Assignment 7

In lecture 4 the concept of Isomorphism is explained, defining it as ‘a set of organizations that, in the aggregate, constitutes a recognized area of institutional life; key suppliers, resource and product consumers, regulatory agencies, and other organizations that produce similar services or products’ (Lecture 4, Boons). It can usually be found in product chains, policy fields or schooling systems. The key finding was that organizations in the same field tend to become more alike over time. This has different underlying causes like coercive pressure, mimicry and normative pressure.

To illustrate this, the movie ‘A Decent Factory’ about the Nokia factory in China was shown in class followed by a discussion in the class and an assignment. Although watching a movie during a lecture is really enjoyable, perhaps another movie could be chosen as even though Nokia is trying to change the values in China according to the ones in Scandinavia, the end suggested that it was not successful in doing this. This could also be part of isomorphism, but perhaps that another example where the change was more successful could illustrate the concept better. This could be done by watching an movie where isomorphism also plays a role, but also shows that the change is introduced and implemented. An assignment could be to find and analyze isomorphism in a product chain, policy field and schooling system that really exist.