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Serving two masters: Transformative resolutions to institutional contradictions

Religion and Organization Theory

ISBN: 978-1-78190-692-7, eISBN: 978-1-78190-693-4

Publication date: 16 April 2014

Abstract

In this article, we use the case of religious research universities to explore the presence of multiple institutional logics with the potential for contradiction and conflict. In particular, building on existing research on conflicting institutional logics, we assess the most common forms of resolution (replacement, dominant logic, decoupling, compartmentalization, and coexistence) and identify the potential for a new form of resolution – a transformative outcome that resolves the conflicts through adoption of a superordinate logic. Drawing on the history of Baylor University, we illustrate different forms of resolution, proposing its most recent efforts may represent a transformative outcome. We close by presenting a model for resolving institutional contradictions which suggest some resolutions may trigger cycles of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization when they are inherently unstable because they mitigate rather than resolve the conflict between institutional logics.

Keywords

Citation

DeJordy, R., Almond, B., Nielsen, R. and Douglas Creed, W.E. (2014), "Serving two masters: Transformative resolutions to institutional contradictions", Religion and Organization Theory (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 41), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 301-337. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20140000041017

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited