Symbolic Management: Toward an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Appearances (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 105)

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.

Recent years have seen a growing body of research within and between disciplines on how, when, and why organizations manage appearances. Scholars have examined different forms of symbolic decoupling such as greenwashing and diversity washing, where leaders formally adopt policies that resonate with stakeholders but neglect to properly implement them, and the communication practices by which managers bolster the legitimacy and reputation of their organization, its policies, and their own leadership. While this explosion of attention across disciplines has yielded major insights and policy implications, it has led to a fragmentation of understanding.

Symbolic Management brings together eminent scholars from strategy, management, organizational sociology, and business economics to develop interdisciplinary and cross-contextual insights on symbolic management. The contributions develop new theory about the role of silence in symbolic management; the institutionalization of symbolic management; anticompetitive forms of symbolic management; “reform” as a kind of symbolic management; and symbolic management as a collective action problem. There are conceptual frameworks that deepen understanding of narrative contestation in symbolic communication, the measurement of decoupling, and processes of recoupling. A variety of methods are deployed, from quasi-experiments to modelling to case studies.

The volume features an introduction that synthesizes the contributions and lays out future research directions, and an epilogue that outlines implications for practice. As the volume makes clear, symbolic management is an eclectic, inclusive paradigm that emphasizes creative theory, methodological rigor, and social relevance.

James D. Westphal is the Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Strategy at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

Edward J. Zajac is the James F. Beré Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Sun Hyun Park is Professor of Strategy and International Management at the College of Business, Seoul National University.