Navigating Institutional Plurality: Organizational Governance in Hybrid Organizations

Hybrid organizations operate in a context of institutional plurality and enact elements of multiple, often conflicting institutional logics. Governance is highly relevant in navigating such an environment. This study examines how hybrid organizations set up their governance structures and practices....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organization studies Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 713 - 739
Main Authors: Mair, Johanna, Mayer, Judith, Lutz, Eva
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.06.2015
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Corporate governance
Economic analysis
Governance
Innovation
Innovations
Organizational analysis
Organizational structure
Organizations
Prescription drugs
Qualitative analysis
Qualitative research
Social enterprises
Social entrepreneurship
Social responsibility
Studies
hybrid organization
institutional logic
social enterprises
mechanism
institutional plurality
governance
ISSN:0170-8406, 1741-3044
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Hybrid organizations operate in a context of institutional plurality and enact elements of multiple, often conflicting institutional logics. Governance is highly relevant in navigating such an environment. This study examines how hybrid organizations set up their governance structures and practices. Building on survey data from 70 social enterprises, a subset of hybrid organizations, we identify two types of hybrid organization: conforming hybrids rely on the prioritization of a single institutional logic and dissenting hybrids use defiance, selective coupling and innovation as mechanisms to combine and balance the prescriptions of several institutional logics. We illustrate these mechanisms by drawing on the qualitative analysis of selected cases. This study refines current debates on social enterprises as hybrid organizations. Based on our findings, we speculate that some social enterprises might assume hybridity for symbolic reasons while others – genuine hybrids – do so for substantive reasons.
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ISSN:0170-8406
1741-3044
DOI:10.1177/0170840615580007