Three Neofunctionalist Conceptual Contributions to the Institutional Theory in Organizations

Abstract

The most recent efforts in institutional theory applied to organization studies search for ways to overcome consequences of traditional dichotomies based on levels of analysis, social structures versus agency as source of practices, and so on. If in other social sciences that debate has received fundamental contributions in the last three or four decades, this is not the case for Organization Theory, where discussions are much more recent and based especially on Sociology authors. The main purpose of this theoretical essay is to describe some neofunctionalist concepts – system openness and closeness, double contingency and expectation of expectations – proposed by Niklas Luhmann, discussing their impact on those dichotomies, in the realm of the Luhmannian theory of institutions. This effort is expected to contribute alternatives to that theoretical discussion that mark institutional organization theory for at least the past two decades.

Keywords

• institutional theory
• Luhmann
• neofunctionalism
• organizations.