Focusing the Asteroid Belt of Organizations

Abstract

Concurring with Barley's pessimism that we do neglect the study of how corporations seek to influence and perhaps have captured the State, this text suggests two starting points that can give theoretical and practical leverage to investigate those issues. Theoretically, the institutional perspective, which always had an interest in the influence of elite groups, is a highly appropriate platform to study those phenomena for three reasons. First, it focuses on interorganizational relations as the setting we have to consider. Second, it questions the taken-for-granted overarching “logics” by which we operate, thus allowing us to understand why and how the relationships between corporations and the State are tolerated and can be undermined. Third, it raises issues of language, including how political interests are concealed in legitimating rhetoric. Empirically, the text suggests that a useful starting point would be to investigate the role of referees of the system, such as audit firms, law firms, and investment banks.