In search of identity and ligitimation - Bridging organizational culture and neoinstitutionalism

In the late 1970s, neoinstitutional and organizational culture theorists challenged prevailing rationalist organizational paradigms by introducing social constructionism to the field of organ izations. Despite their common foundation, these approaches built on seemingly contradictory empirical observations. Institiltionalists observed that organizations actively copy one another's practices, resulting in substantial isomorphism, where as Culture theorists observed that organizations institutionalize distinctive cultures comprising practices that set them apart from others. These seemingly contradictory findings reflect processes of organizational identity formation and interorganizational construction of legitimacy as they have evolved since the rise of the corporate form in the 19th century. Formation of identify through uniqueness and construction of legitimacy through uniformity are two sides of the same coin. Research oil management schools suggests organizations pursue individuation through uniqueness and legitimacy through commonality simultaneously and that organizations bridge the two processes in four ways, which the authors dub imitation, hybridization, transmutation, and immunization.