2. Why Learning & Institutional Logics
• Prior empirical research on logics—macro
– Consequences of logics shifting
– Mediation & management of conflicting logics
• Prior theoretical research on logics
– Theorization, socialization, vocabularies, frames,
narratives, institutional entrepreneurs
• Only assumes most fundamental micro
mechanism—cognitive schema
3. Ideal Types of Logics
Categories Market Profession
Root Metaphor Transaction Relational network
Sources of Legitimacy Share price Personal expertise
Sources of Authority Shareholder activism Professional association
Sources of Identity Faceless
Association with quality
of craft; Personal
reputation
Basis of Norms Self-interest
Associational
membership
Basis of Attention Status in market Status in profession
Basis of Strategy Increase profit
Increase personal
reputation
Informal Control
Mechanisms
Industry analysts Celebrity professionals
Economic System Market capitalism Personal capitalism
4. Cognitive Schemas
• Entities and event schemas (Wyer, 2004)
• Cultural experience leads to individuals
learning distinct schemas (Hong et al., 2000)
– Pragmatic Reasoning Schema (Koo & Choi, 2005)
– Implicit Theory of Attributes (Dweck et al., 1995)
– Implicit Theory of Agency (Hong et al., 2000; Menon et al.,
1999)
– Implicit Theory of Morality (Chiu et al., 1997)
5. Theoretical Gap
• If individuals develop these schemas based on
their cultural experiences, it seems that
individuals may learn institutional logics by
learning particular schemas associated with
an institutional order
• What types of schemas do individuals learn
from institutional logics?
6. Our Study
• We compare differences in cognitive schemas
learned by finance and nursing professionals
during professional training
7. Methods
• We collect data from texts associated with two
professional training programs at the University of
Alberta
– Masters of Financial Management degree, Textbook =
Principles of Global Finance
– Masters of Nursing program, Textbook = Fundamentals of
Canadian Nursing
• We analyze the data in four phases
– I: Open coding based on entity/event schemas (Wyer 2004)
– II: Vocabulary analysis (Loewenstein, Ocasio & Jones 2012)
– III: Qualitative coding analysis (Goodrick & Reay 2010)
– IV: Develop a theoretical framework based on our coding
8. Findings
Type of Schema Market/Finance Professions/Nursing
Pragmatic
Reasoning Schema
Deductive, Abstract,
Theoretical
Inductive, Concrete,
Case-Based
FINANCE:
The goal of the firm is to maximize shareholder value because the “financial manager
should act in the interests of the firm’s owners, its stockholders.”
A decision-making process used to realize this goal is “the comparison of cash
payments at different dates.”
NURSING:
The goal of nursing “involves four areas, “(a) promoting health and wellness, (b)
preventing illness, (c) restoring health, and (d) caring for the dying.”
The decision-making processes used by the nurse reflect case-based intuition, the
expert practitioner is described in the following way. “Demonstrates highly skilled,
intuitive, and analytical ability in new situations. Is inclined to take a certain action
because it ‘feels right.’”
9. Findings
Type of Schema Market/Finance Professions/Nursing
Implicit Theory of
Agency
Agency Resides in
Powerful Strategic
Decision-Makers
Agency is
Embedded in a
Cultural Context
FINANCE:
Corporations “face two principal financial decisions” – the “investment decision” (such
as Union Pacific spending $330 million to purchase equipment) and the “financing
decision” (such as Union Pacific repaying $1.4 billion of debt).
NURSING:
Nurses seek to facilitate client decision-making by “involving clients in decisions about
their own health,” “encouraging clients to take action for their own health,” “involving
clients in identifying their own health care needs,” “involving clients in planning, using,
and evaluating their own health care services,” and “encouraging and using
community development approaches.”
10. Findings
Type of Schema Market/Finance Professions/Nursing
Implicit Theory of
Attributes
Entity Theory Based
on Performance
Goals
Incremental Theory
Based on Learning
Goals
Implicit Theory of
Morality
Pragmatic-Based,
Focusing on Self-
Interest
Duty-Based,
Focusing on the
Weak
11. Contributions
• We develop an understanding of the micro-
level cognitive schemas associated with
institutional logics
• This theoretical infrastructure can help explain
puzzles such as the spread/dominance of the
market logic
– Pragmatic reasoning schema of the finance logic
enables it to spread globally more effectively than
a case-based approach to nursing
12. Future Research
• Experimentally test the findings of this paper
– Use experimental vignettes derived from dynamic
constructivist studies
– Nursing vs. finance students
– Entering vs. exiting students
Notes de l'éditeur
Why study how individuals learn cognitive schema, hence institutional logics? Cognitive schema are most elementary building blocks. Psychology has research to build on to answer this question. Frequently asked questions are how do you know a logic when you see it? How do you measure a logic? These questions stem from the micro foundations of institutional logics not being specified.
TRANSITION: For example, consider the typical description of ideal types
Consider the descriptions of the market logic and the professions logic ideal types.
These descriptions use sociological terminology, but don’t address the psychological schemas that may differentially formed from experience in different institutional orders
Cultural experience results in different types of schemas
Psychologists differentiate between two types of schemas,
entity schemas that collect information about objects and attributes (i.e., persons, objects, or places) and
event schemas that refer to the relationship between entities (i.e., stories, scripts, implicit theories about the world)
Psychologists suggest that culture forms subtly distinct event schemas for how objects and concepts relate.
Pragmatic Reasoning Schema: Medical training
Lots of studies have established different reasoning styles associated with East Asian and Western cultural experiences
Koo & Choi 2005 suggests that education in oriental medicine results in more holistic thinking, where they expect an event to go through a cyclical pattern of change
Implicit Theory of Attributes
Research by Dweck and colleagues suggests that individuals possess a view of attributes of individuals as “entities” or “incremental.
For example, is a person “born” with intelligence or do they “learn” intelligence?
Rather than make a statement about the truth of this, her research suggests that individuals develop predispositions to perceive their world in either way
Implicit Theory of Agency
Hong, Menon and others have argued that North Americans conceive of individual persons as “free agents” whereas East Asians conceptualize persons as “less agentic” and part of a social collective
Implicit Theory of Morality
Chiu et al suggest that individuals have different perceptions of the “malleability” of reality, and that this leads to different conceptions of morality
If you view reality as “fixed” you are more likely to possess a duty-based conception of morality
If you view reality as “malleable” you are more likely to possess a rights-based conception of morality
Each of these theories assumes that individuals don’t possess “genetic” predispositions to schemas, but that schemas are formed differently depending on different cultural experiences. They have different sources of cultural learning—primary socialization vs vocational training—but the point is that
We think that the logics perspective implies that individual experience in logics should result in the learning of these types of schemas.
In this study, our goal has been to identify differences in cognitive schemas learned by individuals experiencing different institutional orders.
We selected nursing and finance as two prototypical examples of institutional orders (the market and the professions) that are frequently described as being dominated by conflicting and competing logics.
Describe slide.
Finance. One goal. Nursing goal involves multiple areas.
Also language.
Why is this surprising?
KEY: finance doesn’t need to be deductive, abstract, and theoretical. Consider appraisal, which is more case-based and similar to nursing.
Similarly, nursing doesn’t need to be inductive and case-based. Interviewing a dean of the nursing school, historically there have been more deductive, theoretical approaches to nursing
Point is that this is a cognitive approach that can be specified with logics.
