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Similarity or Difference? The Relation between Structure and Strategy Isomorphism in Public Organizations
Author(s) -
Villadsen Anders R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.12029
Subject(s) - isomorphism (crystallography) , similarity (geometry) , relation (database) , core (optical fiber) , organizational structure , dimension (graph theory) , organizational field , field (mathematics) , business , mathematics , institutional theory , knowledge management , sociology , computer science , pure mathematics , management , economics , social science , telecommunications , chemistry , database , artificial intelligence , crystal structure , image (mathematics) , crystallography
While the organizational structures and strategies of public organizations have attracted substantial research attention among public management scholars, little research has explored how these organizational core dimensions are interconnected and influenced by pressures for similarity. In this paper I address this topic by exploring the relation between expenditure strategy isomorphism and structure isomorphism in D anish municipalities. Different literatures suggest that organizations exist in concurrent pressures for being similar to and different from other organizations in their field of action. It is theorized that to meet this challenge organizations may substitute increased similarity on one core dimension for increased idiosyncrasy on another, but only after a certain level of isomorphism is reached. Results of quantitative analyses support this theory and show that an inverse U ‐shaped relation exists between expenditure strategy isomorphism and structure isomorphism in a longitudinal quantitative study of D anish municipalities.