. Therefore, amateur values and norms helped establish a mutuallyconstructed world view, or dominant logic, that served to shape the repertoire ofstrategies chosen by organisational decision-makers. Focusing on the years between 1995and 1999, the study examined a particularly turbulent period in the English game, asconstituents attempted to manage the milieux of pressures caused by the field's shiftingdominant logic.The professionalisation of senior English rugby union provided an excellentcontext to investigate the process by which the heavily institutionalised dominant logic ofan organisational field changes. To accomplish this aim, primary data were gatheredthrough 43 semi-structured interviews with key field-level actors. Secondary data werecollected from sources such as the clubs' and Rugby Football Union's (RFU) historicaldocuments and promotional material; media releases and Internet websites; newspapers,on-line newspapers, dedicated rugby publications, and broadcast media; and finally,archival material from the RFU Museum at Twickenham in London. Underpinned by thebasic tenets of institutional theory, content analysis of these primary and secondary dataallowed for a thick description of the change process to emerge.Structured in three main sections, the first part of this thesis showed that changein the field's dominant logic involved profound shifts in its communities of actors,exchangep rocesses,in terorganisational linkages, and regulatory structures.I n addition,extending current institutional accounts of change in organisational fields, it was alsofound that change in the dominant forms of capital at stake in the field provided anothermajor indicator of a shift in dominant logic. The emergence of the new professional logiccreated unprecedented uncertainty, but simultaneously, led to increasing homogeneity inthe organisational practices of actors throughout the field. This pattern of organisationalchange, known as institutional isomorphism, resulted when actors' individual efforts todeal rationally with the uncertainty and constraint inherent to the new professional logic,led to similarities in their structure, strategy, culture, and output.In the second part of this study, the mechanisms of institutional isomorphism -coercive, normative and mimetic pressures, were shown to be instrumental in facilitatingthe diffusion of the field's new professional logic. The initial pattern of diffusion wasstatus-driven, where decision-makers mimicked the strategies implemented by high statuscompetitors. Continued uncertainty rapidly led to a "bandwagon" of strategy diffusion,where clubs, fearing lost legitimacy, mimicked competitors' strategies in a poorlyresearched and ad hoc manner. This period of uncertainty was characterised by intensecompetitive pressures and, despite tighter system coupling, a marked reticence amongorganisations to exchange vital strategic information. As failing organisations wereselected out, coercive isomorphic pressures applied by the field's new regulatorystructures rose in salience. As a result, actors finally began sharing information of astrategic nature. This increase in the field's multiplexity of ties indicated that the sociallearning of adaptive responses was taking place. This was seen as a more productivemeans of strategy diffusion than the status-driven and bandwagon processes that hadearlier taken precedence. It was concluded that the social learning of adaptive responseswas integral to the burgeoning maturity of the field. Actors came to agree upon acommon purpose - the production of a strong league of clubs, as opposed to the existenceof a handful of successful clubs.The third section of the thesis was a case study analysis of one EnglishPremiership rugby union club's strategic response to institutional pressures forprofessionalisation. Utilising and extending Oliver's (1991) typology of strategicresponses to institutional processes, the argument that organisations automaticallyconform to pressures in their institutional environment was analysed. It was demonstratedthat organisational compliance with institutional pressures was by no means automatic.Rather, the organisation's strategic responses were revealed as the products of aprotracted political debate among influential stakeholders that evolved over time. It wasshown that organisations' strategic responses to institutional pressures might moreaccurately be viewed as taking place at multiple organisational levels. It was thussuggested that these responses could be viewed as the products of an amalgam ofdifferent responses at various organisational levels

O'Brien, Daniel J.

De Montfort University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

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Y