Making the Cut: Using Status-Based Countertactics to Block Social Movement Implementation and Microinstitutional Change in Surgery
Name
Kellogg_Making the Cut_Org Sci.docx_2012.pdf
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284.79 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
29e283f6b58f1c4b9c96c80597126aa7
Author(s)
Kellogg, Katherine C.
Date Issued
December 2011
Journal
Organization Science
Publisher
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
Citation
Kellogg, Katherine C. “Making the Cut: Using Status-Based Countertactics to Block Social Movement Implementation and Microinstitutional Change in Surgery.” Organization Science 23.6 (2012): 1546–1570. © 2012 INFORMS
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Much of the change that social movements try to accomplish requires changing practices inside organizations, yet reform implementation is difficult to achieve. This comparative case study of two hospitals demonstrates that implementing reform inside organizations may require internal reformers not only to mobilize with one another but also to stand up to internal defenders' countertactics in everyday encounters. Because reformer alliances across identity lines often require reformers with different statuses to collaborate with one another, defenders can divide reformer coalitions by linking reform practices to a status characteristic associated with lower-status reformers, denigrating higher-status reformers by associating them with these practices, and reintegrating higher-status reformers into the defender group. When status threat inside an organization is high to begin with, higher-status reformers are likely to be concerned about loss of privilege in the face of defenders' status-based countertactics and, in response, distance themselves from reform practices and align themselves with defenders to protect their identity and its rewards. This can undermine the multi-identity reformer coalition and cause change to fail. These findings regarding status-based countertactics contribute to our understanding of social movement implementation and microinstitutional change.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1110.0704
