1. God at work : an institutional perspective on the impact of religion on organizations
- Author
-
Gümüşay, Ali Aslan, Morris, Tim, and Dopson, Sue
- Subjects
174 ,Organizational behavior--Religious aspects ,Management--Religious aspects ,Business--Religious aspects ,Entrepreneurship - Abstract
The dissertation presents an institutional perspective on the role of values and meaning for organizations focusing on the institutional logic of religion. At its core are Chapter III, a conceptual paper, and Chapters IV and V, empirical papers based on an in-depth two-years long ethnographic case study on the founding process of the first Islamic Bank in Germany. They are framed by an introductory chapter and a conclusion that address the overarching research question of how diverse institutional demands are managed within and beyond the boundaries of organizations, as well as a general literature review chapter that embeds the papers within the wider institutional theory literature. Chapter III presents a conceptualization that integrates religion, specifically Islam, with entrepreneurship along three interconnected pillars: the entrepreneurial, socio-economic/ethical and religio-spiritual; and outlines how Islam shapes entrepreneurship at the micro-, meso- and macro-level. It suggests the institutional logics perspective to further analyze the impact of religion on organizations, which the subsequent papers build on. Chapter IV extends theory on organizational hybridity by outlining polyphony and polysemy as two mutually reinforcing organizational responses, that allow competing logics to coexist without structurally separating or blending them, and that produce elastic hybridity, showing how hybrid organizations can accommodate competing logics that are both central and incompatible. Chapter V shows how organizations collectively and dynamically co-generate and co-resolve institutional complexity through four combinatory mechanisms: pushing, pulling, clarifying and tolerating. These are subsequently integrated into a framework based on their desired versus required and actual versus perceptual nature. Overall, this dissertation contributes to a better understanding of how organizations manage diverse institutional demands including religion.
- Published
- 2016