Interpretation of Multiple Institutional Logics on the Ground: Actors’ Position, their Agency and Situational Constraints in Professionalized Contexts

Abstract

Our study examines how interdependent actors in a professionalized context interpret the co-occurrence of a professional logic and a policy-driven logic. The empirical setting comprises two hospitals in the English National Health Service. Two issues stand out. First, our study shows that any logic is variegated and ambiguous, so policymakers and organizational managers cannot assume that they are easily blended. Second, it shows how nurse consultants exhibit agency in blending these two logics in pursuit of positional gain in professional and managerial organization. They can do so because of their ambiguous status level: in comparison to doctors, their status as nurses is low; within the nursing profession their status is high. Theoretically, by focusing upon interpretation of multiple institutional logics at the micro level, our study renders visible the agency of interpreting actors, interdependency of actors, their interpretation of institutional logics, situational context, and the effect of, and upon, social position of actors.