Do Policymakers Mean What They Say? Symbolic Pressures and the Subtle Dynamics of the Institutional Game

Abstract

A standard assumption in decoupling theory is that policymakers mean what they say. Thus, when policymakers promote institutionalized practices, it is conventionally assumed that they fail to see through underpinning myths, and expect recipient organizations to take such practices quite seriously. This paper challenges this conventional view. We explain that policymakers often engage in the performance of what we call “the institutional game”: They promote rituals against the backdrop of the silent expectation that organizational actors will understand that they are only expected to engage in ceremonial adoption. In addition, we theorize the necessary conditions for the successful performance of the institutional game. We explain that when background “theatres of meaning” are not in place, the subtleties of this most delicate type of institutional work will be lost, and institutional accidents will likely emerge. Accordingly, our perspective contributes beyond the revisiting of fundamental assumptions of decoupling theory. Understanding the conditions of successful performance of the institutional game readily reveals ways of aiding policymakers to perform it more effectively, thus be in a better position to protect organizations from practices underpinned by dangerous myths.