The legitimation of foriegn organisational forms: the role of translation and theorisation

Abstract

I draw on an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the adoption of an American organizational form, namely ‘Academic Health Science Centre’ (or ‘AHSC’), in the field of the British health care from 1989 to 2009 to examine translation processes of foreign organizational forms. I draw upon two institutional approaches that have been traditionally treated separately – institutional translation and theorization – to examine how the translation was successful, given the significantly different institutional contexts of the two countries. I found that the adoption of the new and foreign organizational form as in the present case study unfolds over three phases – activation, dormancy, and reactivation. I also found that translation and theorization operated in configurations that underpinned the three phases of the process. In addition, my empirical data also supported that translation is actually not a planned and purposeful process, as extant research implies. Rather, translation is embedded within complexity and randomness, which can be conceptualized by using the garbage can model. I thus argue that successful translation depends on the presence of various elements: strategic actors with motivation, opportunity, and capacity to promote the organizational form; existence of powerful problems; and field receptivity that facilitates the organizational form. These findings contribute to two literatures. The first contribution is to the translation literature by providing more nuanced view of translation and a new insight into how translation actually works by drawing on the garbage can model. More importantly, they highlight the temporal dimension in the translation process. The second contribution is to the theorization literature by highlighting strategies underlying theorization that contributes to legitimacy of foreign organizational forms.