Voicing the Puppet: Accommodating Unresolved Institutional Tensions in Digital Open Practices

Abstract

This paper examines managerial control and the tensions caused by digital open practices. Drawing on qualitative interviews with managers of a prominent Swedish newspaper corporation, we apply the theoretical lens of institutional logics to analyse the institutional tensions stemming from pressure to integrate user-generated content, and the strategies for managing multiple logics that emerge as a result. Specifically, by linking managerial control to the logics of ‘profession’, the ‘market’ and the ‘corporation’, we use the concept of ventriloquism to show how managers recreate professional legitimacy when handling digital open practices by letting the corporate logic mimic the values of the profession. The study at hand contributes to the understanding of how digital open practices leverage managerial and corporate control, and the consequences thereof, and how the newspaper industry still has not fully managed to reconcile with user-generated content. Prior research is inconclusive as to whether digital open practices increase or decrease managerial control. This study concludes that framing the market logic in digital media exerts pressure on managers to find a defensive compromise to cope with unresolved tensions between the corporate and professional logics.