The bureaucratic organization is still regarded as the conventional organizational form, but is ill-suited to an increasingly pluralistic world. Research on the variety of organizational forms has increased dramatically over the past three decades and offers the potential to understand better how pluralism is manifested and managed within organizations. However, this research remains fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize research on unconventional organizations to explore how organizations resolve or attenuate the tensions related to pluralism. Drawing from research in leading management journals, it covers seven distinct literatures: 'referent organization', 'temporary organization', 'pluralistic organization', 'metaorganization', 'bridging organization', 'hybrid organization' and 'field-configuring event'. For each literature, the authors trace the genealogy of the key concepts and review their distinct insights regarding organizational pluralism. They then synthesize and discuss their collective contributions and conclude with avenues of research for pluralism in organizations. Rise and fall of theories of traditional bureaucracyOrganization theory initially emerged with an interest in the bureaucratic organizational form as a means to achieve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Fayol and Taylor, generally credited as the field's founding fathers, sought to identify best practices based on the 'rational-bureaucratic' model. The 1950s saw the appearance of contingency theory,

Categories are organized vertically, with product categories nested under larger umbrella categories. Meaning flows from umbrella categories to the categories beneath them, such that the construction of a new umbrella category can significantly reshape the categorical landscape. This paper explores the construction of a new umbrella category and the nesting beneath it of a product category. Specifically, we study the construction of the Quebec terroir products umbrella category and the nesting of the Quebec artisanal cheese product category under this umbrella. Our analysis shows that the construction of umbrella categories can unfold entirely separately from that of product categories and can follow a distinct categorization process. Whereas the construction of product categories may be led by entrepreneurs who make salient distinctive product attributes, the construction of umbrella categories may be led by “macro actors” removed from the market. We found that these macro actors followed a goal-derived categorization process: they first defined abstract goals and ideals for the umbrella category and only subsequently sought to populate it with product categories. Among the macro actors involved, the state played a central role in defining the meaning of the Quebec terroir category and mobilizing other macro actors into the collective project, a finding that suggests an expanded role of the state in category construction. We also found that market intermediaries are important in the nesting of product categories beneath new umbrella categories, notably by projecting identities onto producers consistent with the goals of the umbrella category. We draw on these findings to develop a process model of umbrella category construction and product category nesting.

Institutional theory is a prominent perspective in contemporary organizational research. It encompasses a large, diverse body of theoretical and empirical work connected by a common emphasis on cultural understandings and shared expectations. Institutional theory is often used to explain the adoption and spread of formal organizational structures, including written policies, standard practices, and new forms of organization. Tracing its roots to the writings of Max Weber on legitimacy and authority, the perspective originated in the 1950s and 1960s with the work of Talcott Parsons, Philip Selznick, and Alvin Gouldner on organization–environment relations. It subsequently underwent a “cognitive turn” in the 1970s, with an emphasis on taken-for-granted habits and assumptions, and became commonly known as “neo-institutionalism” in organizational studies. Recently, work based on the perspective has shifted from a focus on processes involved in producing isomorphism to a focus on institutional change, exemplified by studies of the emergence of new laws and regulations, products, services, and occupations. The expansion of the theoretical framework has contributed to its long-term vitality, though a number of challenges to its development remain, including resolving inconsistencies in the different models of decision-making and action (homo economicus vs. homo sociologicus) that underpin institutional analysis and improving our understanding of the intersection of socio-cultural forces and entrepreneurial agency.

We examine the relationship between private and public regulatory authority in contexts characterized by radical transnational activist contestation against industry practices. Employing a comparative case design, we study government responses to similar activist campaigns calling for a trade ban on Canada’s sealing and fur industries. Relying on conventional public authority, the Canadian government was unable to prevent a European ban on seal skin products, leading to the collapse of its sealing industry. In contrast, its response to anti-fur trapping activists successfully employed private authority in the form of a standard-setting multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI). Doing so not only averted a ban but effectively shut down international debate over restrictions concerning the sale of products using trapped fur. Drawing from social movement theory on activist heterogeneity and political opportunity structure, we introduce a novel conceptualization of standard-setting MSIs as strategic instruments employed by governments to constrain the political opportunities for radical transnational activists. Our findings contribute to the literatures examining interactions between private and public regulatory authority, instruments of government repression and the political dynamics surrounding MSIs.

No abstract