Institutional School

Question 1

In Sicily, it used to be normal to pay protection money to the mafia: Pizzo. People who stood against it were not only threatened by the mafia, but also unsupported by their peers.
The Addiopizzo was a group of activists against the mafia who successfully changed one of the key institutions of Sicilian society: the Pizzo.

Their main research question?

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 1

How can institutional change succeed in social contexts that are dominated by organized crime?

> Understanding the antecedent of microprocesses in institutional change.

Question 2

Micro processes

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 2

repeated microlevel activities that form particular recognizable patterns. (Routine)

Question 3

Values

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 3

desirable, trans-situational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives. It is an important driving force for change.

Question 4

When does Institutional change occur?

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 4

When taken-for-granted values, beliefs, and practices are transformed or defeated and replaced.

Question 5

Agency is needed for change and there are 2 problems with agency:

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 5

1. Usually powerful actors are needed to change and usually those actors benefit from the status quo.
2. The paradox of embedded agency:

Question 6

The paradox of embedded agency

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 6

Actor’s values, beliefs and practices are determined by the context in which they are embedded, how can they escape that pressure and the very context that shapes their thinking and behavior.

Question 7

Values are important for institutional change because (2):

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 7

1. the success of institutional alternatives depends on their ability to connect “through language to higher-order societal values or to core values within the organizational field”.
2. change initiatives may succeed if they resonate with the values prevailing in the targeted institutional context.

Question 8

Analysis: Hooking

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 8

Gaining stakeholders attention (opening the minds). It sharpens the awareness of normative or cognitive tensions among critical stakeholders, opening a discussion about a critical value.

Interactions between stakeholders and the activists (Addiopizzo) aimed at 1.; building trust and 2.; move the stakeholder from a stance of moral disengagement too paying attention to mafia related problems (reframing). The latter is moral attention and acknowledging the importance of values.

Question 9

Analysis: Anchoring

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 9

using values to anchor their change initiative in the wider society. Alternative understanding (analyze consequences and compare to other institutions). Sense of urgency?

Question 10

Analysis: Activating (action plans):

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 10

relying on the engaging of power of values, provide an alternative understanding of the targeted value and progressively involve different stakeholders in your initiative. Here values are being translated in actions. (idealizing on an individual level)

Question 11

! Analysis: Securing

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 11

create favorable conditions for the new behavior. (safe spaces; different for every stakeholder)

> VERY IMPORTANT

Question 12

Analysis: Value based activities
(like creating safe spaces= participation of stakeholders) had 2 outcomes:

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 12

1. stakeholders can reinforce new meanings of values through discussion.
2. Safe spaces supported the emergence of new ideas aligned with the new values.

Question 13

Analysis: Uniting: connect stakeholders and weave new ties and reduce the risk to individual stakeholders. Create new networks in levels and multi-level. This had 2 outcomes

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 13

1. Minimize risks- unified you are stronger.
2. New network of protagonists of the new values.

Institutional changes normally occur when advantageous political opportunity structures exist for an institutional alternative. Use tension in your favor. Involving various stakeholders in crucial.

Question 14

Theorizing the strategic use of values work

1. Important in change:
2. Performative power of values:

Vacarro & Palazzo (2016)

Answer 14

1. Theorizing the strategic use of values work
   Important in change: Develop alternative practices and update beliefs/values.
2. Performative power of values: it contributes to the construction of the reality that it describes. Values can be used strategically to highlight normative tensions and drive change.

Question 15

The traditional definition of routines do not explain the prevalence or the effect of them.

Name the 3 metaphors are used to define routines. These metaphors highlight the inertial aspect of routines.

Feldman& Pentland (2003)

Answer 15

1. Individual habits: habits are automatic.
2. Programs, performance programs or scripts: all major decisions are made in advance, standard protocol.
3. Genetic material: the nature as compared to the nurture. Can predict behavior, but environment plays a role too.

Question 16

The ostensive aspect of routines:

Feldman& Pentland (2003)

Answer 16

Rhe ideal or schematic form of a routine. This shapes the perception of what the routine is. Artefacts of this aspect may exist in various forms. Understanding of this varies among actors. This aspect does not include any performative elements- otherwise this will be too detailed.

Question 17

The performative aspect of routines:

Feldman& Pentland (2003)

Answer 17

Routines consists of specific actions by specific people in specific time and places. Practice is improvisational. Even when routines are very well established, there is always self-reflection and the possibility of resisting expectations and doing otherwise.

Question 18

Routines: Ostensive relation to performative (ETIC)
> 3

Feldman& Pentland (2003)

Answer 18

The ostensive aspect can be used retrospectively or prospectively:

• Guiding: template for behavior or a normative goal. However, people choose the performance- reflexive self-monitoring.
• Accounting: explains what were doing and provide a sense of when it is appropriate to ask for an accounting (legitimizing). Retrospective sensemaking. Ready made justification for actions.
• Referring: as a reference to comprehend the routine, this allows organizational members to engage in activities they don’t fully understand. You don’t have to know all the details, you know the general sense.

Question 19

Routines: Performative to ostensive relation (EMIC)
> 3

Feldman& Pentland (2003)

Answer 19

Performative aspect is essential for the creation, maintenance and modification of the routines (like speaking does to a language). Important here is the effect of individual behavior on routines.

• Creation: a written procedure must me performed repeatedly before it becomes an organizational routine.
• Maintenance: performing a routine wil keep the ostensive part of a routine “alive”. Without this it will be an “unwritten script”.
• Modification: deviation from the ostensive part (through external influence or self-reflection) can create modifications

Question 20

Flexibility in routines is influenced by (3):

Feldman& Pentland (2003)

Answer 20

• Subjectivity: a routine is energized and guided by the subjective perceptions of the participant. The ostensive creates an objective reality. The objective and subjective are mutually constitutive.
• Agency: people have a choice to act and how and are self-reflective, it is a set of possibilities for the participant. Interdependence from multiple actors involved moderates this relation.
• Power: the creation and enforcement of routines can be seen as the primary mechanism for the domination of labor. You can say that the ostensive aspect is about the managerial decisions (dominance) and the performative aspect is about the interests of the labor (resistance). People with power can shape routines and can turn exceptions into rules. However, variations are often necessary to manage unexpected events.

Question 21

Critical mass theory

Centola et al.2018

Answer 21

Argues that when a committed minority reaches a critical group size, the critical mass, the social system crosses a tipping point. Ones this tipping point is reached, the actions of the minority group trigger a cascade of behavior change that rapidly increases the acceptance of a minority view. The power of these groups comes from the commitment to the case.

Question 22

What is the tipping point of the critical mass theory?

Centola et al.2018

Answer 22

The research shows that a critical mass of 24.3% could be sufficient to overturn established norms.

Question 23

How can the critical mass theory be applied?

Centola et al.2018

Answer 23

This information can be usefully applied concerns the growing ability of organizations and governments to use confederate actors within online spaces to influence conventional behaviors and beliefs. In social media, this is already happening.

Question 24

Name the 3 underlying constructs of Moralizing

Vaccaro & Palazzo

Answer 24

1. Hooking
2. Anchoring
3. Activating

Question 25

Name the 2 underlying constructs of Integrating

Vaccaro & Palazzo

Answer 25

1. Securing

2. Uniting