Institutional Pressures and Isomorphic Change

Abstract

Many urban school districts have recently implemented sweeping reforms that alter the ways in which educational services are administered. The environment in which these reforms are embedded is increasingly and more directly tied to core political institutions and business elites. Hence, as this dependence has grown, districts have become more likely to reflect the rational myths regarding the structure promoted by these proximate political institutions and business elites. Using a subset of the educational field in New York City, this article explores the process through which conformity to these pressures results in organizations changing structural arrangements to become isomorphic with institutionally prescribed expectations emanating from proximate organizations.