PFM DEVICES — COMPLEX PROJECT INITIATIVES (Final exam)

Read all the instruction in the documents which I attached to you carefully.
You have to answer all of these questions correctly and specifically. #1. When PFM Devices acquired Pacmedi and Cartica, what types of challenges did these acquisitions create for IS management who was tasked with integrating these new sources of revenue into the overall organization? How should the CIO deal with these challenges? (25 points) #2. What is the purpose of IT governance? Does PFM Devices exhibit effective IT governance in its project selection process? (25 points) #3. One recommendation regarding the operation in France was to begin thinking about replacing the current business software (ERP system) with one more compatible with the U.S. and Japan organizations. Assuming that PFM Devices had decided to go with one enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor (e.g. SAP) for the whole organization, what are the benefits and challenges of this option? (50 points).

From National Service to Global Player: Transforming
the Organizational Logic of a Public Broadcasterjoms_915 913..943
Andre Spicer* and Graham Sewell
University of Warwick; University of Melbourne
abstract We present organizational logics as a meso-level construct that lies between
institutional theoryfs field-level logics and the sense-making activities of individual agents in
organizations. We argue that an institutional logic can be operationalized empirically using the
concept of a discourse . that is, a coherent symbolic system articulating what constitutes
legitimate, reasonable, and effective conduct in, around, and by organizations. An
organization may, moreover, be simultaneously exposed to several institutional logics that
make up its broader ideational environment. Taking these three observations together enables
us to consider an organizational logic as a spatially and temporally localized configuration of
diverse discourses. We go on to show how organizational logics were transformed in the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1953 and 1999 by examining the changing
discourses that appeared in the Corporationfs annual reports. We argue that these discourses
were modified through three main forms of discursive agency: (1) undertaking acts of ironic
accommodation between competing discourses; (2) building chains of equivalence between the
potentially contradictory discourses; and (3) reconciling new and old discourses through
pragmatic acts of ebricolagef. We found that, using these forms of discursive agency, a
powerful coalition of actors was able to transform the dominant organizational logic of the
ABC from one where the Corporationfs initial mission was to serve national interests through
public service to one that was ultimately focused on participating in a globalized media
market. Finally, we note that discursive resources could be used as the basis for resistance by
less powerful agents, although further research is necessary to determine exactly how more
powerful and less powerful agents interact around the establishment of an organizational logic.
INTRODUCTION
Lurking within most organizations are deeply rooted assumptions about what is considered
to be e. . . legitimate, reasonable and effective for an organization to do in a given
contextf (Guillen, 2001, p. 14). These assumptions are what some scholars call organizational
logics (Biggart, 1991; Guillen, 2001). To a large extent these assumptions are
Address for reprints: Andre Spicer, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
(andre.spicer@wbs.ac.uk).
*This paper was accepted at JMS before Andre became an Associate Editor.
c 2010 The Authors
Journal compilation c 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.
Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA
02148, USA.
Journal of Management Studies 47:6 September 2010
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00915.x
organizationally specific manifestations of socially embedded ideologies, myths, and
beliefs (Zilber, 2006). We shall argue that, when considered in this way, an organizational
logic is related to but is also conceptually and empirically distinct from a higher-order
institutional logic. Although there are several definitions of institutional logic in the
literature, we consider Friedland and Alfordfs (1991) version as the most appropriate for
our discussion. They state that:
Each of the most important institutional orders of contemporary Western societies has
a central logic . a set of material practices and symbolic constructions . which
constitutes its organizing principles and which is available to organizations and individuals
to elaborate. (Friedland and Alford, 1991, p. 248)
Thinking of the relationship between institutional and organizational logics as they are
defined above sets up an interesting research challenge that is part conceptual and part
empirical and can best be conveyed in the question: Exactly how do organizations
elaborate on the prevailing institutional logics to create their distinct organizational
logics? Reflecting on this question reveals another layer of conceptual and empirical
complexity for, if we accept that institutional logics are changing (however, gradually),
then it can be reasonably assumed that organizational logics will also change. Change at
the organizational level is, moreover, likely to be a difficult, highly contentious, and
drawn-out affair as it would literally involve the remaking of the ideational world that the
members of that organization inhabit (Zilber, 2006).
That institutional logics change is not, of course, a contentious claim and numerous
studies of their operation at the level of the field acknowledge the profound effects that
such changes are likely to have on organizations and their members (e.g. Glynn, 2000,
2002; Oakes et al., 1998, Townley, 1997; Zilber, 2002). For example, we know that
actors may be prompted into moving an organizationfs internal ideational climate in one
direction or another when they are confronted by contradictions between competing
institutional logics (Seo and Creed, 2002; Suddaby and Greenwood, 2005). We also
know of specific instances where organizational actors take advantage of these contradictions
through eprojective agencyf (Perkmann and Spicer, 2007), and that such agency
often involves the articulation of politically efficacious discourses that serve particular
interests (Friedland and Alford, 1991; Oakes et al., 1998). We know less, however, about
exactly how the transformation of an organizational logic takes place over the kind of
time span that would also allow a consideration of the influence of changing institutional
logics. In particular, over the longer term we are uncertain about when and why
contradictions in organizational logics appear, what kinds of projective agency are
deployed in response to these contradictions, and what sorts of discursive resources
organizational actors use when they are engaged in such projective agency.
In this manuscript we address these concerns by investigating transformations in the
organizational logic of Australiafs largest public broadcaster . the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation or ABC. Building on existing conceptual material we argue that the
ABC was subject to a multiplicity of gradually changing institutional logics and that these
changes are evident in each logicsf respective symbolic systems of legitimation. We
consider these symbolic systems to be discourses that are amenable to the methods of
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critical discourse analysis (Phillips et al., 2004). Thus, a particular organizational logic
can be said to be in operation when a characteristic configuration of discourses is
observable at the level of the organization. Given the multiplicity of discourses involved,
however, it would be unusual for them all to be perfectly harmonized. Indeed, we shall
argue that the emergence of contradictions and tensions between the discourses making
up an organizational logic create the opportunity for actors to undertake projective
agency. This agency, in turn, paves the way for organizational logics to change. In this
way we show that, although any number of organizational logics could have potentially
emerged in the ABC throughout the study period, the ones that did reflected the
discursive efforts of a politically effective coalition of actors whose main internal and
external public face was the ABCfs Board of Governors (from hereon, the Board). As part
of its attempts to influence the Corporationfs strategic direction, this coalition was
involved in authorizing the ABCfs main official text: its annual reports. We contend that
these annual reports thus serve as a reliable and valid data source that can be used to
track the changes in the ABCfs organizational logic over time. We also contend that, by
interpreting the content of the annual reports in combination with other data sources, we
are able to make claims about the discursive agency undertaken by members of the
coalition in this process of authorization.[1] Thus, we were able to identify three kinds of
discursive agency at work here: undertaking acts of ironic accommodation between
competing discourses; building chains of equivalence between the potentially contradictory
discourses; and reconciling new and old discourses through pragmatic acts of
ebricolagef. By engaging in these three forms of discursive agency the coalition initiated
changes in the prevailing organizational logic that articulated its preferred strategic
vision for the ABC.
Our initial interest in organizational logic as a localized configuration of discourses
reflecting the broader ideational influence of institutional logics was pricked by Douglasfs
(1986) view that, in order to appreciate an institutionfs hold on our processes of recognizing
and classifying the conduct of ourselves and of others, we must consider how it is
effectively doing our thinking for us. This is where examining the multiple discourses that
make up an organizational logic plays well with the institutional theoryfs interests in the
dynamics of institutionalization, deinstitutionalization, and institutional entrepreneurship
. in effect we are able to appreciate the way in which organizational actors
simultaneously work with and on a complex array of potentially contradictory ways of
making sense of the social arrangements around them. This is consonant with Friedland
and Alfordfs (1991) observation that people live eacrossf several institutions at the same
time; a position that compels us to recognize that any eelaborationf of institutional logics
(to use Friedland and Alfordfs term) at the organizational level will involve a complex
interaction of symbolic constructions and material practices that are ultimately played
out at the level of individual action (Battilana, 2006). Thus, we contend that our principal
contribution to the institutional literature is to provide a historical account of elaboration
through one type of material practice . that is, discursive agency . as it mediates between
an organizationfs internal ideational climate and its external ideational environment.
In order to make this contribution we shall proceed as follows. First, we shall clarify
what we mean by an organizational logic. Then we will examine the existing literature
that deals directly and indirectly with how organizational logics change before highlight-
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ing some unresolved conceptual matters. We then outline the site and method we used
to explore these matters. This is followed by the presentation of a history of shifting
organizational logics in the ABC. In the next stage of the discussion we elaborate on the
discursive efforts of the dominant coalition of powerful actors that shaped the strategic
direction of the ABC. We conclude with a recapitulation of the main theoretical and
empirical features of the manuscript before outlining some future research directions.
ORGANIZATIONAL LOGICS
From Institutional Logics to Organizational Logics
The concept of an organizational logic is less developed than the related concept of an
institutional logic but it has still been used in a variety of ways in management studies.
We contend that, like institutional logics, an organizational logic can also be seen a
recursive interaction between a symbolic system that informs cognition about an organization
and the material manifestation of that cognition in the form of the specific
practices that are enacted in that organization (cf. Friedland and Alford, 1991; Thornton
and Ocasio, 2008). From the diverse but limited literature on organizational logics we
can identify three main operational definitions: (1) they are a narrow mode of cognition
associated with strategy formulation and implementation (i.e. a focus on a highly
restricted symbolic system); (2) they are a bundle of operational and management
techniques (i.e. a focus on material practices); and (3) they are a broader mode of
cognition associated with the legitimation of action (i.e. a focus on broader symbolic
systems and material practices). In this section we will briefly consider each of these
definitions before arguing that the third one is the most tractable for our current
purposes.
In early work we find a narrowly cognitive approach to organizational logics. By this
we mean that the term itself is taken to refer to a cluster of axioms that impinge on the
cognitive activities of organizational members as they relate to a specific problem-solving
task. Thus, characterizations of the organization (say ewe are innovativef or ewe are a
total quality organizationf) can be thought of as the aggregation of individual cognitive
acts that are informed by the logic. For instance, Boschken (1976) identifies Thompsonfs
(1967) discussion of an organization buffering its technical core from environmental
uncertainty as an expression of ea logic of an organizational systemf that is ultimately
expressed in a characteristic way of thinking about concrete problems that arose during
its day to day operations. Similarly, in the strategic management literature organizational
logics are seen as e. . . a mindset or a world view or conceptualization of the businessf
(Prahalad and Bettis, 1986, p. 490). Under these complementary definitions an organizational
logic effectively prescribes how people ought to think and also proscribes
alternative ways of thinking (cf. Hardy, 2004). Prescription and proscription operate,
however, in very narrowly directed ways: in effect an organizational logic becomes a way
of articulating a systematic strategy that factors in internal and external determinants of
competitiveness without paying attention to wider societal constraints on individual
cognition and conduct in the organization.
A more empirically-based approach was developed during the 1990s that took organizational
logics to be integrated bundles of operational and management techniques
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within firms (MacDuffie, 1995). It largely came out of studies investigating the perceived
relative decline of US (and, by extension, European) corporations vis-a-vis Asian competitors.
This led to a wider interest in alternatives to the eFordistf accommodation
between capital, labour, and the State (see Boyer and Durand, 1993; Clegg, 1990;
Cusumano, 1985). Primarily descriptive in its focus, this approach was taken up by
subsequent empirical studies that attempted to capture the characteristic configurations
of activities such as buyer.supplier relations, subcontracting arrangements, human
resource management, and production organization that can confer competitive advantage
on a firm. Major research projects . notably the MIT International Motor Vehicle
Program . were set up to identify the determinants of Japanese auto assemblersf success,
culminating in the publication of best-selling books advocating the adoption of distinctive
sets of systematic, consistent, and mutually re-enforcing practices that were labelled
eLean Productionf (Womack et al., 1990) or eHigh Performance Work Systemsf (Buchanan
and McCalman, 1989; Rayner, 1993).
Our third conception of an organizational logic has been inspired by neo-institutional
theory and its focus on the legitimacy of rules, norms, and knowledge systems that inform
individual and organizational conduct (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Meyer and Rowan,
1977; Thornton and Ocasio, 1999). At the level of society numerous institutional logics
compete in a field and settle into characteristic patterns of influence (Thornton and
Ocasio, 2008). Thus, institutional logics are e. . . both supraorganizational patterns of
activity by which individuals and organizations produce and reproduce their material
subsistence and organize time and space. They are also symbolic systems . that is, ways
of ordering reality, thereby rendering the experience of time and space meaningfulf
(Friedland and Alford, 1991, p. 243). At the level of the institutional field these institutional
logics constitute the e. . . broad cultural beliefs and rules that structure cognition
and fundamentally shape decision making and actionf (Marquis and Lounsbury, 2007, p.
799) . for example, the impact of the shift from an editorial logic to a business logic on
the publishing industry (Thornton, 2002, 2004) or the impact of the shift from a logic of
professional dominance to a logic of managed care on the healthcare sector (Scott et al.,
2000). Such historical studies have repeatedly demonstrated the various effects of
changes in field level logics on executive succession (Thornton and Ocasio, 1999),
organizational forms (Haveman and Rao, 1997), governance structures (Fiss and Zajac,
2004), the value and power of certain actors in a field (Scott et al., 2000), and organizational
identities and strategies (Thornton, 2002). According to Thornton and Ocasio
(2008), institutional logics shape individual action in organizations through: (1) providing
collective identities that establish the normative basis for group membership; (2) creating
the erules of the gamef that govern contests for status and power; (3) providing agents
with systems of classification and categorization; and (4) by directing our attention
towards ewhat mattersf (and, as a corollary, diverting our attention away from ewhat
doesnft matterf). Creating identities, establishing the rules of the game, developing
classification systems, and identifying what matters are processes whereby coherent
symbolic systems are constructed but the resultant behavioural outcomes are material
practices (Friedland and Alford, 1991). Bringing these mutually reinforcing symbolic
systems and material practices together at the level of the organization we can identify
characteristic sets of features that are more that just strategies of action (cf. Prahalad and
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Bettis, 1986) or a bundle of techniques (cf. MacDuffie, 1995): they are also a source of
legitimacy that provide a sense of procedural order and eontological securityf for people
in and around that organization (Thornton and Ocasio, 2008). For example, this has
been demonstrated by research at the level of the organization which explored the
impact of the broader ideational environment on the conduct of a symphony orchestra
and its members (Glynn, 2000, 2002; Glynn and Lounsbury, 2005). Importantly, this
research provides a dynamic account of the localized impact of the shift from an aesthetic
institutional logic to a business-oriented institutional logic that led to changes in orchestra
repertoire, organizational identity, and even criticsf reviews. Adopting a similar position,
we propose that an organizational logic is a composite expression of a range of institutional
logics localized in time and space and, considered as such, it serves as a meso-level
construct that bridges the methodological holism of field level analyses of institutions
and the methodological individualism of psychological approaches to human agency
and cognition (Fligstein, 1987; Friedland and Alford, 1991; Sewell, 1992; Thornton and
Ocasio, 1999). Our preference for this third approach rests on the ability of neoinstitutional
theory to move beyond accounts of organizational logics as a limited set of
decision-making rules that guide rational-instrumental action to engage with broader
socially embedded questions of legitimacy. In other words, it is not simply concerned
with how a particular organizational logic operates but also with why it is seen as desirable
in terms that include but also extend beyond narrow definitions of economic efficiency or
organizational effectiveness. By focusing on the broader notions of legitimacy that have
their origins outside those associated with strategic or production management, we can
also begin to deal with one of the established criticisms of neo-institutional theory . that
it has difficulty in accounting for changes in logics at the levels of the field and the
organization (see Greenwood and Hinings, 1996). Nevertheless, a key challenge remains
in that we must be able to operationalize such a potentially nebulous concept as an
organizational logic in a way that does justice to its complex dual status as both a
symbolic system and as the basis for specific practices. Our response to this challenge is
to draw on recent developments in discourse analysis. Through its focus on texts as a
central (if incomplete) part of the construction of organizational reality (Alvesson and
Karreman, 2000), it establishes a methodological link between the micro scale of everyday
language use and the macro scale of social context in a manner that is particularly
congruent with the preoccupations of neo-institutional theory (Phillips et al., 2008).
Importantly, a discourse evident at the organizational level reflects the ideational content
of broader institutional logics as they are taken up and elaborated by individual actors.
In short, a discourse frames the possibilities for being and acting in the organization by
articulating the criteria by which appropriate or erightf conduct is determined but in a
way that can be modified by individual and collective acts of acceptance, appropriation,
and resistance (Phillips et al., 2008). Thus, the effect of discourse is not simply a matter
of ebearing downf (that is, shaping what people believe in a unidirectional way that
determines their conduct . Hardy, 2004) but also of escaling upf (that is, when localized
agency can alter an organizationfs ideational and practical trajectory . Hardy, 2004). In
effect, by studying changes in discourse at the level of the organization we can develop
an appreciation of the impact of its broader ideational environment in combination with
a consideration of the way in which actors individually and collectively use discursive
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Journal compilation c 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
resources to influence the internal ideational and practical climate of an organization in
an attempt to establish the legitimacy of a particular configuration of authority relations.
This allows us to address the question of how organizational logics change from a
perspective that, through a consideration of changing discourses, is compatible with the
theoretical and empirical priorities of neo-institutional theory.
Changing Organizational Logics
To reiterate, while institutional accounts broadly agree that changes in the ideational
status of the field will lead to changes in the ideational systems that are manifested at the
level of the organization . what we have styled changing organizational logics . there is
less consensus around exactly how this escaling downf comes about. Recent literature has,
however, identified three considerations that can help to explore the relationship
between institutional logics and organizational logics. These are the existence of contradictions,
processes of projective agency, and the articulation of discourses.
Contradictions. The contradictory consequences of eliving across institutionsf (Friedland
and Alford, 1991) were anticipated by Douglas (1986) who demonstrated that they could
even play a role in elife and death decisionsf. Drawing on the work of Fox and Swarez
(1974), she showed how medical authorities, when faced with allocating limited therapeutic
resources such as access to kidney dialysis, made moral judgments that reflected
contested notions of fairness and justice in order to determine whether a patient was a
worthy recipient of treatment. She highlighted the tension between institutions that
supported waiting onefs turn in the queue versus institutions that supported the allocation
of treatment based on onefs relative contribution to society (however that was
determined). Allocation on the basis of a queue or on the basis of merit could both be
construed as fair in different circumstances, leading Douglas (1986, p. 125) to comment
that when
. . . individuals disagree on elementary justice, their most insoluble conflict is between
institutions based on incompatible principles. The more severe the conflict, the more
useful to understand the institutions that are doing most of the thinking.
This challenge has been taken up by scholars who have recognized that understanding
the contradictions in an organizationfs ideational environment provides insights into
institutional change. For example, ideational changes at the level of the field can be
initiated when the contradictions between the multiple institutional logics in play at any
one time become evident in a single organization (Seo and Creed, 2002). At the organizational
level this can lead to a situation of tension when actors may draw on two or
more institutional logics simultaneously in order to legitimate their actions and, as
consequence, also legitimate particular authority relations. Often this involves an ironical
playing off a series of deeply rooted systems of meaning against each other (Sewell and
Barker, 2006). For instance, during recent years there has been an ongoing clash between
the institutional logics of corporatism and shareholder value that has been played out in
German corporations (Fiss and Zajac, 2004), giving rise to major changes in systems of
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organizational governance. Similarly, Zilber (2002) identified a tension between the
institutional logics of feminism and therapy that were played out in the practices of an
Israeli Rape Crisis. Others have argued that a clash between geographically specific
institutional logics has been a motor for change. For instance, attempts by the New York
mutual fund industry to foist aggressive growth-oriented strategies onto Boston-based
firms produced significant changes in practice within the firms making up the Massachusetts
arm of the industry (Lounsbury, 2007).
While such studies support the view that contradictions between different institutional
logics certainly open up a space for change, we are less certain about the temporal
dynamics associated with these contradictions. Some suggest that contradictions between
institutional logics only become a consideration in organizations during moments of
crisis (Greenwood and Hinings, 2006; Seo and Creed, 2002). In contrast, Zilber (2002)
argues that contradictions between institutional logics can be a constant feature of an
organization that act as the focus of ongoing and ritualized political struggles (Zilber,
2002).
Projective agency. While contradictions between institutional logics create an opportunity
for changes in an organizational logic, they by no means guarantee that this change will
take place. Indeed, at the level of the organization actors may respond in different ways,
including acquiescence to the institutional logics promoted by dominant groups (Scott
et al., 2000), attempts to combine potentially conflicting institutional logics creatively
(Reay and Hinings, 2005), or resistance to the dominant institutional logic (Marquis and
Lounsbury, 2007). The more proactive of these reactions involves the deployment of
eprojective agencyf (Colomy, 1998; Dorado, 2005; Emirbayer and Mische, 1998; Perkmann
and Spicer, 2007) where individual or collective action can articulate a viable
conceptual project to orient the future activity of other actors (Hardy, 2004), and seek to
justify that project through reference to broader discourses (McInnery, 2008). By articulating
a project, an agent identifies a particular collective problem and possible solutions
to that problem (Colomy, 1998). This provides the econtentf for an envisaged future state
of affairs. While current research suggests that projective agency is likely to play an
important role in the process of establishing new organizational logics in an organization,
we are not certain how that agency will play out when actors draw on institutional logics
that are themselves contradictory. We will consider whether, when faced with such
contradictions, subordinate actors will acquiesce to the institutional logic which is promoted
by the most powerful actors (Scott et al., 2000) or whether it prompts resistance
on the part of those attached to an existing arrangement of institutional logic (Marquis
and Lounsbury, 2007).
Mobilizing discourse. In order to generate attractive efuture trajectoriesf, projective agency
needs to deploy ideational resources through the mobilization of a coherent discourse.
Our operational definition of discourse involves e. . . the structured collection of texts
embodied in the practices of talking and writing (as well as a wide variety of visual
representation and cultural artifacts) that bring organizationally related objects into
being as these texts are produced, disseminated, and consumedf (Grant et al., 2004,
p. 3). The articulation of efficacious discourses is a vital aspect of developing and
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defending legitimacy (Phillips et al., 2004) . that is, effective discourses must have a
suasive force that provides the rhetorical resources and linguistic.cognitive schemas
associated with institutional logics. For instance, various languages of professionalism
were found to legitimate the shift from accounting practices to emulti-disciplinary practicesf
in the North American professional services industry (Suddaby and Greenwood,
2005). Beyond this level of mere legitimation, institutional logics can be thought of as
actually being constructed through such discourses. Thus, the use of a new institutional
language to speak about the purpose of organizations is also likely to play an important
role in creating an organizational logic as a social object. This is at least suggested
by one study of museums in Canadian cities that showed how the articulation of
business planning and measurement discourses led to the emergence of a business
institutional logic that displaced the existing cultural institutional logic (Oakes et al.,
1998). Nevertheless, the question which this Canadian study leaves unanswered is:
What specific discursive resources do actors mobilize when they are seeking to transform
a logic at the level of the organization? To respond to this challenge we extend
two main approaches that deal with discourses at the level of the field. The first of these
takes on Douglasfs (1986) observation that the legitimacy of an institution depends on
its association with a cognitive device such as a powerful metaphor by which it is
enaturalizedf. That is:
The cognitive device grounds the institution at once in nature and in reason by
discovering the institutionfs formal structure corresponds to formal structures in nonhuman
realms. (Douglas, 1986, p. 55)
This suggests that forms of discursive agency deploying metaphor and analogy are
implicated in the legitimation of institutions (Garud et al., 2007; Phillips et al., 2004).
The alternative (although related) approach has been to focus on more formal expressions
of reasoning in discourse such the presence of logical statements (Heracleous and
Barrett, 2001), broadly accepted forms of justification (McInnery, 2008), or classical
rhetorical strategies (Green, 2004; Green et al., 2009; Goodrick and Reay, 2010;
Suddaby and Greenwood, 2005) used by agents to establish the legitimacy of their
preferred institutional arrangements. Importantly, taking on board both approaches
suggests that understanding the way in which actors elaborate on institutional logics to
create organizational logics also requires us to consider discursive agency as a combination
of analogical and rhetorical moves, as will become evident when we discuss ironic
accommodation between competing discourses (a mainly analogical move), building
chains of equivalence between the potentially contradictory discourses (an analogical and
rhetorical move), and reconciling new and old discourses through pragmatic acts of
ebricolagef (a mainly rhetorical move).
Contradiction, agency, discourse. In the rest of this manuscript we will examine the discursive
process involved in transforming organizational logics. In particular, we are interested in
further exploring when and how the contradictions between discourses become evident,
what kinds of projective agency are involved in responding to these contradictions, and
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what happens to organizational logics when projective agency is exercised. In order to
explore these questions, we will examine the transformation of organizational logic in
Australiafs largest public broadcaster.
CASE AND METHOD
Case Selection
In order to track how changes in an organizational logic took place we have decided to
focus on the public broadcasting sector. This sector is particularly amenable to such a
study because there is strong prima facie evidence that the changing ideational environment
in which it has operated has had an impact on its reorganization in recent years
across many countries. This reorganization has reflected broader changes in the public
sector associated with the spread of what has been called the eNew Public Managementf.
This involves the application in the public sector of practices which have been largely
borrowed from the private sector (Ferlie et al., 1996; Hood, 1991; Osborne and Gaebler,
1992; Pollitt, 1993). In the case of public broadcasting this has involved the introduction
of more market-oriented policies (Etzioni-Halevy, 1987) and the development of a more
ebusiness-likef culture through the contracting-out of services, the involvement of management
consultancies, restructuring exercises, and the introduction of extensive performance
measurement systems (Born, 2004; Kung-Shankleman, 2000; Tracey, 1998).
While public broadcasters have been pushed to make such changes, they have also
sought to cling to the original ethos of public service and public broadcasting (Spicer,
2005; Spicer and Fleming, 2007). This creates an interesting potential contradiction at
the organizational level between institutional logics that align with the ethos of public
service and institutional logics that align with the ethos of commercial competition. As a
result, public broadcasting proves to be a suitable field in which to examine the processes
through which the tensions between competing institutional logics are negotiated within
a single organization.
The ABC was established in 1933 by Act of Parliament, taking as its inspiration the
British Broadcasting Corporationfs (BBC) model of public broadcasting. Thus, it was
charged with creating a liberal public sphere through the eReithianf goals of educating,
informing, and entertaining (ABC Annual Report [from hereon ABC AR], 1933; Reith,
1924). Following the BBC model, the ABC was established as a national public broadcaster
that was meant to be free from government interference and commercial pressures.
In order to ensure independence from the government the ABC was established by
a parliamentary charter specifying that its operation should be at earmfs lengthf from the
state. To ensure its independence from commercial pressures the government guaranteed
the ABC would not have to fund itself by competing with other broadcasters for
advertising revenues. The ABC was therefore banned from carrying advertising. Instead
it was funded by a public subscription model where all households with a radio (and later
a television) would have to purchase an annual broadcasting license. This was not,
however, hypothecated; it was a tax that went into consolidated revenues and only part
of the license fee would go to funding the ABC. Later this model was replaced by a direct
grant from the government.
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During its history the ABC has grown from a single national radio network to
comprise, at the time our research was conducted, four national radio networks, a
national television network with associated production facilities, an international radio
service, an online service, 17 local radio stations broadcasting in 59 localities, and a chain
of retail outlets throughout Australia selling merchandizing associated with its television
and radio programmes.
Data Collection
To explore changing organizational logics in the ABC we began by collecting some
background information about the company. We did this by consulting the published
histories and chronologies of the ABC between 1950 and 2000 (Allen and Spencer, 1983;
Inglis, 1983, 2006; Jacka et al., 1997; Media Information Australia, 1981.1986; Media
Information Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, 1997.1999). Having collected
this background material we decided that our major source of data would be the annual
reports of the ABC. These provide a reliable means of tracking of changes in the
Corporationfs internal ideational climate over an extended period for a number of
reasons. First, annuals reports have frequently been used to track changes in discourses
within organizations over time (e.g. Fiss and Zajac, 2004; Vaara et al., 2005). Second,
documents such as annual reports are a particularly useful data source because they are
a record of the internal ideational climate of the organization couched in the language of
its external ideational environment (Suddaby and Greenwood, 2005). Finally, we
focused on annual reports because they were the most consistent documents produced by
the ABC across the time period and covered the broadest strategic scope of its operations.
Thus, we would be able to subject its annual reports published between 1953 and
1999 to a close reading in order to discern shifts in the configuration of discourses and
therefore organizational logics over time. This timeframe was selected as the 1953
annual report was the first to provide the richness of data required for our analysis.
Data Analysis and Presentation
Recent studies have developed a set of robust methods for the systematic coding and
analysis of textual data to reveal the discourses they articulate. These methods are based
on the long tradition of interpretive social science which seeks to establish how actors
make sense of the social world (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). Building on theories of social
construction (Berger and Luckmann, 1966), interpretive approaches focus on tracing
how actors use discourses to construct and negotiate the symbolic universes in which they
exist. This involves the careful and recursive process of uncovering meaning structures
which actors use to negotiate and engage the world (Phillips et al., 2008). Thus, an
interpretive approaches to discourse analysis e. . . aims to identify discursive structures
and patterns across these texts such as enthymemes, central themes or root metaphors,
and to explore how these structures influence and shape agentsf interpretations, actions
and social practicesf (Heracleous, 2004, p. 176). For example, through an analysis of the
texts and utterances surrounding the introduction of electronic trading system in the
London Insurance Market, Heracleous and Barrett (2001) identified actorsf rhetorical
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strategies by classifying patterns of usage of characteristics enthymemes. Adopting a
slightly different approach, Suddaby and Greenwood (2005) drew on a combination of
witness statements to a Securities and Exchange Commission hearing and other documentation
to expose contradictory institutional logics embedded in historical understandings
of professionalism in accounting. Theirs was a two-stage analysis, first
undertaking a content analysis of the material to identify the einstitutional vocabulariesf
used to articulate a particular institutional logic before attempting to capture deep
structures of meaning contained therein using classical rhetorical categories. Maguire
and Hardy (2006, 2009) also used a combination of historical sources and transcripts of
representations to the United Nations Environment Programmefs investigation into the
effects of the herbicide DDT to reveal the discursive roles played by actors and texts they
authored during an institution-building process. They used a four-stage data analysis
process but it was their first stage that is of particular interests to us. This involved
building a ediscursive event history data basef (Maguire, 2004; Van de Ven and Poole,
1990) of ewho said what, and whenf (Eisenhardt and Bourgeois, 1988) using the wide
range of data sources available to them. This was then refined using theory-derived
themes to identify coherent discourses of the purpose and effects of DDT.
From Heracleous and Barrett (2001) we took the idea that it is possible to identify
coherent discursive strategies that reside in the texts produced by organizations and their
members. From Suddaby and Greenwood (2005) we took the idea that these discursive
strategies are likely to be couched in institutional vocabularies that are external to the
organization. From Maguire and Hardy (2006; see also Maguire and Hardy, 2009) we
took that it is possible to use third-party historical sources as well as organizational
sources to develop a historical perspective on changes in discourse over an extended time
period. Taking these considerations on board we developed a two-stage data analysis
process that first involved analysing secondary historical data referenced by the reports
themselves. In order to do this we systematically read through all the secondary sources
and identified the key events and the actors involved in each of them to produce our
ediscursive event history databasef. A key event was identified when it was either mentioned
in a historical chronology or when a significant emphasis was placed on it in
narrative histories (see, for example, Inglis, 1983). These key events were tabulated into
a continuous chronological narrative that was then cross-referenced against the annual
reports using methods of interpretive discourse analysis (Heracleous, 2006; Heracleous
and Barrett, 2001; Heracleous and Hendry, 2000; Maguire and Hardy, 2006). This
allowed us to operationalize the institutional logics that made up the ABCfs ideational
environment by identifying and coding recurrent themes in the annual reports. Codes
were gradually adjusted and, using an iterative approach (Miles and Huberman, 1984),
we were able to identify seven synchronic discursive themes that were nominally stable
across the 47-year study period: Diversity, Civil Society, Communities, Australian Culture, the
Media Market, Government, and Internationalism.[2] We took these inductively generated
categories (Musson and Duberley, 2006) to stand for the discourses associated with the
main institutional logics that made up the ABCfs external ideational climate. We noticed,
however, that the language used in annual reports first to establish the significance of
these themes and then discuss them subtly changed over time. That is, in Suddaby and
Greenwoodfs (2005) term, we were able to discern changes in the institutional vocabu-
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laries adopted by the ABC as it gradually repositioned itself with respect to these
discursive themes. This is the basis for our claims about the ABCfs changing organizational
logics: from one year to the next the discourse related to each of these themes in
individual reports appeared to be relatively stable but, over longer periods, it shifted in
important ways.[3] Adopting a diachronic perspective we were able to identify four
characteristic configurations of our synchronic themes that mapped onto eras where an
overarching symbolic system operated at the ABC. Following Phillips et al. (2008) we
have taken these overarching symbolic systems to be an operationalization of the prevailing
organizational logic and we have labelled them Nationalism, Multiculturalism, Neo-
Liberalism, and Globalization, respectively. Given that we are interested in changes in the
discursive treatment of our seven constituent themes, and hence transformations in the
prevailing organizational logic, we have chosen to present our data via a discussion of
the shifts in discourse associated with three main transitions: from Nationalism to Multiculturalism,
from Multiculturalism to Neo-Liberalism, and from Neo-Liberalism to Globalization.
These transitions are also summarized in Table I.[4] TRANSFORMING THE ORGANIZATIONAL LOGIC OF
A PUBLIC BROADCASTER
From Nationalism to Multiculturalism (1953 to the mid-1970s)
Composition of the dominant coalition. The foundational organizational logic at the ABC was
Nationalism. It was promoted by a coalition inside and outside the organization that
included a conservative government (from 1949 until 1972 Australia was ruled by a
partnership of the urban-based Liberal Party and the rurally-based Country Party), the
ABCfs Board, and senior managers, all of whom were drawn from Australiafs patrician
elite (Inglis, 1983). Central to government policy was the development of infrastructure
. including broadcasting . that would encourage a unitary national culture largely based
on the sense of an einheritedf Britishness. This coalition sought to extend their own
agenda by shaping the broadcaster into a service that reflected these nationalist aspirations.
This reflected a paternalistic e. . . duty to support what it believes to be best in our
society and to endeavour to elevate, according to its own judgement, the taste of that
societyf (AR, 1963, p. 10). During the early part of the 1970s, however, there were
significant changes in the dominant coalition who controlled the ABC (Inglis, 1983).
Probably the most significant event that precipitated this change was the election of a
centre-left Federal government formed by the Labour Party in 1972. At the heart of its
broader policies were an expansion of public services and a recognition of the multicultural
profile of the Australian population. Although the Labour Party was only in power
for three years these political aspirations were quickly pursued via the governmentfs
engagement with the ABC. Through its power of appointment it was able to promote a
more technocratic and professional approach to the management of the organization.
Diversity. Initially the indigenous population and non-English speaking immigrants were
represented as targets for assimilation into the national culture through edifying instructional
programming on etypicalf Australian (i.e. white Anglo-Celtic) mores. With the
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Table I. Transition of organizational logic at the ABC
Organizational logic Dominant coalition Discourses ( plus associated legitimate role of ABC)
Nationalism Conservative Senior
Management
Conservative
Government
Conservative Board
Members
Diversity (incorporating diverse groups into a
monolithic national culture)
Civil Society (creating a space where citizens can
debate issues of national importance)
Communities (incorporating communities into
nation)
Australian Culture (building a shared cultural
heritage and propagating a positive image of the
nation)
Media Market present but not yet prominent
Government present but not yet prominent
International present but not yet prominent
Multiculturalism Technocratic Senior
Management
Progressive Government
Mixed Board Members
Diversity ( providing a space for diverse audiences to
express themselves)
Civil Society declining in usage
Communities (representing interests and views of
diverse audiences)
Australian Culture (expressing diversity)
Media Market present but not yet prominent
Government present but not yet prominent
International present but not yet prominent
Neo-Liberalism Entrepreneurial Senior
Management
Neo-Liberal Government
Business-Oriented Board
Media Market emerging (efficiently providing
established services)
Government emerging (repaying taxpayersf
investment)
International emerging (taking advantage of
international links to create market opportunities)
Civil Society re-emerging (maintaining civil society at
a low cost)
Australian Culture (promoting diverse Australian
culture)
Diversity stable
Communities stable
Globalization Entrepreneurial Senior
Management stable
Neo-Liberal Government
stable
Business-Oriented Board
stable
International (competing in a global market to
provide programming and services . ceases to
exist as an independent theme but penetrates all
other discourses)
Media Market (catering to an international market)
Communities (helping to build localism)
Australian Culture subsumed under Communities
Civil Society subsumed under Communities
Government (lobbying for increased government
funding to compete in the international market)
Diversity (ensuring diverse media content in face of
globalization)
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gradual recognition of the growing diversity of population, however, it became clear that
various groups within Australian society did not automatically identify with the idea of a
homogeneous British culture. This created a dilemma under an emerging organizational
logic of Multiculturalism: should the notion of Australian identity be changed or should
efforts at assimilation be redoubled? Under the previous organizational logic of Nationalism
the latter was the most obvious course of action but, with changes in the dominant
coalition, the meaning of the word enationf was modified to reflect the pluralistic character
of the population. Thus, the ABC was required to provide a e. . . service to meet the
needs of a population which has varying standards of education, and a wide diversity of
interests, hopes, and aspirationsf (AR, 1972, p. 5) in order to reflect e. . . a wider range of
opinions and attitudes within Australian society than existed a few years agof (ABC AR,
1976, p. 9).
Communities. Under the organizational logic of Nationalism, the needs of differentiated
communities (e.g. aborigines, rural inhabitants, and, in urban areas, people of southern
European origin) were barely recognized. Instead they were considered only insofar as
these communities were constituent parts of a unified nation. By being incorporated into
the nation, each community would become a participant in the national civil society and
national culture. For example, the status of remote communities was characterized as
incomplete or culturally lacking. This deficit could be made up through local programming
that e. . . compensated those of our people who are very conscious that the coming
of television has given further emphasis to their sense of isolation from urban advantagesf
(AR, 1959, p. 4). This sentiment changed with the rise of Multiculturalism: now communities
were represented as unique entities with needs of their own. Furthermore, rural
outposts were no longer considered to be in need of schooling in the mores of the urban
Anglo-Celtic elite. Thus, differentiated communities came to be associated with unique
identities and the ABCfs role became e. . . cater(ing) for all community interestsf (AR,
1977, p. 15). The main organizational response was to develop local radio stations to
serve these e. . . community interests, thereby allowing the ABC to develop a significant
community involvementf (AR, 1975, p. 9).
Australian culture. Initially the ABCfs explicit role was to support Australian culture by
broadcasting eseriousf music, drama, and educational programming. More generally the
ABC contributed to the Australian cultural landscape through the commissioning of
musical and literary works that reflected the traditions of the countryfs colonial founders.
This also necessitated the production of a discriminating audience well-schooled in
European art because e. . . high standards of performance must go along with high
standards in appreciationf (AR, 1953, p. 11). The rise of Multiculturalism, however, led
to the recognition that the ABCfs audience did not have such homogonous and conservative
tastes. This shift was retrospectively acknowledged in the 1980s when in was noted
that the late 1960s were a watershed for the ABC as it started to become a e. . . voice for
the affairs of the whole nation in all its diversityf (AR, 1985, p. 28). That is, it came to be
recognized that the ABC needed to represent the interests of specific groups as well as a
single nation. The broadcasterfs goal thus became the provision of e. . . programs that
contribute to a sense of national identity, inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural
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diversity of the Australian communityf (AR, 1982, p. 1). (Note that the discourses of
Media Market, Government, and Internationalism could be detected in embryonic form
but were not prominent during the transition from Nationalism to Multiculturalism.)
From Multiculturalism to Neo-Liberalism (the mid-1970s to
the early 1990s)
Composition of the dominant coalition. By the middle of the 1970s Australia experienced a set
of political and economic circumstances that prefigured the rise of what has widely
become known as neo-liberal ideology (also known as eEconomic Rationalismf in Australia).
These reached a climax in 1975 when the conservative opposition parties provoked
a constitutional crisis by blocking the progress of the finance bill in the upper house
of the Federal Parliament, leading to the dismissal of the Labour Government. In the
ensuing election a Conservative Government was again returned to power and it proceeded
to make significant funding cuts across all public services. These cuts were
coupled with a push to transform all government services into efficient and business-like
enterprises. People with strong links to the Liberal and National Parties were appointed
to the broadcasterfs Board when vacancies arose (Inglis, 1983). These new appointees
had a mandate to introduce a more entrepreneurial and market-based ethos at the ABC,
initially through the appointment of managers with business experience. This mandate
was later strengthened after the publication of two government-sponsored reviews of the
Australian public services, meaning that the dominant coalition . an alliance of a
neo-liberal government, a business-oriented Board, and an entrepreneurial senior management
team . were able to justify an organizational logic that, for the first time, placed
the goals of market orientation, efficiency, and competition right at the heart of the
broadcasterfs operations (Inglis, 1983). As we set out below, this transformation was
accompanied by changes in some of the existing discourses observed in the ABCfs annual
reports as well as the emergence of new ones.
Media market. This was the most significant new discourse to emerge as a result of the
drive to make the ABC more business-like. Although the media market had been
referred to before it was usually to warn against its malign influence on public broadcasting.
Take, for example, the following: eIf audience ratings were the basis of the
Commissionfs programme policy, the new and the unusual would rarely be heard or
seenf (AR, 1974, p. 7).[5] During the early 1980s, however, the Media Market discourse
was rapidly embraced and we find that references to efficiency became common as the
ABC, erecognize[d] the necessity to be entrepreneurial and energetic in pursuing
revenue-raising opportunitiesf (AR, 1984, p. 6). There was also recognition that the ABC
should operate using the employment practices of the commercial sector as it became
e. . . difficult to apply a somewhat inflexible public sector recruitment and employment
policy in a concentrated and highly competitive industryf (AR, 1987, p. 3). This move
away from the institutional vocabulary associated with public sector employment accompanied
the introduction of external competitive pressures directed at making sure
e. . . programs are produced efficiently and are of value to ABC audiencesf (p. 12).
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Government. Under previous organizational logics there was rarely any discussion of role
of the Government in the operation of ABC, even as a primary source of funds. With the
rise of Neo-Liberalism, however, a focus on the Government as the primary source of
funding became an issue that consistently appeared. For example, it was noted that
government funding e. . . continued to decline . . . conversely, the profitability of Australian
commercial radio and television stations . a profitability that largely depends upon
public expenditure through advertising . has been at a high levelf (AR, 1977, p. 6). The
perception that the ABC was being eclipsed by the commercial sector due to real-term
decreases in income led to protests that it was no longer able to fulfil its mission to provide
e. . . adequate and comprehensive radio and television programmes for the Australian
communityf (AR, 1979, p. 5). The realization that its funding was at the discretion of a
government that could easily divert resources to other areas of public expenditure drove
the ABC to embrace further the discourse of entrepreneurship as it sought to demonstrate
that e. . . the Australian public receives the best return on investment in national
broadcastingf (AR, 1982, p. 2).
Internationalism. Under the organizational logics of Nationalism and Multiculturalism the
ABCfs efforts were directed at achieving national goals. If its activities did extend beyond
national boundaries these were still justified with reference to the nationfs self-interest,
such as presenting a favourable image of Australia to the rest of the world. With the
emergence of Neo-Liberalism, however, the discourse of the Media Market gave rise to
discussions of the ABCfs commercial relationships with media organizations outside
Australia. With the push for the ABC to become eenterprisingf and sell its programming
and technology, other national broadcasters emerged as potential buyers and agents
were appointed, e. . . to sell programs in North and South America, and the Pacific and
Asian areaf (AR, 1978, p. 14). These augmented the activities of agents already established
in the United Kingdom, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Civil society. Under Neo-Liberalism this discourse re-emerged after falling into relative
decline, although the goal of promoting civil society was now justified using the language
of the market. For example, the efour cents a dayf campaign (AR, 1980, p. 4) was an
attempt to demonstrate the value-for-money that all citizens received for such a small
notional per capita tax levy. Central to this message was the ABCfs organizational
efficiency in maintaining the essential fabric of a civilized life although, in extending the
basic premise of Media Market discourse in this way, Civil Society was no longer
represented as a gathering of citizens engaged in rational debate about issues of the day.
Rather, it was now represented as a group of taxpayers who entered into an implied
contractual relationship with the ABC.
Australian culture. The institutional vocabulary associated with the Media Market discourse
also permeated discussions surrounding the production of Australian culture. For
example, the economic goals of efficiency and entrepreneurialism were now coupled
with the desire to be culturally distinctive so that the ABC could continue e. . . to be
central to the life of the nation and one of the worldfs greatest broadcastersf (AR, 1985,
p. 3). More generally the success of a commercialized ABC became seen as way of
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guaranteeing its ability to promote the production of a distinctively Australian culture.
(Note that the discourses of Diversity and Communities did not change discernibly
during the transition from Multiculturalism to Neo-Liberalism.)
From Neo-Liberalism to Globalization (since the early 1990s)
Composition of the dominant coalition. A nominally centre-left Labour Government was
re-elected in 1983 and over the next 13 years in power it broadly maintained (and, in
some cases, even accelerated) the neo-liberal policies that had previously had such a
profound influence on the direction of the ABC (Inglis, 2006). As result the character of
the dominant coalition remained relatively stable although, as we shall see below, the
organizational logic of Neo-Liberalism was reconfigured in the context of a globalized
media economy. In this way, the discourse of Internationalism ceased to exist as an
independent theme as the need to compete with other providers in a global market
penetrated all other discourses.
Media market. The operational context of the ABC changed significantly with the passage
of the Broadcasting Services Act in 1992, which opened up the broadcast media to wider
competition from commercial sources. This effectively internationalized the Australian
media and, in response to changing market and technological conditions, the ABC
embarked on a significant organizational restructuring, including major changes in
employment practices. At the same time, new technologies were seen as providing the
means to sell ABC productions overseas with a view to becoming e. . . a leader in the
broadcasting and marketing of authoritative, quality, educational programs, including
English language teaching programs, within and outside Australiaf (AR, 1993,
frontispiece).
Government. While the neo-liberal belief that federal funding should be represented as an
investment made by the taxpayer was maintained, the organizational logic of Globalization
was also used to challenge the governmentfs decreasing financial commitment to
the ABC. For example, the broadcaster insisted that it should also be able to benefit from
the liberalization of the media sector in Australia even though deregulation laws were
devised exclusively for the benefit of commercial operators. Thus, it was given access
to the e. . . new multi-channelled environment . . . so that the . . . agendas from other
nations and purely commercial imperatives do not dominatef (AR, 1993, p. 18). The
institutional vocabulary of globalization was also deployed to claim additional government
funding using the rationale that more money was required to ensure the broadcasterfs
effective participation in the media market. For example, the 1999 report
asserted that the e. . . publicfs investment in the ABC should be increased because of the
coming digital eraf (AR, 1999, p. 50).
Community. The organizational logic of Globalization was presented as an opportunity to
strengthen the ABCfs commitment to the community through the rise of enarrowcastingf
where material could be channelled directly to diverse communities using satellite and
cable technologies. Through this form of localism the ABC would become part of
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communities e. . . not just by providing services to these communities but also being part
of community lifef (AR, 1997, p. 18). The broadcasterfs local and regional stations
embodied e. . . the ABCfs commitment to localism and to providing services which
respond to the needs of the diverse state, regional and rural audiences throughout
Australiaf (AR, 1997, p. 18).
Civil society and Australian culture. Concern about the competitive pressure brought about
by globalization . especially the relaxation of foreign ownership laws and emergence of
niche providers . led to fears that the voice of the ABC would be drowned out by the
proliferation of media sources. As such, the ABCfs role as the egluef holding together
Australian civil society appeared to be threatened by erevolutionary changesf in the
media environment. It countered by highlighting the need e. . . for a national organisation
which gives the whole community an outlet to share its concerns and to think
ahead . . . the ABC is our most accessible, universal forum to meet these needsf (AR,
1993, p. 12). Thus, the organizational logic of Globalization led to a blurring of two
discourses and it was used as a justification for maintaining the ABCfs pre-eminent
position as the custodian of Australian culture (where eculturef was cast as a key component
of its mission to preserve a normative vision of civil society). Eventually this
blurring led the two discourses to decline as independent entities, eventually becoming
subsumed under the discourse of Communities.
Diversity. Only minor changes occurred in the discourse of Diversity under the organizational
logic of Globalization. The ABC was represented as an institution that preserved
emedia diversityf in the face of a efast changing media environmentf that was in danger
of becoming dominated by large multinational companies (AR, 1997). Importantly, the
term itself became decoupled from Multiculturalism. Capitalizing on its positive connotations,
Diversity became associated with programme content rather than the audience,
allowing the ABC to justify its continued existence through the claim that it helped
counter the perceived homogenization of television and radio programming around
North American (and, to a lesser extent, British) formats.
DISCUSSION
Overcoming Contradictions through Ironic Appropriation
It is our argument that, although a single organizational logic might have predominated
at any one time during our study, it is not simply a case that each one was completely
silenced by its replacement. Our data suggest, for example, that when the organizational
logic of Neo-Liberalism took hold in the corporation it was still interpreted with reference
to the foundational organizational logic of Nationalism . i.e. reform of the ABC along
neo-liberal lines would ensure that it continued to serve the nation state and promote
Australian culture. Likewise when Globalization emerged it was interpreted with reference
to Multiculturalism . i.e. somewhat counter-intuitively, a logic of Globalization
legitimated a localism that ensured diverse groups could voice their views through the
broadcaster. Prima facie, this suggests an overt contradiction in each instance but they
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can both be seen as a form of ironic appropriation where advocates of a new organizational
logic adopt or modify the discourses associated with an old logic in a way that is
critical of existing dominant discourses.[6] It involves appropriation insofar as erepeated
use of a justification so that it becomes identified with a particular claimf (Sillince, 1999,
p. 810). This appropriation is ironic insofar as actors mobilizing these justifications that
have been repeatedly used in a way that challenges or questions the currently dominant
discourses (Phillips et al., 2008, p. 781). To be sure, this is not a case of esaying one thing
and doing anotherf (cf. Meyer and Rowan, 1977). That is, neo-liberal ideologues did not
disingenuously spout the rhetoric of Nationalism to deceive advocates of a previous
approach. Nor did advocates of Globalization seek to deceive advocates of Multiculturalism.
Rather, our argument is that during each transition there was a moment where
advocates of previous organizational logics were able to exert an influence over advocates
of new ones by deploying discourses that encouraged the latter to engage with an
alternative view of what was legitimate, reasonable, and effective for an organization and
its members to do in a given context. This suggests a subtle form of projective agency
sitting between outright acquiescence and outright refusal; a kind of ironically negotiated
collusion between advocates of competing worldviews (Sewell, 2008) that creates an
opportunity . perhaps only briefly . for a dialogue about the collective identity of an
organization to occur before it becomes entrenched (Coupland and Brown, 2004).
This finding is consistent with recent work that attests to the existence of multiple
contradictory logics at the level of the field or organization (Zilber, 2002, 2006; see also
Coupland and Brown, 2004). Furthermore, our results also appear to be consistent with
the finding that the existence of contradictory logics provides the impetus for organizational
or institutional change (Greenwood and Hinings, 2006; Lounsbury, 2007; Seo and
Creed, 2002; Suddaby and Greenwood, 2005). We noticed, however, that these contradictions
between organizational logics in the ABC did not simply act as instantaneous
triggers of institutional change through their emergence at a moment of crisis (cf. Seo and
Creed, 2002). Rather, such contradictions were an established feature of each era, even
though they became less obvious as advocates used discursive agency to play down the
tensions between logics (cf. Sillince, 1999). This observation points us towards another
form of projective agency that can be theorized using a recent interpretation of the
established concept of hegemony (Gramsci, 1971; see also Deetz, 1992; Laclau and
Mouffe, 1985; Levy and Egan, 2003; Lewis, 1992; Spicer and Bohm, 2007) . that is, a
situation where an apparent ideological unity emerges over time as it is forged in an
inherently unstable and contradictory social formation. Given their interest in how actors
deploy systems of meaning is should come as no surprise that Gramscifs comments about
how powerful actors obscure their self-interests by presenting existing social relations as
being somehow natural or normal have become a central focus for todayfs discourse
analysts. For example, in order to demonstrate that discursive practice is part of larger
social practice involving power relations, Fairclough (1992) draws on Gramscifs argument
that ecommon sensef is the result of a negotiated meaning-making process undertaken
by competing social groups who are drawing on diverse ideological resources
( Jorgensen and Phillips, 2002). Given their interest in how systems of meaning become
taken for granted and are implicated in establishing the social order, it is then perhaps
more surprising that institutional theorists have only engaged tangentially with Gramsci.
A. Spicer 932 and G. Sewell
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Indeed, according to Levy and Scully (2007, p. 976) e. . . Gramsci has received barely a
mention in institutional theoryf and they argue for the use of Laclau and Mouffefs (1985)
refined concept of hegemony as way of extending our understanding of institutions as
discursive constructions.
According to Laclau and Mouffe (2001, p. x; emphasis in original), something
approximating hegemony is achieved only when ea particular social force assumes the
representation of a totality that is radically incommensurable with itf. Crafting hegemony
allows a combination of discourses to represent at least some of the interests of all groups
involved in the process. In the present case, an organizational logic becomes hegemonic
when it is taken to represent and encode a series of other discourses which are at work
within an organizational field to legitimate certain authority relations. Thus, a hegemonic
logic acts as a kind of common reference point around which previous discourses
can circulate. It is, however, a feature of hegemony that it rarely (if ever) goes unchallenged
(Burawoy, 1979). Given that the kind of hegemony discussed by Laclau and
Mouffe is inherently unstable, once established it requires discursive work to maintain it.
This leads us to consider the way in which organizational logics at the ABC were
sustained in the face of challenges that were distinct from an ironical appropriation of
the pre-existing discourses. This involved building echains of equivalencef between
distinct discourses.
Building Hegemony by Forging Chains of Equivalence
Some have suggested that obvious contradictions between organizational logics lead to a
situation where weaker actors will tend to acquiesce to the most dominant logic (Scott
et al., 2000). There is some evidence of this in the current case . for example, some
members of the dominant coalition did very quickly fall into line in accepting a new logic
. but it is not, however, the full story. Other discourses such as Australian Culture and
Civil Society that were championed by subordinate actors were not simply done away
with but remained latent, to be used as potential resources of resistance as and when the
opportunity arose (Dick and Cassell, 2002). These eresistant logicsf (Lounsbury, 2007;
Marquis and Lounsbury, 2007) remained part of the organization, but instead of them
being deployed in a simple oppositional process where one group sought to defend their
favoured organizational logic from the onslaught of a more powerful group, there
appeared to be a process of ehybridizationf whereby resistant discourses were able to
influence the emergent organizational logic in subtle ways. As a form of projective
agency this goes beyond ironic appropriation to involve a mutually modifying form of
discursive exchange.
In order to understand how these emerging logics come to be modified by stubbornly
resistant discourses, we advocate using the concept of echains of equivalencef (Laclau and
Mouffe, 1985, p. 130). This is a set of linguistic associations that establish similarities
between different interests or groups. A chain of equivalence provides a source of
solidarity between diverse groups who may be in support of (or opposed to) the same
thing for different reasons (Smith, 1998). Thus, ostensibly contradictory discourses can
be combined such that their established meanings are transformed through their overlapping
identification with partially shared sets of beliefs (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985; see
Organizational Logic 933
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Journal compilation c 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
also Bridgman and Willmott, 2005; Hensmans, 2003; Smith, 1998; Spicer and Bohm,
2007). Here a chain of equivalence forges links between apparently independent discourses
which makes them appear to be systematically and credibly related but in such
a flexible manner that the more obvious contradictions can be avoided. Smith (1998)
provides a vivid example of this. On its own socialism is not necessarily democratic and
we can think of innumerable nominally esocialistf regimes that are strangers to any form
of democracy. Indeed, if a socialist project is initiated by revolution rather than through
the ballot box then it may be explicitly anti-democratic (one may think here of the
contradictory notion of the edictatorship of the proletariatf associated with Soviet Communism).
But a socialist project . even one initiated by revolution . can become democratic
if it is transformed though its combination with democratic discourse.
Table II sets out how an important chain of equivalence was established during each
of the eras. Thus, discourse like eAustralian Culturef which was established during the era
of Nationalism maintained their currency even when the organizational logic of Nationalism
itself went into decline. Thus, when the organizational logic of Neo-Liberalism
(and its associated discourse of the market) was at its height, the message of preserving
civil society and promoting Australian culture was still able to get a hearing. This was
because a chain of equivalence was forged over time between the discourse of the Media
Market and the discourses of Civil Society and Australian Culture so that it led each to
be transformed through a combination of discursive elements to provide a shared
legitimating scheme that unites ostensibly opposed interests (Laclau, 2005; Smith, 1998).
Importantly, the emergence of the organizational logic of Neo-Liberalism enabled the
revival of the discourse of Civil Society . one that had gone into relative decline during
the era of Multiculturalism . in order to reconnect with the foundational principles of the
ABC. Here the existence of such a chain allowed people to make descriptive and
normative statements about Civil Society and Australian Culture in such a way that they
were meaningful to hard-line free-market ideologues.
The chain of equivalence illustrated in Table II shows how, in each era under consideration,
the discourses associated with a new organizational logic were not necessarily
Table II. Building a chain of equivalence between logics
Linked discourses Linking terms Pursued by
Nationalism Civil Society
Australian Culture
Unity
Incorporation
Build shared cultural heritage
Multiculturalism Australian Culture
Diversity
Unity through diversity Allow minority groups to be heard
Neo-Liberalism Media Market
Civil Society
Australian Culture
Efficiency
Value for Money
Become more market oriented
Globalization International
Civil Society
Australian Culture
Communities
Efficiency
Value for Money
Unity and Incorporation
of local issues
Become oriented to global market
A. Spicer 934 and G. Sewell
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completely silenced by pre-existing discourses, suggesting that rearguard acts of discursive
resistance can have some effect on how a new logic is taken up. Here, the ironic
appropriation mentioned above can be seen as a necessary (although, not in itself, a
sufficient) precondition for the hybridization of dominant and resistant discourses that
are connected through a chain of equivalence. This is because such a chain can only be
forged if there is some recognition by advocates of one discourse that an ostensibly
opposed discourse has at least some degree of legitimacy (Sewell and Barker, 2006). If this
condition is satisfied then a dialogue can be entered into that moves beyond rhetorical
argumentation to mutually transform oppositional discourses.
Reconciling New and Old Discourses through Discursive Bricolage
This last point provides a means of accounting for the persistence of certain discourses at
the ABC between 1953 and 1999. Indeed, it is central to our argument that the
discourses of Australian Culture, Civil Society, Government, Diversity, Community, and
Internationalism were ever present in some form during the period studied. This is
consistent with other studies (e.g. Buchanan and Dawson, 2007; Coupland and Brown,
2004; Heracleous, 2006; Heracleous and Barrett, 2001; Leitch and Davenport, 2005)
showing that there is rarely a monological situation where one coherent set of discourses
completely dominates an organizational change process. Rather, change processes are
dialogical insofar as multiple actors struggle to advance their favoured discourse (Buchanan
and Dawson, 2007; Dick and Cassell, 2002). Our study supports this finding .
changes in organizational logic at the ABC were indeed the result of a complex dialogue
between different discourses. As a way of conducting this dialogue, ironic appropriation
and building chains of equivalence are intentional and systematic examples of projective
agency (Oakes et al., 1998), but introducing radically new descriptive and normative
terms . even in a mediated form . runs the risk that a characteristic form of institutional
vocabulary becomes closely associated with people who were seen as eoutsidersf (Coupland
and Brown, 2004) intent on transforming the ABC. Consequently this can strike a
discordant note with einsidersf . i.e. those well versed in the existing discourses. In order
to overcome some of these problems we found that the dominant coalition sought to
augment ironic appropriation and the building of chains of equivalence with more
opportunistic and piecemeal engagements with existing discourses (cf. Suddaby and
Greenwood, 2005). We style this as a form of discursive bricolage; a ecounter-insurgency
tacticf that can be adopted when more programmatic acts of projective agency fail to
persuade others that a change in discourse is actually a preservation of the status quo.[7] This can be seen as a reactive response to contradictions that can no longer be suppressed
and involves developing a temporary accommodation between old and new
discourses that epapers over the cracksf. For example, we have shown that a significant
amount of work went into attempting to reposition existing discourses such as the Media
Market and Community in order to make them compatible with the emerging legitimacy
of the organizational logic of Globalization. When it became evident, however, that
diverting some of the ABCfs resources to serving overseas markets meant a reduction in
funding for local broadcasting, it quickly precipitated the response that, by taking up
opportunities for the broadcaster to extend its activities internationally, it would raise
Organizational Logic 935
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Journal compilation c 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
additional funds that could be reinvested in pursuing its local mission. (It should be noted
that Television Australia . the ABCfs main foray into the international market . was an
abject commercial failure that was quickly off-loaded to a commercial broadcaster and
subsequently closed.) We see this as an attempt by the dominant coalition to ensure that,
once it became obvious that the practical implications of a new logic did not square with
their previous attempts at maintaining continuity, the contradiction was contained. An
advantage of this strategy was that the coalition did not have to go to the trouble of
introducing a whole new discourse should ironic appropriation or building a chain of
equivalence temporarily break down. Instead, they were faced with the less onerous task
of pragmatically seeking to reformulate the existing body of language in order to achieve
a political accommodation. In effect, it was a short-term fix that disarmed potentially
dissident voices whilst appearing to be consistent with the objectives of the dominant
coalition.
CONCLUSIONS
In this manuscript we have sought to explore how apparently entrenched organizational
logics can be transformed. In this sense our enterprise can be seen as an attempt to come
to terms with a common criticism of institutional theory . that it is well equipped to
describe the ideational features of a shared understanding of what is legitimate, reasonable,
and effective for an organization to do in a given context . but it is also hardpressed
to explain how such a shared understanding changes. Building on recent work
in institutional theory and discourse analysis we have asked how actors can take advantage
of contradictions between things like institutional logics or organizational logics in
order to engage in projective agency that promotes, transforms, and hybridizes discourse.
Importantly, it is our use of the meso-level concept of an organizational logic
which enables us to link ideational developments in the institutional field (an emphasis
on the macro) with spatially and temporally localized activities (an emphasis on the
micro).
Methodologically, a key advantage of our extended longitudinal study of Australiafs
largest public broadcaster is that we have been able to observe the shifts in the ideational
terrain of an organization that might not otherwise be visible if we had used other
methods. The three processes we identified at work . ironic appropriation, building
chains of equivalence, and engaging in discursive bricolage . each played an important
role in enabling the dominant coalition at the ABC to reconcile a whole range of often
highly contradictory discourses around a single organizational logic. This observation,
however, brings us to an important caveat. Like history, annual reports tend to be written
by the ewinnersf and, as such, our data will only indirectly reflect the discursive agency
of less powerful groups in the ABC. Nevertheless, our findings make three distinct
contributions to unanswered questions in the study of organizational logics. First, we
have sought to address the question of whether contradictions in organizational logics are
an ever-present feature of organizations (Zilber, 2002) or whether they only emerge
during times of crisis (Seo and Creed, 2002). Our response is that both points of view are
valid in that programmatic forms of projective agency can be seen as an attempt to ekeep
the lidf on ever-present contradictions but, when this fails, the dominant coalition reacted
A. Spicer 936 and G. Sewell
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Journal compilation c 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
by trying to reconcile contradictory organizational logics temporarily through creative
but pragmatic bricolage. Second, we have revisited the question of whether contradictions
lead to acquiescence to organizational logics promoted by a dominant group (Scott
et al., 2000) or whether they provoke resistance (Marquis and Lounsbury, 2007). Again,
our response is that both points of view are valid. Thus, while managing contradictions
through programmatic projective agency may achieve something approaching a hegemonic
organizational logic, this is not before resistive discursive resources have done
their work and reshaped the raw ideology of Multiculturalism, Neo-Liberalism, or
Globalization. In this way, transforming organizational logics is not a one-way street.
Indeed, an important feature of ironic appropriation and building chains of equivalence
is that both are, in Laclau and Mouffefs (1985) terms, specific examples of the erelationalf
character of discourses . i.e. one discourse only becomes meaningful to agents in any
practical sense when it is constituted in relation to other discourses (Smith, 1998). Finally,
we have considered whether groups attempting to promote a new organizational logic
will rely on radically new discourses (Oakes et al., 1998) or whether they will seek to
reposition existing discourses (Suddaby and Greenwood, 2005). As a corollary of our
previous conclusion, we found that, through the processes of ironic appropriation,
building chains of equivalence, and discursive bricolage, the dominant coalition sought
to make new and preceding discourses fit together. That is, they usually tried to make the
new logics appear as an expression of the status quo.
While this study has made some headway in resolving some problems in institutional
theory through its use of discourse analysis, it has also opened up a series of questions for
further investigation. First, we have only considered changes in organizational logics
within a single public sector organization. Given that existing literature considering the
impact of institutional logics on other public sector organizations suggests a similar
movement towards market-driven orientation (e.g. Glynn, 2002; Scott et al., 2000;
Thornton, 2002), it would be interesting to examine other cases using discourse analysis.
In particular, the lingering of past organizational logics in a modified form at the ABC
suggests that we could examine this aspect of transformation in other organizations.
Thus, rather than thinking of the continuity and discontinuity of discourses in a discrete
manner (i.e. a particular discourse is either present or absent; Smith, 1998) we can focus
on the contradictions, paradoxes, and tensions that exist within and between discourses
as they ebb and flow at the level of the field. This would involve building on the
established literature (e.g. Fiss and Zajac, 2004; Haveman and Rao, 1997; Lounsbury,
2007; Thornton, 2002) to take into account how changes in institutional logics at the
level of the field are linked to changes at the level of the organization. Considering that
we have highlighted the importance of external factors such as political and other
constitutional arrangements, it would also be interesting to compare transformation
processes across nations with different legal and governmental institutions. For instance,
this might involve comparing our findings at the ABC with other organizations in the
field of public broadcasters such as the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, or
the Public Broadcasting Service in the USA. Importantly, our approach could also be
extended to consider other government agencies that have had to confront the demands
of the eNew Public Managementf and the organizational imperatives associated with
globalization.
Organizational Logic 937
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Journal compilation c 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
Bearing in mind the caveat that our data only indirectly provide information on the
discursive activities of less powerful actors, a second line of further research would
involve a much more intensive consideration of how transformation processes are contested
and resisted (cf. Marquis and Lounsbury, 2007). The present research has largely
focused on those discourses that were articulated by dominant actors (although our
argument is that these end up implicitly reflecting the influence of resistive discourses).
Our data are able tell us little, however, about the actual resistant activities that shaped
the changing logics at the ABC. To be sure, at the point when new logics emerged,
resistant groups appeared to play a significant role in contesting and challenging managerially
initiated discourses. Indeed, the appearance of a new dominant organizational
logic was met with significant animosity and resistance by a range of unions and social
movements, as well as by the broader public. What emerges from our study, however, is
that such resistant activity has the potential to lead to significant changes in how
particular projects and technologies are actually taken forward by the organization,
making it an interesting focus of further research for this branch of neo-institutional
study.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Earlier versions of this manuscript were presented at the eMetaphors of Globalizationf symposium at the
University of Toronto, a CIBAM seminar at the University of Cambridge, and at a meeting of OTREG at
Erasmus University. We would like to thank participants for their helpful comments.
NOTES
[1] Although members of the coalition did not literally author the reports themselves (except for limited
aspects such as the Chairmanfs introduction), the term eauthorizationf captures the broad scope of
discursive agency involved as managers, Board members, and others exercised their collective responsibility
for the contents of the document.
[2] Not all themes were afforded equal prominence during the study period and some were not present at
all in 1953, although they did emerge relatively early on. Despite this caveat we still believe it is
reasonable to consider the themes as being persistent discourses.
[3] This is a manifestation of the common methodological problem in the social sciences known as the
Sorites problem. This relates to our inability to determine the exact point when a collective entity made
up of an aggregation of smaller entities changes from one state to another. For example, we use the
collective noun of an eorganizationf to stand for an entity whose aggregate characteristics remain stable
even as some of its constituent members come and go. If, however, every member (or a smaller number
of key members) is replaced at the same time, then the aggregate characteristics of the organization may
well change . i.e. it becomes a edifferent sortf of organization from what it was before. The empirical
problem becomes evident when we have to determine exactly how many members (or which key
members) have to leave the organization before we can say that it is a discernibly different entity to the
one that preceded these changes.
Sorites comes from the Greek term soros [swro.] or eheapf and refers to the original statement of
the problem. If we remove sand from a large heap one grain at a time we can never ascertain the
exact moment when it stops being a single entity . i.e. a heap . and becomes a scattered collection
of individual grains. Working in the other direction, if we start with a single grain of sand and keep
adding individual grains we can never tell the exact moment when adding just one more grain makes
it a heap.
An analysis of discourses such as ours provides its own manifestation of the Sorites problem in that
we can never establish the exact quantitative or qualitative threshold criteria that would allow us to
determine whether, say, the increase or decrease in the use of a single word or phrase actually
A. Spicer 938 and G. Sewell
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Journal compilation c 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
constitutes the moment when a nominally stable discourse changes from one state to another . for
example, when the ABCfs obligations under the ever-present discourse of Civil Society changed from
paternalistically educating the tastes of the Australian public to providing it with a value-for-money
service. This problem is compounded when an organizational logic is made up of a number of such
discourses, making it even more difficult to determine the exact moment where the transition from
one to another actually occurs. Thus, we have refrained from providing anything other than a broad
timeframe for each transition . it would be impossible to identify the exact time and place that an
organizational logic changed.
[4] Ostensibly there are some parallels between our data analysis and Grounded Theoryfs approach of
moving through codes, concepts, and categories in order to generate theories (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
We would make the distinction, however, that our discursive themes are, in an orthodox deductive sense,
operationalized concepts that are derived from theory, rather than part of an inductive attempt to create
theory de novo from observation.
[5] The fact that the ABC changed its name from a eCommissionf to a eCorporationf in 1983 is indicative
of the commercialization that occurred during this period.
[6] An advocate of an old organizational logic adopting the language of a new one would also be a form of
ironic appropriation but it was difficult to determine whether this happened from our data.
[7] de Certeau (1984, p. 39) sees bricolage as tactic available to the eweakf who are engaged in a form of
elinguistic combatf where the objective is to e. . . seduce, captivate or invert the linguistic position of the
addresseef. In this sense, ours is an inverted form of bricolage in that the ABCfs annual reports show the
creative use of language by a more powerful group to seduce, captivate, or invert the position of weaker
actors.

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