Surviving with conflicting institutional demands: a case study of government-run non-governmentalorganizations in China

Abstract

To understand what makes organizations alike, neo-institutional scholars explore institutional demands and argue that organizations become isomorphic because specific legitimacy demands in their institutional environments require organizations to comply with given rules and norms. But, what if the institutional demands in the given environment conflict with one another? In response to this question, extant literature recognizes the existence of conflicting institutional demands and studies organizational responses to such demands.

However, prior studies on conflicting demands tend to explore organizations with a single identity in a specific field. In extension, this study pays attention to organizations that possess conflicting identities across different sectors. Applying an ethnographic approach, this study takes an in-depth look at government-run non-governmental organization (GONGO) and addresses three research questions: first, how does an organization with conflicting identities come into being? Second, what conflicting demands does such organization encounter? Third, how does such an organization respond to those demands?

This study collects data through three months of fieldwork in two GONGOs located in Beijing and Guiyang. The findings illustrate three types of institutional contexts where conflicting demands can arise. This classification is based on two variables, which are the complexity of an organization’s identities, and the multiplicity of fields where dominant actors occur. The S-S, M-S and M-M types are therefore identified in this framework. Beyond this, the nature and features of conflicting demands faced by GONGOs are also explored in these types.

Additionally, this study introduces inter-organizational power dynamics between dominant actors into its analysis of organizational responses. Given the inter-organizational politics, GONGOs develop four strategies to cope with conflicting demands. These strategies include dilatoriness, negotiation, replacement, and exploitation. The conditions under which particular strategy is more likely to be adopted are also discussed.

In sum, this study hopes to shed light on conflicting institutional demands encountered by organizations with conflicting identities and draw attention to inter-organizational politics in institutional environments. Empirically, this study hopes to better understand the special organization creature—GONGOs—and its implications on globalization in China.