Journal of Management Policies and Practices

Institutional Work Strategies of Social Organisation Managers in a Controlled but Non-regulated Field
Sebehié Claude Ahi

Abstract
This article is committed to understanding the current apparent institutional change or stability in the Ivorian field of social organisations2. Indeed, the steady state of the existing coercive institutional framework in the field might benefit from the “silence” of its various stakeholders. However, exploratory interviews conducted with managers of some social organisations in the Ivorian field somewhat reveal their dissatisfaction with this coercive institutional framework. Therefore, by integrating the Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect (EVLN) Theory and the Neo-Institutional Theory, we explore the individual and/or collective political strategies of those managers, in obvious discontent with the coercive institutional framework regulating their organisations. To this end, through a qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen managers of social organisations operating in the Ivorian field. The results reveal five forms of political strategies used by those managers towards their coercive institutional framework: the states of constructive voice, brutal neglect, tacit voice and two forms of ambivalences (constructive voice/brutal neglect; constructive voice/tacit voice). These political strategies from managers resulted in various works of institutional creation which highlight the necessity of a coercive institutional “system change” in the field, hence a “change 2”.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jmpp.v6n2a4