Doctoral Dissertation Research: Organizational Identity and Decision-making

SES-1302306 Lynne ZuckerOliver Schilke加州大学洛杉矶分校组织决策者面临的一个关键问题是关于组织行动的替代课程的相对价值的不确定性。社会学的两个不同的研究方向强调了处理这种不确定性的不同机制。新制度理论的研究表明，不确定性导致组织在其领域模仿他人。认同理论的文献表明，人们的群体成员身份或组织认同强烈地影响着他们在不确定性面前的行为。本论文的研究综合了这两个理论，以显示组织认同如何影响组织决策者在其领域模仿他人的程度。一些研究将使用实验室和网络实验与学生和非学生样本进行。这些研究不仅检验了组织认同与模仿抵抗力之间的关系，而且还检验了绩效反馈和认同类型作为潜在的偶然性。当绩效反馈是积极的（而不是不存在或消极的），当组织身份是规范的（而不是功利的）类型时，组织身份和阻力之间的积极联系预计会变得更强。研究所创造的知识促进了理论理解，并注意到一再呼吁调查组织对其制度环境的反应的微观来源。研究结果将有助于身份理论引入环境阻力作为一个新的层面上，由个人所作的决定不同于由一个更大的collective.Broader ImpactsThe研究的代表所作的方法论的贡献，重新纳入实验研究到新制度分析，从而允许制度主义的方法，侧重于组织的成员和补充现有的见解。研究结果将有助于更好地了解推动组织抵抗环境压力的因素。

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.