Structuring of Work in Organizations

Edited by Lisa E. Cohen, McGill University, CanadaM. Diane Burton, Cornell University, USAMichael Lounsbury, University of Alberta, Canada

Business, management, and other specialists from the US, Europe, and Canada offer 12 essays that consider the structure and structuring of work within and between organizations, focusing on jobs and how they are shaped by and impact organizations, occupations, and institutions. They discuss jobs as the building blocks of organizational and societal structures, with examples like idiosyncratic jobs and college teaching; professional and occupational boundaries for technicians and human resource departments; constraints related to work in organizations, including organizational identity, network position, and autonomy; and how structures are perpetuated and changed and stress broader institutional and political forces.

• Introduction: Bringing Jobs Back In: Toward a New Multi-Level Approach to the Study of Work and Organizations - M. Diane Burton, Lisa E. Cohen and Michael LounsburyPART I: TASKS AND JOBS AS BUILDING BLOCKSJobs as Gordian Knots a New Perspective Linking Individuals, Tasks, Organizations, and Institutions - Lisa E. CohenIdiosyncratic Jobs, Organizational Transformation, and Career Mobility - Anne S. Miner and Olubukunola (Bukky) AkinsanmiThe Ideology of Silence at the Harvard Business School: Structuring Faculty’s Teaching Tasks for Moral Relativism - Michel Anteby PART II: OCCUPATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIESWhat Do Technicians Mean When They Talk About Professionalism? An Ethnography of Speaking - Stephen R. Barley, Beth A. Bechky and Bonalyn J. NelsenCompliance Police or Business Partner? Institutional Complexity and Occupational Tensions in Human Resource Management - Kurt W. Sandholtz and Tyler N. BurrowsPART III: STRUCTURE AS CONSTRAINTStructure at Work: Organizational Forms and the Division of Labor in U.S. Wineries - Heather A. Haveman, Anand Swaminathan and Eric B. JohnsonIt’s Not You, It’s Your Job: Network Evolution Within Firms - Jennifer KurkoskiHelp Me Do It on My Own: How Entrepreneurs Manage Autonomy and Constraint Within Incubator Organizations - Victor P. Seidel, Kelley A. Packalen and Siobhan O’MahonyPART IV: CHANGING AND PERPETUATING STRUCTURESLegal Avoidance and the Restructuring of Work - Charlotte S. Alexander Externalization of Work by Corporate Law Firms: Implications for Careers and the Profession - Christine Riordan and Paul OstermanWork as Commons: Internal Labor Markets, Blended Workforces and Management - Arnaldo Camuffo and Federica De StefanoFrom Adapting Practices to Inhabiting Ideas: How Managers Restructure Work Across Organizations - Ruthanne Huising