Changes in the power balance of institutional logics: Middle managers' responses

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how middle managers respond when an existing institutional logic is reinforced through radical organisational change. We analyse documents and interviews with middle managers in three public sector contexts (hospitals, upper secondary schools, municipal agencies) in which the power balance between the managerial and professional logics changed through mergers. Contrary to expectations from previous research, we found a variety of responses across contexts. Our data suggest that the middle managers chose whether to acknowledge available information about the managerial logic, and that they either accepted or rejected the new power balance between the logics. There were two different ways of accepting the new power balance: by showing loyalty or through resignation. Its rejection took the form of strategically adhering to the managerial logic as a novice, even though a middle manager was, or should have been, familiar with this logic.