Essay on the Article The Iron Cage Revisited by Dimaggio and Powell

DiMaggio, P. & Powell, W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160.

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The article by Dimaggio and Powell the iron cage revisited draws attention on the institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in a firm structure. The article is more expository than descriptive or analytic. The authors investigate, evaluate, expound on the causes of rationalisation and bureaucracy in an institution. They mostly use information from secondary sources and research, which shows the level of interdependence and dominance among institutions. The understanding of institutional isomorphism and collective rationality is important in explaining what drives and maintains an organisation in the market.

The audience of this article is significantly the social science students in their undergraduate and postgraduate studies who have prior knowledge on the institutional isomorphism. The readers are required to have basic knowledge on the works of different theorist such as Max Weber. It is because the article uses most of their terms and research work to give a clear view on points addressed. This article attempts to analyse the influence of institutional isomorphism in the organisation and its impact. The authors achieve that by using real life examples from established institutions and the works from various research.

This article uses the conceptual approach as its mode of research. The author breaks down the concept and uses a couple of examples to argue facts and provide evidence from works of other researchers. For instance, the work of Max Weber on Capitalism and Functionalism has significantly contributed to this article.

The work of Weber in the protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism argued that rational mandate had established an "iron cage" in which civilisation had been locked. Due to bureaucracy being power and efficiency, these seemed completely irreversible. With that powerful framing, DiMaggio and Powell use the metaphor by possibly contributing to the work of Meyer and Rowan (1977). It is clear that bureaucracy is continuing to advance and organisations are becoming progressively homogeneous. Weber argued that bureaucratization results from competition among capitalist firms in the marketplace, competition among states, increased rulers need to control their staff and citizenry, and bourgeois demands for equal protection under the law. Contrary to Webers model, the processes that are driving this homogeneity are making organisations more similar without necessarily making them more efficient and structuration.

Isomorphism is the initiative toward similarity. The authors maintain that isomorphism is of two types: competitive, which they relate to the research of Hannan and Freeman, and another as population ecologists and institutional. This article focuses on institutional isomorphism. The authors discussed that there are three central mechanisms behind the institutional isomorphic change. These include Coercive isomorphism, Mimetic isomorphism, and Normative isomorphism.

Coercive isomorphism results from pressures that an organisation in question derive from other institutions, which it is connected to or it relies on for services or goods. It includes government mandates or the requirements that a supplier makes. Mimetic isomorphism refers to the degree to which organisations prototype themselves on each other. Organisations might model themselves on other organisations that are more legitimate, more successful or are driven by consultants or people who migrate among firms. Normative isomorphism results from professionalism in an institution. For instance, people hired with similar academic backgrounds will tend to approach problems in a similar way or inter-firm networks will import norms that push organisations to adopt particular processes and routines or forms.

11 distinctive hypotheses from each of these isomorphic are derived at two levels of analysis. Firstly, consideration on the influence of isomorphic pressure on organisational level characteristics is discussed. For instance, more reliance on educational credentials for an institutions recruitment process will lead to more resemblance. Secondly, consideration on hypotheses at the level of the organisational field is outlined. For example, organisations that conduct a transaction with the states frequently will be more similar to it.

The article begins by showing that firms used to rise from the rules of efficiency in the market. Later the state and professionalism caused a shift to institutional constraints. Organisations compete not just for resources and customers, but for political influence and institutional legitimacy, for social as well as economic fitness. Isomorphism is a constraint that forces firms to resemble others in the same environment. This article discusses the type of isomorphism in an institution.

This article contains insightful information on how the current field of business came to be and the driving factors. The information in the article can be used by firms to identify their development strategies and gain knowledge about their current mode of operation. Basing various example from the article, the reader can understand the role of different structures in a firm and how they determine the progress of each unit. I think the information in this article is viable and will continue to be in use as long as bureaucracy and rationalisation are evidently practised.

The authors introduce Max Weber theme on bureaucracy and how it was achieved through efficiency, competition, and citizenry control in the article. However, they shift to show how bureaucracy has been achieved through structuration and similarity of the institution in modern society. The authors use works from different researchers to expand and analyse the present evidence of these theme in various organisations. For instance, a school cannot operate without the principal who is the primary representative.

However, currently, there are institutions, which seem not to be affected by isomorphism and are well thriving in the marking. For instance, Google and IDEO are exceptional, among others. These raise a question of uniqueness that probably separates these firms from the pressure of isomorphism. It is not clear how homogenising information spread from one company to another in private institutes. That raises a question on whether homogenization is more or less as a result of adaptation to the environment.

The authors compare the research in these article with the macro social theories of functionalist and yield a paradox. According to these theories, organisation mesh together comfortable in the interests of efficiency, dominant value system or capitalism. These are still observed in the modern society despite the article research. A conventional answer to this paradox can be attributed to some form of natural selection, which selection mechanism is to eliminate organisations that are less fit. But the still less efficient organisation persist. In some organisation, selection may result from political rather than economic ground. Also, a second approach can be due to the key elite that guides and control the system through its command of significant positions in larger organisations.