From Interactions to Institutions: Microprocesses of Framing and Mechanisms for the Structuring of Institutional Fields

Forthcoming in Academy of Management Review, January 2015

29 Pages Posted: 6 Sep 2014 Last revised: 28 Apr 2015

See all articles by Barbara Gray

Barbara Gray

Pennsylvania State University - Center for Research in Conflict and Negotiation (CRCN)

Jill M. Purdy

University of Washington, Tacoma - Milgard School of Business

Shaz Ansari

University of Cambridge - Judge Business School; Erasmus University, Rotterdam (EUR)

Date Written: August 30, 2014

Abstract

Despite the centrality of meaning to institutionalization, little attention has been paid to how meanings evolve and amplify to become institutionalized cultural conventions. We develop an interactional framing perspective to explain the microprocesses and mechanisms by which this occurs. We identify three amplification processes and three ways frames stack up or laminate that become the building blocks for diffusion and institutionalization of meanings within organizations and fields. Although we focus on the “bottom-up” dynamics, we argue that framing occurs in a politicized social context and is inherently bi-directional in line with structuration because micro-level interactions instantiate macro structures. We consider how our approach complements other theories of meaning-making, its utility for informing related theoretical streams and its implications for organizing at the meso and macro levels.

Keywords: Institutions, frames, framing, structuration, Goffman, Giddens, logics, mechanisms, institutional change and maintenance, model

JEL Classification: M00

Suggested Citation

Gray, Barbara and Purdy, Jill M. and Ansari, Shahzad (S, From Interactions to Institutions: Microprocesses of Framing and Mechanisms for the Structuring of Institutional Fields (August 30, 2014). Forthcoming in Academy of Management Review, January 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2492113

Barbara Gray

Pennsylvania State University - Center for Research in Conflict and Negotiation (CRCN) ( email )

408 Beam Business Admin. Bldg.
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HOME PAGE: http://www.personal.psu.edu/b9g/

Jill M. Purdy

University of Washington, Tacoma - Milgard School of Business ( email )

1900 Commerce Street
Campus Box 358420
Tacoma, WA 98402-3100
United States

Shahzad (S Ansari (Contact Author)

University of Cambridge - Judge Business School ( email )

Trumpington Street
Cambridge, CB2 1AG
United Kingdom

Erasmus University, Rotterdam (EUR) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room T08-21
3000 DR Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands

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