The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields

Item

Title

The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields

Abstract/Description

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes--coercive, mimetic, and normative--leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

Author/creator

DiMaggio, Paul J.

Powell, Walter W.

Date

1983

In publication

American Sociological Review

Volume

48

Issue

2

Pages

147-160

Resource type

en Background/Context

Medium

en Print

Background/context type

en Conceptual

Open access/free-text available

en Yes

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0003-1224

DOI

10.2307/2095101

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (JSTOR)

Full-text PDF Shared by Author (ResearchGate)

Citation

DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101

Cited in

Conclusion: Building the Field of Improvement Research in Education

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Theoretical

Item sets

Handbook Conclusion Citations

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