The emergence of organizational models: new institutionalism perspective

The article analyzes the problem of organizational models emergence. The author considers it from the new institutionalism perspective connected with the question of institutionalization of organizational relations. Typically, this issue is examined in two ways: either the pressure of institutions that have arisen earlier and now are forming the organizational environment or the organizational practices, the initiators of which are fighting for their legitimacy and wider application. The most well-known theoretical works on the subject describe the different types of isomorphism, path dependence, the spread of new organizational models and institutional building aimed at strengthening the existing models. The enlightenment of a single trend simplifies the analysis, but does not grab the complexity of empirical reality. Therefore the author defends the synthetic approach that claims the institutionalization of new organizational models to be the result of mutual influence of the existing institutions and organizational practices. The author describes theory of strategic action fields, created by N. Fligstein and D. McAdam as an explanation of this synthetic approach. The advantage of the theory of strategic action fields is that it does not lose the broad institutional context and at the same time enables main agents with capacity for collective actions thanks to social skills.