The Emergence of Self-Regulatory Organizations as Institutional Change

Despite the popularity of self-regulatory organizations in practice, from the perspective of organizational theory these organizations remain much a mystery. Research on institutional change suggests that the very organizations that self-regulation scholars identify as most likely to either become or spin off self-regulatory organizations are likely to resist the changes that precipitate self-regulation's emergence (Andrews, 2002; Mottl, 1980; Zald & Ussem, 1987). The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the process through which self-regulatory organizations emerge from traditional industry associations. By selecting a single prototypical case of the effective emergence of a self-regulatory organization from an existing industry level organization, I aim to understand the process and drivers of this significant organizational transformation. The case that I analyze is the development of an environmental self-regulatory certification system in the US Forest Products Industry, significant organizational transformation. I focus on two broad questions; (1) how did structural elements of the self-regulatory organization and its relationship with its external environment change in a way that allowed the organization to be taken seriously as an effective self-regulatory body, and (2) how did the rhetoric of the self-regulatory organization facilitate and contextualize these structural changes. I argue that rhetoric combines with more concrete changes, enabling industry associations to create effective self-regulatory bodies and therefore attempt to exert control and manage the rate and nature of environmental change.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Block, Emily Sarah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kraatz, Matthew S.

• Business Administration, Management

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3362732

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/84571