In addition to being great friends, Tim Barr and Chad Bosse have made this dissertation better by constantly forcing me to consider how this research will affect the lives of the research participants. Rothschild-Whitt writes that “it is in conceptualizing alternative forms of organization that organizational theory has been weakest.
Theoretical Background
Organizations
My dissertation will address this problem by applying institutional theories to religious organizations to develop a theory of organizational resistance. A theory of organizational resistance will provide an alternative way to conceptualize the field of religious organizations, emphasizing practices that maintain and/or create diversity, rather than seeking practices that maintain the status quo.
Institutionalism: Old and New
In the 15 years since Powell and DiMaggio (1991) called for a combination of old and new intuitionism in their seminal work The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, scholars have heeded the call. Recently, Scott et al. 2000) and Haveman (2000) have made great efforts to integrate the institutionalization literature.
Isomorphism
Both groups of theorists believe that isomorphism is inevitable in the long run or during rapid growth, which will eventually lead to the institutionalization of organizational forms. In this dissertation, I shed some light on these organizations that see resistance to institutionalization as an organizational goal to be embraced.
Limitations of Current Theory
Introduction
But the purpose of this research is not to suggest that institutional theories of organizational development are without merit. The result is not so much a challenge to existing institutional theory as a refinement that forces theorists to account for at least part of the organizational landscape as occupying a position that is not institutionalized or about to be institutionalized. to become, but rather as resistance to institutionalization.
Conflation
Institutionalization refers to the process by which a social object becomes so routinized that the underlying logic that rationalizes the object's existence is taken for granted. Thus, it is not the actions that are taken for granted, but the reasons for these actions.
Levels of Analysis
Scholars such as Powell and DiMaggio (1991), Scott (2001), and Zucker (1977) have developed advanced and complex explanations about exactly how and under what circumstances general similarity is achieved. However, these calls have gone partly unheeded, I argue, because of the seeming inevitability of institutionalization.
Organizational Resistance
However, this problem is not limited to Oliver's work and persists despite her substantial, if incomplete, attempts to remedy the situation. In short: if there is an organization that is not institutionalized, that is no coincidence.
The Field of Religion
The Religious Environment
Rational choice theorists who take a market approach to religion (Iannaccone 1997; Stark 1997; Stark and Bainbridge 1996) have demonstrated that religion in the US. And, if they do, focused attention on organizational aspects of religion may benefit organizational theory itself. .
Characteristics of Religious Organizations
Perhaps the most interesting modern conclusion of my case within the field of religious organizations is Falun Gong in China. Falun Gong has attracted increasing attention across disciplines in recent years in the wake of the Chinese government's 1999 crackdown.
Chapter Layout and Conclusion
Chapter Layout
I identify the important characteristics that influenced the eventual structure, processes and ideology of the examined organizations. Specifically, I offer the gyroscope metaphor to describe the resistant organization compared to.
Conclusion
It would be foolish to assume that in a modern society so marked by religious pluralism and institutionalization, especially in the global West, a change in religious structure and belief systems could predict or cause an economic shift equal to the development of modern capitalism. However, it is not excluded that a new religious group, which could gain legitimacy by adopting a different organizational form and belief system, could contribute to the introduction of a corresponding shift in other institutions, or at least reflect changes that have already or are currently occurring.
Introduction
Instead, the data for this dissertation is drawn from several congregations that consider themselves part of the emerging Church. For example, in discussions of the catalysts of the emerging Church I discuss the role of the Internet and popular postmodernism.
Rise of the Megachurch
This largely passive interaction of the transfer of information from the expert to the uneducated is at the heart of the megachurch worship experience (Twitchell 2004). In his study of the religious habits of the baby boomer generation, Wade Clark Roof locates the rise of this consumer model to the economic boom after World War II.
Responses to the Megachurch
- Introduction
- Resisting Structure
- Resisting Process
- Resisting Ideology
Scott Bader-Saye, in his 2006 article in the special issue of the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church devoted to the Emerging Church, labels these ministries as the efforts of the "evangelical pragmatists." An ideal resistant organizational test case in religion would then combine elements from each of these responses.
Catalysts
The importance of the world wide web to the development of the Emerging Church can hardly be true. Harrol (2006) notes that such stories are a dominant feature of popular press publications about the Emerging Church.
Description of the Emerging Church
Case Description
At the very least, they are of utmost importance to my respondents and to any understanding of the Emerging Church in general. In fact, at the other end of the religious spectrum of the Emerging Church sits fundamentalism.
Conclusion
Introduction
Research Methodology
The principles of the extended case method do not preclude interview data, but a heavy reliance on interview data is not typical of such studies. Again, this does not explicitly violate any principle of the extended case method, but rather common usage.
Data Collection Procedures
Data
Most of this data was collected in one of the 6 congregations I visited and spent time with (see table), and the rest occurred at the Emerging Church Training Conference and subsequent discussions. These field notes were first analyzed immediately after the time in the field to compare them with the interviews, checking for internal consistency and theoretical contradiction.
Sampling
I chose this strategy to deal with the amorphous boundaries of the Emerging Church (Miles and Huberman 1994:28). My research led to the data collection led me to identify a few geographic regions (often centered around a particular congregation) as the foundation of much of the Emerging Church in the USA.
Congregations and Characteristics
It was founded by Tim, who was one of the first founders of the Emerging Church. Faith is another community founded by one of the early leaders in the emerging church, William.
Introduction
Dimensions and Definitions of Authority
In this chapter, I describe the organizational structure of a resistance religious organization, taking as a conceptual framework the areas that other scholars have noted as common points of institutionalization in religious organizations. Furthermore, this chapter will begin to disentangle predictability and control, suggesting that in a resilient organization, recovery and control can best be achieved through a lack of predictability.
Dominant Model
Thus, the dominant organizational model in the field of religion is the same model of highly institutionalized rational bureaucracy that dominates in other fields (table 4.1). Finally, the ideal-type rational bureaucracy is governed by a set of rules and procedures that are accessible to everyone in the organization.
Resistant Model
These components of an organizational structure are often thought to be necessary in order for an organization to achieve legitimacy. Organization of the Work Complex Division of Labor Labor of will Governance rules Defined rules Context specific Table 4.1: Elements of organizational structure.
The Shifting Nature of Authority
Introduction
Authority in Organizations
It is important to him that the dialogue is the central process to structure this change of authority because it results in more understandings being expressed beyond the priest. The ability to articulate an argument and legitimize a perspective holds a tremendous amount of power that can result in the institutionalization of the set of ideas held by the voter.
Encouraging and Supporting Shifting Authority
In short, it's a pretty serious ceremony, and it's easy to see why it's traditionally been the domain of the clergy. Each week there is a brief explanation or presentation of the joining process, but even this is not codified.
Resisting Traditional Authority
First, a conscious effort is made to eliminate feedback loops between the leadership staff and the rest of the congregation. The fact that these loops are eliminated by the structure of the organization is important.
Dealing With Abuses of Authority
The decisions about the purpose and method of the conference were Patti's responsibility due to her position as conference organizer. Ultimately, the structure of the rest of the conference changed in a way that better reflected the group's wishes.
Conclusion
The Labor of the Willing
- Introduction
- Initiation
- Maintenance
- Dissolution
However, this same strategy of the unplanned event can also be used in larger congregations. In addition to the creative worships at Incarnate Word, one of the worship meetings I attended at Calvary opened with the.
Context Specific Governance
- Introduction
- Open Consensus
- Direct Democracy
- Authoritarian Control
A consensus process allows the voice of the expert to carry more weight than in a. This process was subject to many of the traditional problems of a consensus decision-making process.
Conclusion
It's not that I got the impression that he was particularly invested in which book to do or not, but that he wanted to make a decision and move on, even though the rest of the group seemed willing to keep talking about it , until the decision was made. Although no one seemed to be in any particular hurry to end the discussion, no one was willing to challenge the pastor's decision in any way, especially not in any of the usual ways described above.
Introduction
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Professionals in the Organization
- The Regulation of the Professional
- Religious Professionals
But first it is important to spend some time assessing the status of the clergy as a profession in a sociological sense. This conflict of interest has resulted in particular in the shift in the theologian's place of residence.
Unregulated Discretion
- Introduction
- Establishing Importance
- Inverted Labor
- Experience over Credentials
If one of the points of chapter 4 was to show that the Emerging Churches do not want to be indebted to anyone. In this case, the decision-making process about how to plan the future of the congregation was not made to encourage or accommodate growth.
