Reconsidering the ‘Symmetry’ Between Institutionalization and Professionalization: The Case of Corporate Social Responsibility Managers

• Author: David Risi,Christopher Wickert
• Date: 01 July 2017
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12244

Reconsidering the ‘Symmetry’ Between

Institutionalization and Professionalization: The Case

of Corporate Social Responsibility Managers

David Risi and Christopher Wickert

University of St. Gallen; VU University Amsterdam

ABSTRACT The assumption of a mutually supportive, ‘symmetric’ relationship between

institutionalization and professionalization is central to the institutionalist perspective on

professional work. Our inductive qualitative study of corporate social responsibility (CSR)

managers in multinational corporations (MNCs) prompts to rethink the validity of this

assumption. We show that as the institutionalization of CSR advances and consolidates, CSR

managers are pushed to the organizational periphery. This indicates that the relationship

between professionalization and institutionalization can be ‘asymmetric’ under certain

conditions. To advance the study of this asymmetry, we develop a conceptual framework and

a set of corresponding propositions that explain why some groups are able to advance their

professionalization projects, while others cannot. Our study makes three main contributions to

the literature: First, we explicate under which conditions the relationship between

institutionalization and professionalization is more likely asymmetric than symmetric. Second,

our explanation of the shifting organizational positions of different professional groups allows

for further delineating occupational from organizational professionals. Third, we contribute to

the CSR literature by examining the dynamic yet ambiguous role of CSR managers as

driving forces behind the implementation of CSR.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), CSR managers, institutionalization,

organizational professionals, professionalization

INTRODUCTION

‘Our mission is fulfilled if we are no longer needed’ (Informant).

‘My job will become obsolete. Because, if done rightly, this would mean that CSR is part of the

company’s DNA’ (Informant).

Address for reprints: David Risi, Institute for Business Ethics, Girtannerstrasse 8, 9010 St. Gallen,

Switzerland. (david.risi@unisg.ch).

V

C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

Journal of Management Studies 54:5 July 2017

doi: 10.1111/joms.12244

The institutionalist perspective on professional work in organizational contexts con-

tinues to attract attention in the literature (Muzio et al., 2013; Suddaby and Viale,

2011). Professionals are institutional agents who have central roles in creating, testing,

conveying, and applying institutions (Scott, 2008). Much of the extant research treats

professionalization and institutionalization not only as concomitant but also as insepara-

ble concepts in which changes in professional jurisdictions (Abbott, 1988) and changes

in organizational and institutional fields (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) occur simultane-

ously (e.g., Daudigeos, 2013; DiMaggio, 1991; Empson et al., 2013; Faulconbridge and

Muzio, 2008; Kipping and Kirkpatrick, 2013).

According to Suddaby and Viale (2011), professionals are key drivers of institutional

change, because they form new alliances and strategic relationships with institutions which

can assist them in their professionalization projects. For example, DiMaggio (1991) showed

that museum curators reconfigure the structures and practices of their employing organiza-

tion to their advantage. Empson et al. (2013) found that lawyers build new corporate struc-

tures that they then populate, or they create transnational governance regimes to establish a

global market for their expertise (Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2008).

However, professional groups are just one side of ‘the causal connections’ between

projects of institutionalization and professionalization (Suddaby and Viale, 2011, p.

424). Institutionalization allows professionals to occupy central positions in the organiza-

tional and institutional contexts they inhabit, and this in turn promotes professionaliza-

tion. Thus, professionalization projects depend on institutionalization projects; for

instance, the professionalization of museum curators was driven by the institutionaliza-

tion of the national museum (DiMaggio, 1991). Likewise, the establishment of corporat-

ized international law firms allowed lawyers to expand their sphere of action and

influence (Empson et al., 2013), enabling the legal profession to open up an interna-

tional market for its expertise (Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2008). This helps professionals

‘exchange resources and commitments with other institutional actors [...] in order to

establish and maintain positions of hegemony and power’ (Suddaby and Viale, 2011, p.

426). These examples show that the assumption of a mutually supportive relationship

between professionalization and institutionalization is central to the institutionalist per-

spective on professional work. Projects of professionalization and institutionalization are

‘inextricably linked’ (Suddaby and Viale, 2011, p. 424), because of ‘reciprocal dynamics

between processes of institutionalization and processes of professionalization’. On these

grounds, the two theoretical constructs are generally described as having a ‘symmetric’

relationship, which we define as cases where institutionalization and professionalization

follow a reciprocal and mutually supportive trajectory.

Our inductive study prompts us to challenge this assumption. As the two quotes from

our informants shown above suggest, the data from 85 interviews with organizational

professionals – more precisely corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers working

in multinational corporations (MNCs) revealed what we describe as an ‘asymmetric’

relationship between professionalization and institutionalization: the two focal constructs

neither evolve reciprocally nor have a mutually supportive dynamic. We found that,

although CSR itself became institutionalized within and beyond the focal organizations

(Bondy et al., 2012; Matten and Moon, 2008), some CSR managers were not able to

advance their professionalization projects, but were marginalized to the organizational

614 D. Risi and C. Wickert

V

C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

periphery. In our study, centre and periphery denote the poles of a spectrum of profes-

sionalization, as defined by Abbott (1988).

We have consolidated our findings into a conceptual framework that answers

two interrelated research questions: First, under which conditions can the relation-

ship between institutionalization and professionalization be asymmetric; and second,

how can institutionalization projects be maintained despite marginalization of the

concomitant profession? Studying these questions is important both from a theoret-

ical as well as practical point of view. Theoretically, it seems that the commonly

held assumption in the literature about the institutionalization-professionalization

relationship needs to be problematized, in particular in light of recently emerged

forms of organizational professionalism that depart from traditional forms of occu-

pational professionalism. Practically, our findings suggest that CSR managers have

an important, yet ambiguous and dynamic role to play in the CSR implementa-

tion process, as having more CSR managers work in an organization does not

necessarily mean a more advanced level of CSR.

We address these questions by showing that a professional group that externalizes con-

trol of the application of its knowledge base is more likely to become marginalized than

a professional group that maintains control of the application of its knowledge base, as is

commonly assumed in the literature (Von Nordenflycht, 2010; for an overview, see

Muzio et al., 2013). We also find that the early phases of institutionalization are charac-

terized by symmetry and the later phases by asymmetry, because ‘trigger functions’ of

the CSR professionals become less important over time. Moreover, we find that CSR

managers may be able to counteract their marginalization by expanding the scope of

their professional knowledge base. Finally, our evidence shows that although CSR man-

agers gradually lose influence, the institution of CSR is maintained via the ‘compensa-

tion effect’; that is, the declining influence of the CSR professional group is

compensated by the increasing influence of other professional groups on CSR, such as

procurement managers or accountants. As a result, CSR can consolidate as a key com-

ponent of the organization’s strategy and core business, even as its initial proponents

slide to the periphery of their organization.

Our work responds to recent calls to investigate the influence of institutionalization

on specific professional groups (Lawrence et al., 2012) and offers three main contribu-

tions: First, we challenge a key assumption in the literature on institutional theory and

professional work and suggest that symmetry or asymmetry between institutionalization

and professionalization are dependent on several factors that we explicate in this study.

Second, our findings help to explain why some professional groups can sustain their

influence as the practice with which they are associated institutionalizes, while others

cannot. This is an important issue on which the extant literature has had little to say.

These insights also advance recent research that has attempted to distinguish occupa-

tional from more recent forms of organizational professionals (Evetts, 2006; Von

Nordenflycht, 2010). Third, we contribute to the CSR literature by examining the role

of CSR managers, who have been described as the driving force for institutionalizing

CSR within firms (e.g., Chandler, 2014; Strand, 2014). Our work complements previous

research on the organizational implementation of CSR (e.g., Acquier et al., 2011;

Bondy et al., 2012; Wickert et al., 2016) by providing empirical support for the

615Reconsidering the ‘Symmetry’ Between Institutionalization and Professionalization

V

C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies