A path to stability for hybrid organizations ? From ambivalence to consistency

Mélissa Boudes (1)

1 Université Paris Dauphine-PSL

New institutional literature predicts two main evolution streams for hybrid organizations, submitted to tensions between their constitutive institutional logics: the dominance of the most tightly coupled logic – most of the time the market logic-or the maintenance of organization hybridity through specific management, governance or structure. The study of a business and employment cooperative (BEC), that blends the market, the welfare state and the social economy logics, highlights a third path: the creation of consistent hybrid logic. First, the cooperative expressed its discomfort vis-à-vis its three constitutive logics through ambivalent discourses and practices. Then, it built consistent hybrid logic through reframing the debate, ranking the constitutive logics and scaling-up the hybrid logic. This study shows that the hegemony of the market logic is not a fate and that organizations can change the degree of permeability of logics.

Mots clés: Hybrid organizations; Institutional logics; Ambivalence; Hybrid logic; Permeability of logics

Domaines: Gestion et management

Mélissa Boudes. A path to stability for hybrid organizations ? From ambivalence to consistency. 2016. ⟨halshs-01350499⟩