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Institutional Organizational Analysis - Change and Transformation - 5+1 ECTS
Course Coordinators: Professor Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen & Professor Eva Boxenbaum
Professor Tammar Zilber
Department of Organization, CBS & Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Professor Renate Meyer
Department of Organization, CBS & WU Vienna
Department of Organization, CBS
Department of Organization, CBS
Prerequisites
Phd students are required required to present a five-pages (maximum) written presentation in which they relate the curriculum literature in the course to their project. The presentation must include specific references to the literature applied. Deadline for submission of course paper is 23 August 2025. This written presentation will be shared with other students and students will present their project in the course and will receive feedback on it.
The student presentation should provide material for discussion in minor groups during the course, and the student must be willing to participate in discussions of other presentations.
It is a precondition for receiving the course diploma that the student attends the entire course.
Aim
Course Content
The course focuses on the school within institutional theory that is rooted in sociology. We trace the development of the theory from its conception to its most recent developments and applications in organizational analysis. We explore historical change and transformations in the meaning of organizational structures and practices and analyze how institutions are constructed and diffused; how institutional elements are incorporated into and translated in organizations as well as how institutional change and institutional entrepreneurship influence specific organizational fields. We discuss diverse methodological approaches to the study of institutionalization processes – macro- as well as micro approaches – and explore the applicability of institutional theory and methods to the empirical projects of course participants.
Participants may opt to take an add-on module (1 ECTS) to deepen their learning from this course. Students will submit and present a substantial revision of their written presentation within a few weeks and participate in discussion of revised presentations submitted by other students who take the add-on module.Teaching style
Using institutional translation to foster organizational change
Institutional work and entrepreneurship
Methods in institutional analyses
Critiquing organizational institutional analysis
New directions in institutional theory
Wrap-up and evaluations
Optional add-on module: online meeting (3 hours)
Exam
Course Literature (preliminary)
Spicer, A. (2019). Neo-institutional theory and organization studies: a mid-life crisis? Organization Studies, 40(2), 199-218.
Battilana, Leca & Boxenbaum (2009). How actors change institutions: Toward a theory of institutional entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Annals, 3, 65-107.
Berg Johansen & Waldorff (2017). What are institutional logics - and where is the perspective taking us? In G. Kruecken, C. Mazza, R. E. Meyer, & P. Walgenbach (Eds.): New Themes in Institutional Analysis: 51-76. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Boxenbaum & Jonsson (2017). Isomorphism, diffusion and decoupling: concept evolution and theoretical challenges. Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Lawrence, T.B., & Meyer, R. E. (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism (2nd ed.): 77-101. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Boxenbaum & Strandgaard (2009). Scandinavian institutionalism – a case of institutional work. In T. Lawrence, R. Suddaby, & B. Leca (Eds.), Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations: 178-204. Cambridge University Press.
Bromley & Powell (2012). From smoke and mirrors to walking the talk: Decoupling in the contemporary world. Academy of Management Annals, 6, 483–530.
Cappelen & Strandgaard Pedersen (2021). Inventing culinary heritage through strategic historical ambiguity’. Organization Studies, 42(2), 223–243.
Cartel, Boxenbaum & Aggeri (2019). Just for fun! How experimental spaces stimulate innovation in institutionalized fields. Organization Studies, 40(1), 65-92.
Czarniawska & Joerges (1996). Travel of ideas. In B. Czarniawska & G. Sevon (Eds.), Translating Organizational Change: 13-47. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
DiMaggio & Powell (1983). The Iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. Chapter 3 in W. W. Powell, & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.). The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. University of Chicago Press.
Drori (2019). Hasn’t institutional theory always been critical?! Organization Theory, 1(1), doi.org/10.1177/2631787719887982
Friedland & Alford (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices and institutional contradictions. Chapter 10 in W. W. Powell, & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.). The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. University of Chicago Press.
Jancsary, Meyer, Höllerer & Barberio (2017). Toward a structural model of organizational-level institutional pluralism and logic interconnectedness. Organization Science, 28(6), 1150-1167.
Lampel & Meyer (2008). Field-configuring events as structuring mechanisms: How conferences, ceremonies, and trade shows constitute new technologies, industries, and markets. Journal of Management Studies, 45(6): 1025-1035.
Lawrence & Suddaby (2006). Institutions and institutional work. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, W. R. Nord, & T. B. Lawrence (Eds.), SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies, 2nd ed.: 215-254. London, UK: Sage.
Lawrence, Leca & Zilber (2013). Institutional work: Current research, new directions and overlooked issues. Organization Studies, 34(8), 1023-1033.
Leibel, Hallett & Bechky (2018). Meaning at the source: The dynamics of field formation in institutional research. Academy of Management Annals, 12(1), 154-177.
Mazza & Strandgaard Pedersen (2017). Organizational adaptation and inverse trajectories: Two cities and their film festivals. In G. Kruecken, C. Mazza, R. E. Meyer, & P. Walgenbach (Eds.), New Themes in Institutional Analysis: 282-304. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Meyer & Rowan (1991 [1977]). Institutional organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. Chapter 2 in W. W. Powell, & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. University of Chicago Press.
Meyer (2008). New sociology of knowledge: Historical legacy and current strands. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby, & K. Sahlin (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism: 519-538. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Meyer, R. (2019). ’A processual view on institutions. A note from a phenomenological institutional perspective’. In T. Reay, T. B. Zilber, A. Langley & H. Tsoukas (Eds.), Institutions and Organizations: A Process View. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Munir (2019). ‘Challenging institutional theory’s critical credentials’. Organization Theory, 1(1), doi 2631787719887975.
Powell (1991). Expanding the scope of institutional analyses. Chapter 8 in W. W. Powell, & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. University of Chicago Press.
Reay, Goodrick, Waldorff, & Casebeer (2017). ‘Getting leopards to change their spots: Co-creating a new professional role identity.’ Academy of Management Journal, 60 (3), 1043-1070.
Jakob Sadeh & Zilber (2019). ’Bringing “together”: Emotions and power in organizational responses to institutional complexity. Academy of Management Journal, 62(5): 1413-1443.
Strandgaard & Dobbin (2006). In search of identity and legitimation: Bridging organizational culture and neoinstitutionalism. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(7), 897-907.
Reay, Goodrick, Waldorff, & Casebeer (2017). ‘Getting leopards to change their spots: Co-creating a new professional role identity.’ Academy of Management Journal, 60 (3), 1043-1070.
Waldorff, S. B., & Madsen, M. H. (2023). Translating to maintain existing practices: Micro-tactics in the implementation of a new management concept. Organization Studies, 44(3), 427-450.
Waldorff, Reay & Goodrick (2013). A tale of two countries: How different constellations of logics impact action. In M. Lounsbury, & E. Boxenbaum (Eds.), Institutional Logics in Action. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 39A, 99-129. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.
Willmott, H. (2015). ‘Why institutional theory cannot be critical?’ Journal of Management Inquiry, 24(1):105-111.
Wooten & Hoffman (2017).’Organizational fields: Past, present and future’ In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, T. B. Lawrence, & R. E. Meyer (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, 2nd ed.: 55-74. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Zilber (2024). Narrating institutional logics into effect: Coherence across cognitive, political, and emotional elements. Administrative Science Quarterly, 69, 172-221.
Zilber (2020). The methodology/theory interface: Ethnography and the microfoundations of institutions. Organization Theory, 1(2), 1-27. Zilber (2014). Beyond a single organization: Challenges and opportunities in doing field level ethnography. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 3(1), 96-113.Course Diploma
PhD students must participate in the entire course to be eligible for the course diploma. The diploma will be issued after the last day of the course or following any exam or assignment due after the course. It will be sent to the email address you provided during registration.
The binding registration deadline is 01 August 2026.If you wish to cancel your registration, you must do so by this date. After the deadline, we will assess whether there are sufficient registrations to run the course and, if necessary, allocate seats if demand exceeds capacity.
If seats remain available after this deadline, the registration period may be extended to fill the remaining seats.
Please note that once you receive our acceptance or welcome letter, your registration becomes binding, and no refunds of the course fee will be issued.
Information about the Event
Date and time Monday 14 September 2026 at 13:00 to Friday 18 September 2026 at 15:00
Registration Deadline Saturday 1 August 2026 at 23:55
Location
Kilen - room KL4.74 (fourth floor)
Kilevej 14A
Frederiksberg
DK-2000
Organizer
Nina Iversen, CBS PhD School
Phone +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk
Event Location
About CBS PhD School
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) offers a range of PhD courses, covering the scientific disciplines of the school. The courses include research design, publication techniques, research methods such as qualitative or quantitative methods, and specialisation courses in eg. organisational analysis, marketing and political science.
Most courses are organised as intensive week-long courses, but other formats are applied as well. The courses are open to PhD students from other countries and institutions, but some prerequisites may apply. Please see the individual course descriptions.
The PhD courses are offered in English and are for PhD students only.
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Event Location
About CBS PhD School
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) offers a range of PhD courses, covering the scientific disciplines of the school. The courses include research design, publication techniques, research methods such as qualitative or quantitative methods, and specialisation courses in eg. organisational analysis, marketing and political science.
Most courses are organised as intensive week-long courses, but other formats are applied as well. The courses are open to PhD students from other countries and institutions, but some prerequisites may apply. Please see the individual course descriptions.
The PhD courses are offered in English and are for PhD students only.