INSTITUTIONAL PRESSURES ON PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS:

AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF ISOMORPHISM

Rachel Ashworth, George Boyne* and Rick Delbridge*

All at Cardiff Business School
Cardiff University
Colum Drive
Cardiff
U.K.
CF10 3EU
* and the ESRC/EPSRC Advanced Institute of Management Research

Paper for the Public Management Research Association Conference, Los Angeles,
2005
Correspondence to [email protected]

INSTITUTIONAL

PRESSURES

ON

PUBLIC

ORGANIZATIONS:

AN

EMPIRICAL TEST OF ISOMORPHISM

The explanation of organizational change has become an important research issue in
recent years. Rational or technical perspectives suggest that the characteristics of
organizations shift over time in order to pursue better substantive performance (e.g.
higher efficiency or effectiveness). An alternative view is offered by institutional
theory which argues that the primary objective of organizational change is formal
legitimacy. In other words, organizations adapt their internal characteristics in order
to conform with the expectations of the key stakeholders in their environment. The
aim of this paper is to evaluate whether organizational change in the public sector is
consistent with this institutional perspective. In particular, we examine the impact of
isomorphic pressures on the compliance of English local authorities with the wishes
of central government, and the extent of their convergence on the same organizational
forms. We also explore whether the effects of isomorphic pressures vary across
different organizational characteristics (such as structures and processes).
In the first part of the paper we discuss the main assumptions and arguments of
institutional theory, and specify a set of propositions on the impact of isomorphic
pressures on organizational change. In the second part, we describe the empirical
context of our evaluation of the validity of these propositions, which is the
introduction of a new statutory framework for the management of local government
services in England. This Best Value framework is a good context for the evaluation
of isomorphic pressures because it applies equally to all the members of a clearly
defined organizational field. Moreover, the regime contains clear prescriptions on the
organizational forms that local authorities are expected to adopt. In the third part of
the paper we outline our data sources and the analytical methods that we use to test
the propositions on the impact of isomorphic pressures. We then present and interpret
our empirical results, and draw conclusions on the relevance of institutional theory to
an understanding of organizational change in the public sector.

Institutional Isomorphism
Institutional theory has become a prominent lens through which organizational
processes of continuity and change are interpreted and understood. It can be seen as a
development of open systems views of organization (for example, Silverman, 1970;
Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978), one which emphasises the significance of social and
cultural aspects of organizational environments rather than the task and technical
elements given prominence under contingency theory and resource dependence theory
(see Donaldson, 1995; Oliver 1991).

Much of the early theorizing from an

institutional perspective was concerned with an alternative to functional and rational

explanations of organizational forms (Meyer and Rowan, 1977) and sought to
understand similarity and stability with organizational fields (DiMaggio and Powell,
1983). Organizational environments were characterized as the sources of norms and
values which permeated organizations and influenced action, in particular by
informing the taken-for-granted assumptions regarding behaviours, organizational
forms and processes that are seen as legitimate.
DiMaggio and Powells (1983) influential paper identified ways that organizations
within a field face pressures to conform to forms and processes deemed legitimate.
These result in the similarity of such forms and processes within the organizational
field which they labelled institutional isomorphism.

These pressures towards

institutional isomorphism are described by DiMaggio and Powell as mimetic, coercive

and normative forces.

Mimetic forces are pressures to copy or emulate other

organizations activities, systems or structures.

Innovations that are deemed to

enhance legitimacy are seen as desirable, especially under conditions of uncertainty

where actors cannot be sure of what the outcomes of the adoption of different
processes or systems will be. Such copying may be undertaken without any clear
evidence of performance improvements.

Mimetic forces explain the widespread

adoption of, for example, management practices for which there is little empirical
evidence of performance benefits, i.e. the following of fads and fashions
(Abrahamson, 1996).
Coercive forces are the external pressures exerted by government, regulatory or other
agencies to adopt the structures or systems which they favour. These pressures are
3

often associated with legal requirements, health and safety regulations and so on, but
may also stem from contractual obligations with other actors which constrain
organizational variety. The role of coercive forces in institutional theory highlights
the impact of political rather than technical influences on organizational change.
Scott comments that an institutional perspective gives special emphasis to authority
relations: the ability of organizations, especially public organizations, to rely on
legitimate coercion (1987: 502).
Normative forces describe the effect of professional standards and the influence of
professional communities on organization.

They capture the ways in which

organizations are expected to conform to standards of professionalism and to adopt

systems and techniques considered to be legitimate by relevant professional
groupings.

These norms are conveyed through the education and training of

professionals and certification processes accredited by professional bodies. DiMaggio

and Powell (1983: 148) identified the nation-state and the professions as the primary
shapers of contemporary institutional forms, the great rationalizers of the second half
of the twentieth century.
An important concept for DiMaggio and Powells argument is that of the
organizational field: those organizations that, in aggregate, constitute a recognized
area of institutional life (1983: 148). This addresses attention to the totality of
relevant actors rather than those that may actually interact directly. An expectation in
institutional theory is that these fields will have institutional logics that underpin the
organizing principles for the field (Friedland and Alford, 1991). Such logics provide
the basis of taken-for-granted rules and refer to the belief systems and related
practices that predominate in an organizational field (Scott, 2001: 139).
The emphasis on continuity and stability associated with DiMaggio and Powells early
paper resulted in a concern that the issues of power, contest and informal structures
central to the old institutionalism of Selznick (1949) and others had been
inappropriately downplayed with a consequent loss of explanatory insight (DiMaggio,
1988; Brint and Karabel, 1991). An emerging neo-institutionalism (see Powell and
DiMaggio, 1991; Scott, 1994; Greenwood and Hinings, 1996) has reflected a
convergence around concerns of both continuity and change.

For example,
4

Greenwood and Hinings draw on the concept of an organizing archetype in

understanding the institutionally embedded nature of organization. An archetype is
the set of structures and systems reflected in the dominant ideas, beliefs and values
the interpretive scheme which itself derives from the wider context.

This

institutional embeddedness provides a significant force for stability but the possibility
of change is seen and associated with the opportunities created by various
antecedents of deinstitutionalization (Oliver, 1992) following which institutional
norms may be challenged.
Greater understanding of how and when institutionalized practices may become
destabilized has precipitated an increasing emphasis on institutional change and, in
particular, the micro-level political processes inherent in institutional change (for
example, Townley, 2002; Zilber, 2002). Indeed, in their introduction to the Academy
of Management Journal special issue on institutional theory and institutional change,
Dacin et al (2002: 48-49) comment that, Like most of the wider institutional
literature, our collection of articles tends to focus on more micro levels, shorter time
periods, and incremental change processes.

These studies have shown the

importance of the interplay of meanings, actions and rationalities in complex

processes which may result in a variety of outcomes around divergence/convergence
and incremental/radical change.
With this emphasis on drilling down into processes of institutional change, there
have been fewer recent attempts to build understanding of macro levels of change
within organizational fields. However, a notable contribution to the understanding of
these issues has been provided by the work which has looked at field level processes
of change in business services (Greenwood et al, 2002) and in healthcare (Reay and
Hinings, 2004, 2005). This research has paid particular attention to ways in which
whole organizational fields move between competing institutional logics.

Less

attention has been paid, however, to how organizations within the field change in
response to such shifts. To what extent is the behaviour of organizations within a field
consistent with the isomorphic pressures generated by a new institutional logic? In
this paper we address this question by analysing data on shifts over time in the
characteristics of over 100 public agencies in the same organizational field.

Propositions
Although institutional theory suggests that organizations are likely to conform with
isomorphic pressures, the meaning of conformity has not been clearly articulated
(Frumkin and Galaskiewicz, 2004). In this paper we clarify the meaning of
conformity by distinguishing between compliance and convergence. The term
compliance suggests that, over time, organizations are moving in the direction that is
consistent with isomorphic pressures. This requires the identification of the direction
of movement that is required by prevailing institutional norms, and the target
organizational characteristics that are expected to change. The term convergence
refers to the extent to which all organizations in a field resemble each other more
closely over time. This can happen with or without compliance (organizations may
show a pattern of defiance in the face of institutional pressures and converge on the
wrong forms). Thus institutional theory is strongly supported only if both
compliance and convergence occur in response to isomorphic pressures.
This distinction between compliance and convergence leads to two propositions:
P1: Changes in the characteristics of public organizations are compliant with the
norms promulgated by the central state.
This proposition implies that central pressures successfully produce organizational
outcomes, regardless of the desires of managers in service delivery organizations or
their local task environments. Over time, the average organization will move
towards the form prescribed by central government, as a result of coercive, normative
and mimetic pressures. This prediction directly contradicts much of the conventional
literature on implementation in the public sector, which suggests that field agencies
successfully resist management reforms introduced by superior bodies.
P2: Public organizations not only move in the prescribed direction, but also resemble
each other more closely over time.

Institutional theory suggests that convergence is especially likely in heavily

structurated organizational fields that have been in existence for a long time. The
public organizations in our analysis should be susceptible to such convergence: they
have persisted, in various forms, for over 100 years, and have been subjected to
successive waves of central government reforms. This does, however, raise the
possibility of diminishing returns to isomorphic pressures: they may already be so
similar that only small movements towards further convergence are possible.
Nevertheless, if institutional theory is correct, some convergence on the new
archetype promulgated by the central state should still be observable.
Institutional pressures may influence some organizational characteristics more
strongly than others. Hannan and Freeman (1984) argue that changes in the
institutional and task environment may alter the organizational periphery while
leaving the core intact. The definition they give of these two organizational elements
is brief the core is defined simply as embodying an organizations identity and value
system (Hannan and Freeman, 1984: 155). Thus we expect that organizational culture
and strategic stance may be relatively impervious to isomorphic pressures, whereas
formal structures and administration processes are more open to influences from the
institutional environment. The latter organizational characteristics may be loosely
coupled with the organizations identity and values, but culture and strategy are more
closely tied with views about what we believe and what type of organization this is,
and are less amenable to change (Miles and Snow, 1978). Our final proposition is,
therefore:
P3: The impact of isomorphic pressures varies across organizational characteristics.
Context of the Empirical Analysis
We evaluate the validity of the institutional perspective on organizational change
through an analysis of the consequences of the introduction of a reform programme in
English local government. The Best Value framework lay at the heart of the current
U.K. governments drive to deliver public service improvement defined by the
British Prime Minister as the number one priority for New Labours second term in
office (Boyne, 2003; Martin 2002). Best value was a key component of a broader
7

strategy for the modernization of local government in the U.K. (Newman, 2001).
The aims of the best value regime were clearly defined by central government with
authorities expected to secure continuous improvements in both cost-effectiveness and
service standards (DETR, 1998a). Ministerial statements, press notices, reports,
official and unofficial documentation provide important clues about the intended
impact of the regime on the organizational characteristics of local authorities (Boyne
et al, 2004). They indicate that policy makers anticipated that the regime would lead
to four major types of organizational changes in structure, culture, strategy
processes and strategy content.
Structure
Organizational structure can be defined as the set of rules and roles that shape the
relationships between parts of an organization (Dawson, 1996). Analysis of central
government documentation suggests that the Best Value regime was intended to have
an impact on levels of bureaucracy, decentralization and integration. Local councils
were encouraged to shift from rigid structures which reflected traditional ways of
working to more flexible structures that would facilitate responsiveness to a changing
environment (e.g. new consumer demands). The Best Value regime was also expected
to lead to decentralization by encouraging local councils to be increasingly citizencentred and more responsive to a range of stakeholder groups. This implied a need
for managers to be given increased autonomy so that they could provide services that
reflected these various demands, which in turn implied a dispersal of power away
from the centre of organizations. Finally, the prominence the regime awarded to
corporate performance plans, corporate performance measures and cross-cutting
service reviews was intended to pull the organization together and reinforce a sense of
common purpose and identity across different departments. This was supposed to lead
to structures that are less oriented around departmental silos and more integrated. This
might seem at odds with the aim of decentralizing power within local authority
organizations. However, it is possible that decentralization and integration might be
combined within a tight-loose structure that specifies clear priorities at the corporate
level but leaves service managers with the freedom to pursue these in different ways.
In sum, the isomorphic pressures associated with Best Value should have lead local
authorities to become less bureaucratic, more decentralized and more integrated.
8

Culture
Organizational culture embraces a range of phenomena. For the purposes of this
analysis it can though be defined as consisting of the core values shared by the
members of an organization (Barney, 1986) including beliefs about organizational
purposes and how they should be achieved (Weiner, 1988). The introduction of Best
Value was intended to produce changes in these elements of organizational culture.
Central government defined its aim as nothing less than a radical refocusing of
councils traditional roles (DETR, 1998:5). In particular, the old culture of
paternalism and inwardness [is] to be swept away as authorities respond to the
demanding agenda for change (DETR, 1998:5). Local councils were expected to
become more customer-focused and more responsive to a range of stakeholders in
ensuring that services increasingly meet the needs of citizens, not the convenience of
service providers (Cabinet Office, 1999, para 20). The new regime sought to
encourage a performance culture which would mean a greater willingness to become
more innovative and entrepreneurial and to develop more flexibility in relation to
problem-solving. At the same time, the Labour government recognized the role of
front-line staff in service improvement and emphasized the importance of good
relationship between senior managers and employees in public organizations. Thus
Best Value was expected to produce a shift to a culture that emphasised enterprise,
service improvement, consumer needs and better relationship between managers and
staff.
Processes of Strategy Formulation
The public administration literature emphasizes two main types of strategy process.
The first, rational planning, is characterized by strategies that are developed through
analytical, formal and logical processes (Mintzberg, 1994). The characteristics of the
external environment and the organization itself are scanned and future circumstances
forecasted; a variety of policy options (which differ from the status quo) are identified
and evaluated; precise targets for future organizational performance are set; the best
policy option is selected; and subsequent performance is regularly and rigorously
monitored. The emphasis here is on data, analysis and a clear focus on organizational
9

objectives. Dror (1973) argues that the need for rational planning is especially urgent
when environmental change is rapid. A second proposition is that, rather than being
formulated explicitly, strategies emerge from political bargaining between internal
groups and between the organization and its stakeholders. In this scenario, the policy
that has the greatest political support becomes the effective strategy. Formal analysis
plays only a minor role, and organizational objectives remain vague in order to
maximize political support and stability. Few, if any, radical options are considered so
the most likely outcome of this style of strategy process is an incremental, marginal
adjustment to the status quo (Lindblom, 1959).
The Best Value framework was firmly rooted in the notion that rational planning
contributes to performance improvement (Boyne, 1999). Key elements of the regime
emphasised rationalism rather than incrementalism including: the introduction of a
comprehensive set of performance indicators; a duty to publish targets and plans; the
requirement to consult with external stakeholders; the need to scan the market for
external service providers and; processes of external audit and inspection that check
whether the required planning procedures had been followed and targets achieved.
This has, of course, been a recurring theme in public management reforms of the last
twenty years. It has been tried in U.K. local government (Dearlove, 1979) as well as
in other domains such as the U.S. federal government (Downs and Larkey, 1986).
Prior research on planning in the public sector suggests that this is a tough nut for
isomorphic pressures to crack. Nevertheless, if institutional theory is correct, local
authorities should have moved towards greater rational planning.
Strategy Content
In local government, strategy content is principally concerned with the services that
are provided and the methods by which they are delivered (Boyne and Walker, 2004).
The Best Value regime was intended to stimulate two major changes in strategy
content innovation and partnership (particularly with the private sector). There was
a strong expectation among policy makers that the regime would encourage local
authorities to outsource services for which they are responsible. Authorities were
required to challenge existing approaches and to explore new methods of service
provision. They were expected to create, nurture and manage markets in order to
10

promote a mixed economy of provision so that they can create the conditions under
which there is likely to be greater interest from the private and voluntary sectors in
working with local government to deliver quality services (DETR 1998a, clause
7.30). There was also a strong expectation that the regime would promote innovation
in service design and delivery (DTLR, 2001b, 46). Accordingly, a willingness to use
competition to drive improvement and innovation was seen as one of the hallmarks of
high performing authorities (Audit Commission, 2002: clause 30).

Isomorphic

pressures, then, should have resulted in more innovation in local government and
more involvement of external agencies in service provision.
The Application of Coercive, Normative and Mimetic Pressures

It is important to consider briefly the types of pressures placed upon local authorities
to implement this reform. The style of implementation of the Best Value framework
points to the application of primarily coercive, but also normative and mimetic,
pressures, by central government seeking to drive the reform programme.
Coercive pressures can be seen clearly in the form of legislation, the Local
Government Act (1999), which introduced a mandatory duty to develop corporate
strategies, review functions and set targets. Furthermore, the regimes rigid
programme of Best Value inspections provided an additional coercive pressure,
designed to reinforce councils statutory obligations. However, there is also evidence
to suggest that central government sought to build normative pressures, albeit to a
lesser extent. For example, in contrast to the previous Conservative government, prior
to introducing the legislation, civil servants and ministers consulted extensively with
trade unions, local government associations and professional groups. In addition, a
new Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) for local government was
established which:
works in partnership with all councils, to enhance the performance of the
best, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as
a whole (IDeA website).

11

One of this agencys key functions is to facilitate a peer review programme based on
the ideal authority but the organisation also offers general consultancy, support and
guidance to local councils (Martin, 2002).
In addition, central government encouraged mimicry through the introduction of
benchmarking and the creation of the Beacon Council scheme which aims to
recognise the best performing councils and spread best practice (DETR, 1999, 8).
This initiative, launched in 1999, identifies outstanding councils which are
consequently awarded Beacon status and thereby receive publicity of their work and
a degree of national prestige. The scheme is described by the Improvement and
Development Agency as one which:
.identifies excellence and innovation in local government. It is much more
than just a badge, however. The scheme exists to share good practice so that
best value authorities can learn from each other and deliver high quality
services to all (IDeA website).

Beacon councils have a duty to disseminate their successful practices in order to

facilitate improvement elsewhere. Such dissemination can take the form of road
shows, open days, site visits, secondments and consultancy (Stewart, 2003).
To summarize, it is clear that when introducing the Best Value regime, U.K. central
government had an explicit programme of change relating to organizational structure,
culture, strategy formulation processes and strategy content, designed (Boyne et al,
2004). This programme for change was encouraged by legislation and inspection, but
also through pressure to emulate high-performing authorities and attempts to
influence professional norms, standards and values. The subsequent sections of this
paper examine whether local authorities responded to these coercive, normative and
mimetic pressures by adopting the organizational characteristics associated with the
Best Value regime.
Methodology
In this paper we draw on data derived from a large survey of local authority managers,
which was designed in order to capture perceptions of changes in organizational
characteristics linked to the introduction of the Best Value regime. We focus

12

specifically on data collected in the summers of 2001 and 2004 in 101 councils which
were selected to be representative of English local government on the basis of a
number of key characteristics: geographical location, local authority type, deprivation
and performance. Respondents to the survey include corporate officers (Chief
Executive, Head of Paid Service and Corporate Policy Directors), Chief Officers
(Directors of Services) and Service Managers (front-line supervisors). These
respondents were identified because they are likely to be knowledgeable about
organizational structures, culture, strategy processes and strategy content (Walker and
Enticott, 2004). Responses were received from x officers in 2001 and y in 2004. The
distribution of responses across the three organizational echelons varied across local
authorities.

As managers at different levels may have systematically different

perceptions of organizational characteristics, this differential pattern of responses may

undermine the comparability of the data. We therefore summed the responses in each
echelon for each survey question, then weighted the echelons equally to produce a
final measure.
For the purposes of this paper, we have analysed responses on 33 variables from the
survey which measure the aspects of organizational structure, culture, processes and
strategy that the Best Value regime was designed to influence. The measures of
structure cover bureaucracy, decentralization and integration; the measures of culture
refer to local authority officers views about risk, customers and relations with staff;
the process measures distinguish between rational and incremental styles of policymaking; and the measures of strategy content operationalize the concepts of
innovation and externalization. A full list of the survey statements for the variables is
shown in Table 1.
We evaluated the validity of our three propositions as follows:
1. A comparison of mean responses in 2001 and 2004 to establish whether
patterns of local authority behaviour indicated compliance as defiance in the
face of isomorphic pressures, and whether any movement in organizational
characteristics was statistically significant.
2. A comparison of the coefficients of variation (CV) for each variable in 2001
and 2004, in order to track changes in the dispersion around the mean and
13

thereby the degree of convergence/divergence. A movement of at least .02 in

either direction was taken to constitute change (shifts of around 0.1 are trivial
and might just be attributable to rounding).
3. We examined compliance/defiance and convergence/divergence for each of
the four categories of variables (structure, culture, process, strategy) in order
to determine whether the impact of isomorphic pressures varied between the
organizational core and periphery.
Empirical Results
The results of testing our three propositions on isomorphic pressures are shown in
Table 1 and summarised in Figure 1. The first three columns in Table 1 show the mean
responses to the survey statements in 2001 and 2004 and the size and direction of the
change in the mean over time. The survey statements were measured on a 7-point
Likert scale, where 7= strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree and 4 = neither
agree/disagree. Thus an increase in the mean for a variable indicates a greater
agreement with a statement. Whether this represents compliance or defiance depends
on a) whether the movement is consistent with isomorphic pressures, and b) whether
the movement is statistically significant (as shown in column 4). The next three
columns of the table show the extent of dispersion around the mean in 2001 and 2004,
and whether this was stable or moved towards convergence or divergence. The final
column categorises each organizational characteristic on the dimensions of
compliance/no change/defiance, and convergence no change divergence.
Proposition 1
The extent of support for conformity with isomorphic pressures can be seen most
easily by reading across the three columns in Figure 1. The first column in the figure
shows that 22 of the changes in the reported behaviour of local authorities were
statistically significant in a compliant direction. Column 3 shows that four of the
measures of organizational characteristics did not change significantly between 2001
and 2004, which is inconsistent with the expected impact of isomorphic pressures.
Furthermore, seven of the changes (see column 2) represent defiance and flatly
contradict proposition 1. These variables shifted significantly in the wrong direction.
14

Thus, although the balance of the evidence is consistent with institutional theory, a
third of the cases do not support the predicted impact of isomorphic pressures. The
examples of defiance are especially noteworthy, and suggest that local policy makers
have significant scope for deviant behaviour even in the face of a statutory regime
that is accompanied by further coercive, normative and mimetic pressures.

Defiant

changes include structure (more centralisation), strategy formulation (more

incrementalism) and strategy content (less externalisation of services).
Proposition 2
The rows in Figure 1 summarize the extent to which local authorities became more
similar to each other between 2001 and 2004. The data show that the dispersion of a
minority of the organizational characteristics that were measured in our survey
became smaller over time. These movements are typically small in absolute terms,
because the internal characteristics of English local authorities were very similar even
before the introduction of the Best Value regime. Almost half of the characteristics
showed no change in the level of dispersion and two diverged. Moreover, of the 15
characteristics on which local authorities became more similar, two had moved in a
defiant direction. In other words, in these cases, authorities converged on the wrong
attribute (became more similar as they centralized rather than decentralized their
structures, and resembled each other more closely as they rejected externalisation of
services). Thus the net level of support for proposition 2 is even smaller than it first
appears: local authorities both complied and converged in only 12 of the 33 cases.
Proposition 3
Our prediction was that the impact of isomorphic pressures would vary across
organizational characteristics. The data shown in table 1 are consistent with this view,
but not in the way we expected. Proposition 3 stated that isomorphism would be
displayed more strongly in the peripheral attributes of formal structures and processes
than on the core attributes of culture and strategy. Our empirical results flatly
contradict this pattern. The strongest evidence of compliance is in our measures of
organizational culture. The average shift towards compliance across all nine measures
of culture is 0.49 (i.e., almost a half-point movement on the seven-point Likert scale).

15

The second strongest shift towards compliance (0.21) is in the measures of

organizational strategy, whereas the weakest shifts are in structure (0.02) and
processes (which show a very small move, -0.03, towards defiance). Moreover,
measures of culture and strategy content appear most frequently in the compliance
and convergence cell in figure 1.
One interpretation of this evidence is that institutional pressures were applied with
extra vigour to the culture and strategies of local authorities. Central government
applied some coercive, normative and mimetic pressures equally at a national level to
all the organizational characteristics of local government. However, in addition to this,
it deployed teams of inspectors to undertake site visits in order to check compliance
with the Best Value regime. It may be that this extra source of coercive isomorphic
pressure was applied selectively to organizational culture and strategies. The guidance
produced by the parent body of the inspectors, the Audit Commission, suggest that
changes in these attributes were seen as especially likely to lead to service
improvement (Audit Commission, 2002). By implication, extra pressures on
authorities to alter their culture and strategy were believed to be most likely to deliver
better results. Further empirical research on the practice of inspection would be
required to test whether selective isomorphic pressures are behind the pattern of
organizational change that occurred.
Discussion and Conclusion
This paper has explored isomorphic change in public sector organizations through an
examination of the impact of U.K. central governments attempts to introduce a
statutory framework for the organization and management of local government
services.

The research has been conducted on a clearly defined and highly

structurated organizational field (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983), and on an example

of managed isomorphism - change was strategic and top-down with clear
prescriptions and a priori target norms and organizational characteristics. There is a
clear definition of what constitutes conformity, and while this attempt to manage
isomorphism drew most obviously upon coercive pressures, normative and mimetic
forces are also relevant (Frumkin and Galaskiewicz, 2004).

16

Our analysis has concentrated on three key issues of institutional change in public
sector organizations: evidence of compliance to the norms promoted by the state;
evidence of convergence among organizations within the field; and, the impact of
isomorphic pressures across different organizational characteristics. We find that the
level of support for institutional theory depends on the interpretation of conformity.
If this concept is taken to mean compliance, then most of our evidence is consistent
with isomorphic pressures:

22 of the 33 organizational characteristics that we

measured become more consistent with the new model of local authority
management. If conformity is interpreted as convergence, on the other hand, local
authorities resembled each other more closely on only 15 of the 33 characteristics.
Furthermore, if conformity implies both compliance and convergence then
institutional theory is corroborated by the evidence for only 12 of the 33
characteristics. We also found that the level of support for institutional theory varied
across organizational characteristics, and was stronger for culture and strategy content
than for structures and processes.
These findings raise a number of questions for further research. First, institutional
pressures may be especially strong in a centralised state such as the UK and on a set
of highly structured organizations such as English local authorities. What is the
impact of coercive, normative and mimetic pressures in federal systems, and on a set
of organizations that are less accustomed to pressures towards conformity? Second,
our analysis has been conducted at the level of the organizational field. To what
extent, and why, does the impact of institutional pressures vary across sub-fields (e.g.
education and other local government services) and individual organizations?
Analysis at the latter level might allow the relative impact of coercive, mimetic and
normative pressures to be disentangled. Third, our analysis suggests that isomorphic
pressures vary across organizational characteristics. To what extent is this finding
generalisable, and why are some characteristics more susceptible than others to such
pressures?
For the present, our analysis suggests that institutional theory provides a promising
complement to rational theories of organizational change in the public sector. In an
era of high performance management it is useful to remember that shifts in

17

organizational characteristics are pursued for political as well as technical reasons,

and that public managers seek formal legitimacy as well as substantive results.

18

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21

Table 1: Extent of Compliance and Convergence in Local Authority Characteristics, 2001-20041

PROCESS OUTCOME
STRUCTURE
1. Written policies and procedures are
important in guiding the action of
employees in the authority/service
2. There is extensive use of staff task and
project groups in the management of our
authority/service
3. Centralisation is a major part of our
approach to organisational structure
4.When our results deviate from our plans,
the decisions to take appropriate corrective
action usually comes from top management
or politicians
5. Control is devolved to service managers
6. There is a well developed framework of
clear performance measurement and
targets to drive what we do
7. There are clear links between the
objectives and priorities of the service and
those of the authority as a whole
8. Enhancing co-ordination and joint

MEAN MEAN
01
04

MOVEMENT2 SIG

COV01

COV04

CHANGE SUMMARY

4.90

5.20

***

0.11

0.10

NC3

Defiant/NC

4.87

5.17

**

0.15

0.15

NC

Compl/NC

2.83

3.51

***

0.32

0.28

-4

Defiant/Conv

4.12

4.74

***

0.14

0.16

+2

Defiant/Div

5.05
4.99

5.16
5.65

+
+

NS
***

0.13
0.15

0.12
0.15

NC
NC

NS/NC
Comp/NC

5.13

5.80

***

0.16

0.13

-3

Comp/Conv

5.29

5.38

NS

0.15

0.14

NC

NS/NC

Analysis is based on a sample of 101 authorities

In this column + indicates a movement that conforms with isomorphic pressures, - indicates a movement in the opposite direction
3
No change (or only trivial change) in dispersion 2001-2004
2

22

working is a major part of our approach to

organisational structure
CULTURE
1. The authority's mission, values and
objectives are clearly and widely owned
and understood by all staff in the
authority/service
2. The authority/service is prepared to take
risks where appropriate
3. The authority/service is at the forefront
of innovative approaches
4. Most managers place the needs of users
first and foremost when planning and
delivering services
5. There is a strong focus on continuous
improvement in our authority/service
6. There are strong incentives for managers
to achieve step change in performance in
this service
7. This authority/service cares about its
staff
8. There is a high level of trust between topmanagement and staff
9. There is a high level of trust between
officers and politicians
STRATEGY PROCESS
1. When the service/authority formulates
strategy it is planned in detail
2. When the service/authority formulates

4.58

5.31

***

0.19

0.16

-3

Comp/Conv

4.53

5.03

***

0.18

0.16

-2

Comp/Conv

4.80

5.16

**

0.17

0.16

NC

Comp/NC

5.25

5.43

0.10

0.13

+3

Comp/Div

5.32

5.99

***

0.13

0.11

-2

Comp/Conv

3.86

4.64

***

0.21

0.19

-2

Comp/Conv

4.81

5.56

***

0.17

0.13

-4

Comp/Conv

4.46

4.99

***

0.16

0.17

NC

Comp/NC

4.75

4.97

***

0.18

0.19

NC

Comp/NC

4.70

4.92

**

0.14

0.15

NC

Comp/NC

4.87

5.17

***

0.12

0.13

NC

Comp/NC

23

strategy, options are identified and

evaluated before the best option is selected
3. The strategy with the greatest political
support is usually adopted as our policy
4. When we make strategy we produce
policy options which are very similar to
those we already have
5. Strategy develops through an ongoing
process of adjustment
6. When we make strategy we produce
broad goals and objectives
7. Strategy develops through a process of
bargaining and negotiation between groups
or individuals
STRATEGY CONTENT - Extent of:
1. Externalisation
2. Contracting out/outsourcing
3. Developing local strategic partnerships
4. Developing statutory partnerships
5. Providing new services to new users
6. Providing new services to existing users
7. Providing existing services to new users
8. Making minor modifications
9. Doing away with services
TOTAL

5.06

4.92

**

0.13

0.14

NC

Defiant/NC

3.51

3.65

NS

0.19

0.17

-2

NS/Conv

4.73

4.94

0.14

0.11

-3

Comp/Conv

5.37

5.46

0.10

0.09

NC

Comp/NC

4.06

4.28

0.17

0.18

NC

Defiant/NC

3.97
4.11
5.16
5.12
3.50
4.18
4.14
4.78
2.28

3.65
3.77
5.35
5.22
4.13
4.77
4.79
5.11
2.43

+
+
+
+
+
+
+
22 conform
7 defy
5 no change

*
**
*
NS
***
***
***
***
*

0.31
0.26
0.15
0.14
0.23
0.19
0.20
0.15
0.35

0.28
0.27
0.13
0.14
0.20
0.17
0.15
0.12
0.36

-3
NC
-2
NC
-3
-2
-5
-3
NC
16 NC
15 conv
2 diverge

Defiant/Conv
Defiant/NC
Comp/Conv
NS/NC
Comp/Conv
Comp/Conv
Comp/Conv
Comp/Conv
Comp/NC

24

Figure 1: Summary of Isomorphic Pressures on Local Authority Characteristics

Convergence

Divergence

No Change

(a)
(b)
(c)

Compliance

Defiance

No Significant
Change

12

(S8, C1, C2, C5,

C6, C7, SF5, SC3,
SC5, SC6, SC7,
SC8)

(S4, SC1)

(SF4)

(C4)

(S5)

(S2, S7, C3, C8,

C9, SF1, SF2, SF6,
SC9)

(S1, SF3, SF7,

SC2)

(S6, S9, SC4)

Note:
Analysis based on 101 local authorities
The numbers refer to the organizational characteristics that fall into each cell
The abbreviations in brackets refer to the variables in table 1. For example, S8 refers to variable
Number 8 in the structure category, and variables labelled C, SF and SC refer to culture, strategy

formulation and strategy content respectively.

25