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Organizational Fields

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  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Field boundaries; Organizational analysis

Definition

An organizational field is typically defined as an institutionalized domain or sector of society characterized by sets of organizations that share similar goals. The concept is invoked in sociological neo-institutionalist analysis to explain the diffusion of similar norms, policies, organizational forms, and social practices across organizations that are members of an organizational field.

Introduction

The concept of “organizational field” has been popularized in institutional and organizational research in sociology by the seminal work of DiMaggio and Powell (1983). Still the most widely cited article informing the use of the concept, DiMaggio and Powell reserved a specific theoretical context and meaning for the term. Over the years, the term has been modified and extended, particularly as organizational analysis adopted the use of the concept of “field” from the sociological theory of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu....

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Besnik Pula

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  1. Besnik Pula
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Correspondence to Besnik Pula .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Pula, B. (2016). Organizational Fields. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_96-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_96-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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