Doctoral Dissertation Research: Organizational Identity and Decision-making

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SES-1302306 Lynne ZuckerOliver SchilkeUniversity of California-Los Angeles A key problem faced by organizational decision-makers is uncertainty regarding the relative value of alternative courses of organizational action. Two different streams of research in sociology have emphasized different mechanisms of dealing with such uncertainty. Research in neoinstitutional theory indicates that uncertainty leads organizations to imitate others in their field. The literature on identity theory suggests that people's group membership or organizational identity strongly informs how they behave in the presence of uncertainty. This dissertation research synthesizes the two theories to show how organizational identity affects the degree to which organizational decision-makers imitate others in their field.Several studies will be conducted using laboratory and web experiments with student and non-student samples. These studies not only test the relationship between organizational identity and resistance to imitation, but also examine performance feedback and identity type as potential contingencies. The positive link between organizational identity and resistance is expected to become stronger when performance feedback is positive (rather than nonexistent or negative) and when the organizational identity is of a normative (rather than a utilitarian) type. The knowledge created by the research advances theoretical understanding and heeds repeated calls for investigations into micro-level sources of organizations' responses to their institutional environments. Findings will contribute to identity theory by introducing environmental resistance as a new dimension on which decisions made by an individual differ from those made by a representative of a larger collective.Broader ImpactsThe research makes a methodological contribution by re-incorporating experimental research into neoinstitutional analysis, thus allowing for an approach to institutionalism that focuses on members of organizations and complements existing insights. Study findings will contribute to a better understanding of factors that drive organizational resistance to environmental pressures.