Public Opinion as a Source of Deinstitutionalization: A 'Spiral of Silence' Approach

Clemente, Marco and Roulet, Thomas (2015): Public Opinion as a Source of Deinstitutionalization: A 'Spiral of Silence' Approach. Forthcoming in: Academy of Management Review (January 2015)

Abstract

This article develops a theoretical model to explain how public opinion can lead to the deinstitutionalization of a practice. Our model draws upon the ‘spiral of silence’ theory, that originated in the mass communication literature, and which suggests that social actors tend to support majority views. At the micro level, this behavior triggers a spiral of silence that leads to homogenous public opinion. We use analogical reasoning to posit the existence of a spiral of silence at the institutional field level. When public opinion becomes hostile to a particular practice, institutional fields tend to resist this external opposition. Insiders face the dilemma of whether to align with the majority view expressed by public opinion, or to comply with the one expressed at the field level. After discussing the mechanisms by which insider voices mediate and diffuse the hostility of public opinion at the field level, we discuss the boundary conditions applicable to our analogy. Our paper advances the understanding of nested and connected climates of opinion and bridges the gap between insider- and outsider- driven deinstitutionalization.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Public opinion, deinstitutionalization, spiral of silence, institutional field.
• Subjects: M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M1 - Business Administration; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M1 - Business Administration > M14 - Corporate Culture ; Diversity ; Social Responsibility; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z18 - Public Policy

References

Adut, A. (2008). On scandal: Moral disturbances in society. Politics, and Art, 78.

Aldrich, H. E., & Fiol, C. M. (1994). Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation. Academy of Management Review, 19(4), 645-670.

Ansari, S. M., Fiss, P. C., & Zajac, E. J. (2010). Made to fit: How practices vary as they diffuse. Academy of Management Review, 35(1), 67-92.

Aardal, B. (1994). The 1994 Storting election: volatile voters opposing the European Union. Scandinavian Political Studies, 17(2), 171-180.

Bonardi, J. P., & Keim, G. D. (2005). Corporate political strategies for widely salient issues. Academy of Management Review, 30(3), 555-576.

Bowen, F., & Blackmon, K. (2003). Spirals of silence: The dynamic effects of diversity on organizational voice. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1393-1417.

Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and beyond: From production to produsage (Vol. 45). Peter Lang.

Burstein, P. (2003). The impact of public opinion on public policy: A review and an agenda. Political Research Quarterly, 56(1), 29-40.

Cattani, G., Ferriani, S., Negro, G., & Perretti, F. (2008). The structure of consensus: Network ties, legitimation, and exit rates of US feature film producer organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 53(1): 145-182.

Casciaro, T., & Piskorski, M. J. (2005). Power imbalance, mutual dependence, and constraint absorption: A closer look at resource dependence theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(2), 167-199.

Converse, P. E. (1987). Changing conceptions of public opinion in the political process. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 51, S12-S24.

Cornelissen, J. P., & Durand, R. (2014). Moving forward: Developing theoretical contributions in management studies. Journal of Management Studies.

Craig, G. (2001). The global financial news, information & technology corporations. Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture, 34(2), 4.

Creed, D., Hudson, B., Okhuysen, G., & Smith-Crowe, K. (2014). Swimming in a sea of shame: Incorporating emotion into explanations of institutional reproduction and change. Academy of Management Review.

Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, And Beyond. Peter Lang Academic Publishers.

Dacin, M. T., Goodstein, J., & Scott, W. R. (2002). Institutional theory and institutional change: Introduction to the special research forum. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 45-56.

DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review 48: 147-160.

Escoffier, J. (2009). Bigger than life: The history of gay porn cinema from beefcake to hardcore. Running Press.

Farjoun, M. (2002). The dialectics of institutional development in emerging and turbulent fields: The history of pricing conventions in the on-line database industry. Academy of Management Journal, 45(5), 848-874.

Fiss, P. C., Kennedy, M. T., & Davis, G. F. (2012). How golden parachutes unfolded: Diffusion and variation of a controversial practice. Organization Science, 23(4), 1077-1099.

Fombrun,C. J. (1996). Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image. Harvard Business School Press

Furnari, S. (2014). Interstitial spaces: Micro-interaction settings and the genesis of new practices between institutional fields. Academy of Management Review.

Ganesh, S., & Stohl, C. (2013). From Wall Street to Wellington: Protests in an era of digital ubiquity. Communication Monographs, 80(4), 425-451.

Glynn, C. J., Hayes, A. F., & Shanahan, J. (1997). Perceived support for one's opinions and willingness to speak out: A meta-analysis of survey studies on the" spiral of silence. Public opinion quarterly., Vol 61(3), 1997, 452-463

Glynn, C.J., Herbst, S., O’Keefe, G., Shapiro, R., Lindeman, M. (2005). Public Opinion, 2nd edition, Westview Press.

Glynn, C. J., & Huge, M. E. (2007). Opinions as norms applying a return potential model to the study of communication behaviors. Communication Research, 34(5), 548-568.

Glynn, C. J., & Park, E. (1997). Reference groups, opinion intensity, and public opinion expression. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 9(3), 213-232.

Gondo, M. B., & Amis, J. M. (2013). Variations in Practice Adoption: The Roles of Conscious Reflection and Discourse. Academy of Management Review, 38(2), 229-247.

Green, S. E. (2004). A rhetorical theory of diffusion. Academy of Management Review, 29(4), 653-669.

Green, S. E., Babb, M., & Alpaslan, C. M. (2008). Institutional Field Dynamics and the Competition Between Institutional Logics The Role of Rhetoric in the Evolving Control of the Modern Corporation. Management Communication Quarterly, 22(1), 40-73.

Greenwood, R., & Hinings, C. R. (1996). Understanding radical organizational change: Bringing together the old and the new institutionalism. Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 1022-1054.

Greenwood, R., Suddaby, R., & Hinings, C. R. (2002). Theorizing change: The role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 58-80.

Greenwood, R., Raynard, M., Kodeih, F., Micelotta, E. R., & Lounsbury, M. (2011). Institutional complexity and organizational responses. Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 317-371.

Grunig, J. E. (1979). A New Measure of Public Opinion on Corporate Social Responsibility. Academy of Management Journal, 22(4), 738-764.

Guérard, S., Bode, C., & Gustafsson, R. (2013). Turning point mechanisms in a dualistic process model of institutional emergence: The case of the diesel particulate filter in Germany. Organization Studies, 34(5-6), 781-822.

Habermas, J. (2001). The public sphere: An encyclopedia article. Media and Cultural Studies, 73.

Hallett, T., & Ventresca, M. J. (2006). Inhabited institutions: Social interactions and organizational forms in Gouldner’s Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy. Theory and Society, 35(2), 213-236.

Hauser, G. A. (1998). Vernacular dialogue and the rhetoricality of public opinion. Communications Monographs, 65(2), 83-107.

Hayes, A. F. (2007). Exploring the Forms of Self‐Censorship: On the Spiral of Silence and the Use of Opinion Expression Avoidance Strategies. Journal of Communication, 57(4), 785-802.

Hiatt, S. R., Sine, W. D., & Tolbert, P. S. (2009). From Pabst to Pepsi: The deinstitutionalization of social practices and the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(4), 635-667.

Ho, K. (2009). Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. Duke University Press.

Ho, S. S., Chen, V. H. H., & Sim, C. C. (2013). The spiral of silence: examining how cultural predispositions, news attention, and opinion congruency relate to opinion expression. Asian Journal of Communication, 23(2), 113-134.

Hoffman, A. (1999). Institutional evolution and change: Environmentalism and the U.S. chemical industry. Academy of Management Journal. 42(4): 351-371.

Jepperson, R. L. (1991). Institutions, institutional effects, and institutionalism. in DiMaggio P. and Powell W. (eds) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, 6, 143-163, University of Chicago Press.

Kennamer, J. D. (1990). Self-serving biases in perceiving the opinions of others. Communication Research, 17, 393–404.

Kim, S. H. (2012). Testing fear of isolation as a causal mechanism: Spiral of silence and genetically modified (gm) foods in south korea. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 24(3), 306-324.

Kim, S., Kim, H., & Oh, S. H. (2014). Talking about Genetically Modified (GM) Foods in South Korea: The Role of the Internet in the Spiral of Silence Process. Mass Communication and Society.

Lammers, J. C., & Barbour, J. B. (2006). An institutional theory of organizational communication. Communication Theory, 16(3), 356-377.

Lammers, J. C. (2011). How institutions communicate: Institutional messages, institutional logics, and organizational communication. Management Communication Quarterly, 25(1), 154-182.

Lang, K., & Lang, G. E. (2012). What is this Thing we Call Public Opinion? Reflections on the Spiral of Silence. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 24(3), 368-386.

Lawrence, T. B., & Suddaby, R. (2006). Institutions and Institutional Work. The Sage handbook of organization studies, 215.

Lawrence, T., Suddaby, R., & Leca, B. (2011). Institutional work: Refocusing institutional studies of organization. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20(1), 52-58.

Lee, K., & Pennings, J. M. (2002). Mimicry and the market: Adoption of a new organizational form. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 144-162.

Locke, J. (1998). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Penguin Classics.

Lounsbury, M., & Rao, H. (2004). Sources of durability and change in market classifications: A study of the reconstitution of product categories in the American mutual fund industry, 1944–1985. Social Forces, 82(3), 969-999.

M&T Bank (2010). Annual Report.

Madrick, J. (2011). Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present. Alfred a Knopf Incorporated.

Maguire, S., & Hardy, C. (2009.) Discourse and deinstitutionalization: The decline of DDT. Academy of Management Journal, 52(1), 148-178.

Matthes, J., Morrison, K. R., & Schemer, C. (2010). A spiral of silence for some: Attitude certainty and the expression of political minority opinions. Communication Research, 37(6), 774-800.

Matthes, J., Hayes, A. F., Rojas, H., Shen, F., Min, S. J., & Dylko, I. B. (2012). Exemplifying a dispositional approach to cross-cultural spiral of silence research: fear of social isolation and the inclination to self-censor. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 24(3), 287-305.

McDonald, D. G., Glynn, C. J., Kim, S. H., & Ostman, R. E. (2001). The spiral of silence in the 1948 presidential election. Communication Research, 28(2), 139-155.

McLeod, D. M., & Hertog, J. K. (1992). The Manufacture of Public Opinion by Reporters: Informal Cues for Public Perceptions of Protest Groups. Discourse & Society, 3(3), 259-275.

McNair, B. (2012). Pornography in the Multiplex. in Hines, C., & Kerr, D. (Eds.). (2012). Hard to Swallow: Hard-core Pornography on Screen. Columbia University Press.

Montaigne, M. E. (1958). The complete essays of Montaigne (Vol. 1). Stanford University Press.

Moy, P., Domke, D., & Stamm, K. (2001). The spiral of silence and public opinion on affirmative action. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 78(1), 7-25.

Neuwirth, K., & Frederick, E. (2004). Peer and social influence on opinion expression combining the theories of planned behavior and the spiral of silence. Communication Research, 31(6), 669-703.

Neuwirth, K., Frederick, E., & Mayo, C. (2007). The spiral of silence and fear of isolation. Journal of Communication, 57(3), 450-468.

Noelle-Neumann, E. (1974). The spiral of silence a theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication, 24(2), 43-51.

Noelle-Neumann, E. (1977). Turbulences in the climate of opinion: Methodological applications of the spiral of silence theory. Public Opinion Quarterly, 41(2), 143-158.

Noelle-Neumann, E. (1993). The spiral of silence: Public opinion--Our social skin. (2nd edition). University of Chicago Press.

Noelle-Neumann, E. (1995). Public Opinion and Rationality. in T. Glasser, CT. Salmon & E. Katz, Public opinion and the communication of consent, Cambridge University Press.

Noelle-Neumann, E., & Petersen, T. (2004). The spiral of silence and the social nature of man. Handbook of political communication research: 339-356.

Okhuysen, G., & Bonardi, J. P. (2011). The challenges of building theory by combining lenses. Academy of Management Review, 36(1), 6-11.

Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16(1), 145-179.

Oliver, C. (1992). The antecedents of deinstitutionalization. Organization Studies, 13(4), 563-588.

Oshagan, H. (1996). Reference group influence on opinion expression. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 8, 335-354.

Pallas, J. L. Strannegard, & S. Jonsson (Eds.) (2014). Organizations and the Media: Organizing in a Mediatized World. Taylor & Francis

Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. Stanford University Press.

Phillips, N., Lawrence, T. B., & Hardy, C. (2004). Discourse and institutions. Academy of management review, 29(4), 635-652.

Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1996). Pluralistic ignorance and the perpetuation of social norms by unwitting actors. Advances in experimental social psychology, 28, 161-209.

Price, V., & Allen, S. (1990). Opinion spirals, silent and otherwise: Applying small-group research to public opinion phenomena. Communication Research.

Rao, H., Monin, P., & Durand, R. (2003). Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy. American Journal of Sociology, 108(4), 795-843.

Rimal, R. N., & Real, K. (2003). Understanding the influence of perceived norms on behaviors. Communication Theory, 13(2), 184-203.

Rimal, R. N., & Real, K. (2005). How behaviors are influenced by perceived norms a test of the theory of normative social behavior. Communication Research, 32(3), 389-414.

Roulet, T. (2014). “What Good is Wall Street?” Institutional Contradiction and the Diffusion of the Stigma over the Finance Industry. Journal of Business Ethics.

Salmon, C. T., & Glynn, C. J. (1996). Spiral of silence: Communication and public opinion as social control. In Salwen and Stack (Eds), An integrated approach to communication theory and research, Routledge, 165-180.

Scheufele, D. A., & Moy, P. (2000). Twenty-five years of the spiral of silence: A conceptual review and empirical outlook. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 12(1), 3-28.

Scheufele, D. A. (2008). Spiral of silence theory. In Donsbach W. and Traugott M. W. The SAGE handbook of public opinion research, 173-183.

Schultz, F., & Wehmeier, S. (2010). Institutionalization of corporate social responsibility within corporate communications: Combining institutional, sensemaking and communication perspectives. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 15(1), 9-29.

Schulz, A., & Roessler, P. (2012). The spiral of silence and the internet: Selection of online content and the perception of the public opinion climate in computer-mediated communication environments. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 24(3), 346-367.

Shlomo, J. B., Eggert, W., & Nguyen, T. (2013). Regulation of remuneration policy in the financial sector: Evaluation of recent reforms in Europe. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, 5(3), 256-269.

Scott, W. R. (2001). Institutions and organizations, 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Slater, M. D. (2007). Reinforcing spirals: The mutual influence of media selectivity and media effects and their impact on individual behavior and social identity. Communication Theory, 17(3), 281-303.

Suddaby, R. (2011). How communication institutionalizes: A response to Lammers. Management Communication Quarterly, 0893318910389265.

Thornton, P. H., Ocasio, W., & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure, and process. Oxford University Press.

Tocqueville, A. (1955). The old regime and the French revolution, trans. Stuart Gilbert (Garden City, NY, 1955), 3.

Tsfati, Y., Stroud, N. J., & Chotiner, A. (2014). Exposure to ideological news and perceived opinion climate testing the media effects component of spiral-of-silence in a fragmented media landscape. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 19(1), 3-23.

Tumasjan, A., Sprenger, T. O., Sandner, P. G., & Welpe, I. M. (2010). Election forecasts with Twitter: How 140 characters reflect the political landscape. Social Science Computer Review, DOI: 10.1177/0894439310386557.

Vaara, E., & Tienari, J. (2008). A discursive perspective on legitimation strategies in multinational corporations. Academy of Management Review,33(4), 985-993.

Yanovitzky, I., & Stryker, J. (2001). Mass media, social norms, and health promotion efforts a longitudinal study of media effects on youth binge drinking. Communication Research, 28(2), 208-239.

Voronov, M., & Vince, R. (2012). Integrating emotions into the analysis of institutional work. Academy of Management Review, 37(1), 58-81.

Wasserman, S. (1994) Social network analysis: Methods and applications. Vol. 8. Cambridge university press.

Woong Yun, G., & Park, S. Y. (2011). Selective posting: Willingness to post a message online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 16(2), 201-227.

Zilber, T. B. (2006). The work of the symbolic in institutional processes: Translations of rational myths in Israeli high tech. Academy of Management Journal, 49(2), 281-303.