How to make institutional theory more critical and socially relevant

What is it about?

Over the past few decades institutional theory has become a dominant perspective in organisation theory. Recently there have been multiple calls to make this theory more socially relevant by incorporating the concept of power more centrally, and by using the perspective to speak to important societal challenges, such as poverty alleviation, social entrepreneurship, or inequality. This turn has attracted strong critique from critical management scholars. They argue that institutional theory is not suited to critical analysis, and is hampering the impact of truly critical perspectives by diluting them. This paper responds to these critiques by showing how socially relevant, critical analysis is possible within institutional theory, whilst respecting important differences with alternative critical theories.

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Why is it important?

This paper can help advance the effort to make the most dominant theoretical perspective in organisation studies over the past few decades more socially relevant, enabling it to generate new unique ideas for addressing some of today's most pressing societal challenges. For students of organisation theory it also clearly lays out key differences between institutional theory and critical theory.