Institutionalization of Sustainability

1
Institutionalization of Sustainability
A Comparative Study of Three Organizational
Fields of Needs Housing Construction,
Transportation, Information Communication
2
Embeddedness of the Study (1)

• research group Social Learning and
  Sustainability
• cooperation between
• field of interest learning processes that
  foster sustainable development
• focus on the ecological dimension, particularly
  climate change

University of Oldenburg (Germany)
Institute for Ecological Economic Research
3
Embeddedness of the Study (2)

• (1) societal level interorganizational
• (2) organizational level intraorganizational
• organizational learning and sustainability
• organizational conditions
• (3) product development
• interplay between businesses and consumers
• participatory processes
• linkage with climate modeling

macro
micro
4

• (1) research question and research focus
• (2) theoretical basis sociological
  neo-institutionalism
• organizational fields
• institutional mechanisms
• hypotheses
• (3) empirical results
• information communication

5
guiding research question and research focus (1)

• What fosters and limits sustainable development
  on the societal level?
• Focus 1 (problem) climate change
• Focus 2 (theoretical design)
• organizations are relevant/ important in modern
  societies
• Focus 3 (theoretical design)
• the interplay between organizations through
  processes of institutionalization
• institutionalisms
• economic institutionalism incentives
• political institutionalism power
• sociological institutionalism symbols
• new sociological institutionalism symbolic
  meaning of institutions

6
guiding research question and research focus (2)

• Focus 3 (empirical design)
• highly relevant fields
• housing construction
• (private) transportation
• information communication
• Focus 4 (empirical design)
• fields of needs vs. sector perspective
• demand perspective vs. supply perspective
• needs of consumers vs. needs of businesses
• Focus 5 (empirical design)
• organizational fields

7
sustainability
social problem
ecological dim.
institutions

• incentives
• power
• symbols

symbols
climate change
sociological neo-institutionalism
fields of needs

• housing constr.
• transportation
• info. commun.

organizations
organizational fields
institutional mechanisms
? organizational fields of needs
? institutionalization of sustainability
8
organizational fields

• societal perspective
• not the society as a whole
• not on the level of systems/ spheres of values
• loosely linked networks of organizations
• different types of organizations (economic,
  political, scientific organization, etc.)
• general characteristics (DiMaggio/ Powell 1983,
  65)
• interactions between the organizations
• system of share meanings
• Problem to be solve in the field
• not theoretically defined but depending on the
  research question

9
organizational fields specifics

• not merely one actor (state or businesses) in the
  centre of interest but interactions between
  different (types of) actors
• empirical perspective for participatory and
  learning processes towards sustainability
• against the background of the normative idea of
  the Agenda 21
• ? consequences for a social science
  perspective due to a regulative idea
• the state organizations are within the
  organizational fields
• the state remains a (powerful) regulator
• in addition moderator and mediator between
  different societal groups
• the state is not the only responsible actor for
  certain developments

10
organizational fields empirical specification

• sustainability of three fields of needs
• housing construction
• transportation
• information communication
• three organizational fields of needs
• identification of relevant organizations in each
  field(based on the study of literature)
• consumer organizations
• NGOs
• political organizations
• medias
• businesses
• trade association
• research institutes and universities

11
organizational fields methodology

• about 30 (10 in each field) experts interviews
  with members of the identified organizations
• goal experts perspective on the
  institutionalization of sustainability (second
  order perspective)
• third order perspective
• full transcription of the interviews
• categorization with maxqda
• summarize
• reflections against the background of
  neo-institutionalism
• comparison between the three fields

12
organizations
organizational fields
institutional mechanisms
institutional mechanisms
? organizational fields of needs
? institutionalization of sustainability
?
13
institutional mechanisms

• what are institutions?
• institutions guide our actions
• reduce uncertainty while they help to frame
  situations
• shared meanings that enable free individuals to
  coordinate their actions
• main interest of neo-institutionalism
• (mechanisms of) diffusion of institutional forms
• three main theses
• ceremonial adoption organizations embody
  institutionalized myths of their environment
  (Meyer/ Rowan 1977)
• isomorphism organizations in the same
  organizational field become increasingly similar
  due to the process of institutionalization
  (DiMaggio/ Powell 1983)
• degrees of institutionalization (Zucker 1991
  Tolbert/ Zucker 1996)

14
institutional mechanisms isomorphism

• isomorphism why? three mechanism
• forced isomorphism
• formal or informal (political) regulations
• such as law, standards etc.
• mimetic isomorphism
• organizations copy the behavior of other
  organizations
• fostered by professional observers, especially
  consultants
• normative isomorphism
• common normative knowledge
• through professionals such as engineers, layer,
  managers or, economists etc.

The more

• formal or informal (political) regulations

• consultants act as sustainable agents

• professionals have a sufficient
  understanding of sustainability

the higher the institutional degree of
sustainability.
15
institutional mechanisms legitimacy,
environment, and enactment

• legitimacy
• organizations orientate their actions to the
  legitimacy of the organizational environment
• uncertain environments
• the degree of uncertainty in organizational
  environmental influences an orientation on other
  organizations
• institutional shocks can increase uncertainty
• enactment
• sense making process
• capacity of organizations to interpret
  organizational environment

The more

• organizations depend on the legitimacy of the
  organizational environment

• uncertain organiza-tional environments

• ability of perception and interpretation of
  the organizational environment

the higher the institutional degree of
sustainability.
16
institutional mechanisms social settings and
institutional entrepreneurs

• social settings
• specific social settings can limit the
  development of new institutions
• cultural persistence
• institutional entrepreneurs
• single organizations that break with traditional
  routines and influences the organizational field
• innovative new ways
• characteristics
• crucial position in organizational fields (large
  and powerful)

The less

• strong the current social setting

the better the chances for sustainability.
The more

• institutional entrepreneurs

the better the chances for sustainability.
17
empirical results (1) information
communication

• general characteristics of the field
  increasingly relevant
• chances IC for sustainability
• risks on three levels
• first order effects, such as computer hardware
  and internet infrastructure
• second order effects, such as e-business, new
  management concepts
• third order effects change of living styles
• relatively low degree of institutionalization of
  sustainability in IC (in comparison to HC and
  M)

18
empirical results (2) institutionalization of
sustainability
IC
specifics
The more

• formal or informal (political) regulations

• low but increasing

• new recycling law (EU law)
• some labels (blue angle, energy star etc.)

• consultants act as sustainable agents

• not found

• not found in other fields

• professionals have a sufficient
  understanding of sustainability

• relevance of professionals in HC high
  (craftsman, architects) however they tend to
  limit a sustainable development

• low

the higher the institutional degree of
sustainability.
19
empirical results (3) institutionalization of
sustainability
IC
specifics
The more

• organizations depend on the legitimacy of the
  orga- nizational environment

• e.g. environmental issues are no criteria to buy
  a PC
• higher in M?

• low

• uncertain organiza-tional environments

• highly uncertain environment but a low
  institutionalization of sustainability

• -/-

• ability of perception and interpretation of
  the organizational environments.

• a first dialog forum for sustainability in IC
  has started in 2002
• lack of data on the ecological consequences of
  IC technology
• much more higher in M openness for dialogs

• low

the higher the institutional degree of
sustainability.
20
empirical results (4) institutionalization of
sustainability
IC
specifics
The less

• strong the current social setting

• strong setting

• high cultural persistence due to other values
  mobility and freedom
• interesting openness ? HC and M

the better the chances for sustainability.
The more

• institutional entrepreneurs

• no

• potentially telecom-munication enterprises such
  as the Deutsche Telekom
• incentive to act due to a high power consumption
• powerful and large actor

the better the chances for sustainability.
21
(political) recommendations for a sustainable
development in IC (1)

• foster dialog forums on sustainability in IC
• different actors
• development of visions of a sustainable
  information society
• data investigation of the ecological
  consequences of IC technologies
• research institutes and universities
• financially enabled by the government

22
(political) recommendations for a sustainable
development in IC (2)

• institutional entrepreneurs
• telecom enterprises
• social responsibility of businesses for an
  organizational field
• public agenda
• medias
• consumer organizations
• NGOs

23
(political) recommendations for a sustainable
development in IC (3)

• institutional shock
• formal regulation by the government
• energy labels for computer hardware
• include the consumption of energy during the
  production process
• provides consumers with relevant information
  (has also a symbolic meaning)
• incentive for businesses to consider ecological
  aspects

24
(political) recommendations for a sustainable
development in IC (4)

• summary
• very low institutionalization of sustainability
  in IC
• bundle of activities to foster sustainable
  development in IC
• dialog forums different actors
• data research institutes
• public agenda medias, consumer organizations,
  NGOs
• institutional entrepreneurs businesses
• institutional shock state

25
(No Transcript)