Special Issue of Organization Studies

In modern organizations and societies, standards are proliferating.
They occur in most fields (e.g., corporate governance, financial and
social auditing, product development, technical design), take many forms
(e.g., membership standards, multi-stakeholder standards), and are
particularly relevant when we are thinking about regulating
organizations beyond national boundaries (Brunsson &Jacobsson 2000;
Djelic & Sahlin-Andersson 2006). In a broad sense, we can define
standards as a particular type of rules: voluntary rules that are
explicitly formulated to pertain to a wide set of actors (individuals or
organizations). Many organizations are involved in developing,
sustaining, and implementing standards. Such organizations include, but
are not limited to, standard makers, adopters, monitoring and
certification agencies, and the wider public.

Standards and standardization are often addressed as part of the wider
discussion of organizational regulation. Regulation involves creating
and propagating more or less explicit rules and thus fosters the
formation of social order. Hence, studying standards allows us to
consider both the “demand side” of order, i.e., how organizations
and individuals are affected by organizing efforts, and the “supply
side,” i.e., how organizing elements are produced.
Despite their pervasiveness and significance in modern life, social
scientists have given comparatively little serious attention to
standards. It is only within the last few years that researchers have
started to systematically explore standards and the process of
standardization. Apart from research on individual standards such as ISO
9000 (e.g., Beck & Walgenbach 2005), CSR standards (e.g., Déjan et al.
2004) or accounting standards (e.g., Perry & Noelke 2005), there are now
also attempts to explore the logic of standards per se (e.g., Mörth
2004).

In this special issue of Organization Studies we want to bring together
the various strands of theorizing in this nascent area of research. We
do so to take stock of the developments and to advance the research
agenda. We are particularly (but by no means exclusively) interested in
exploring the various dynamics underlying standardization: those
involved in standards development, standards adoption, standards
following, and standards enforcement. By focusing on the dynamic aspect
of standards and standardization, we can look into the social
interactions, political maneuvers, power relations, manipulative
practices, and external pressures that shape the production and adoption
of standards by organizations. Researching the dynamic character of
standards also implies a close examination of the evolution, growth,
maturation, and disappearance of standards in society. We are interested
in discussing the organization and production standards on the macro
level (i.e., society) and the micro-level institutional practices that
standard implementation brings about.

Thus, we call for papers that deal with the various aspects and
dynamics of standardization. We are interested in conceptual and
empirical studies that draw on a variety of theoretical perspectives,
such as institutional theory, micro-political approaches, social
theories of practice, and in quantitative and qualitative methodological
approaches.

Possible topics for contributions include, but are not limited to, the
following issues:

- Growth and Context of Standardization: To what extent have standards
emerged as alternatives to governmental regulations? What role do
standards play in relation to international and supranational
governmental regulations? How should we distinguish between the
different types of standards? What influences the possible future growth
and expansion of standards in different fields?

- Production/Evolution/Change of Standards: Who is and who can be
responsible for developing standards? How are standard setters
themselves organized? To what extent are standards and standard setters
accountable to their stakeholders and the wider public? What problems
can arise within the process of standardization? What theoretical
perspectives can help us to better understand the global diffusion of
international standards, and their possible consequences, both intended
and unintended? How do standards gain legitimacy in the eyes of adopters
and the wider public? How much innovation is needed and desirable when
revising and improving standards?

- Adoption/Implementation of Standards: How are standards implemented
in corporations? What drives firms to adopt standards? What impact can
we expect from the implementation of standards? How can we measure this
impact in a meaningful way? How and why are standards modified during
the process of implementation? Does standards implementation foster
and/or impede creativity and innovation among adopters? Under what
circumstances does the adoption of standards produce hypocritical
behavior and inconsistencies between talk and action?

- Standards and the Transformation of Organizations: How do standards
affect the social practices in organizations? To what extent is the
recent rise of standards connected to the decrease of bureaucratic forms
of organization? How do organizations deal with the tension between
standardization and the quest for autonomy? How do standards influence
the work of/in meta-organizations such as the EU or UN?

- Standards and the Role of “Third Parties”: What “third
parties”, such as customers and auditors, are involved in the
standardization process? How do they affect the likelihood and form in
which standards are adopted? What influence do they have on the
development of standards?

- Competition and Compatibility Among Standards: What determines which
standard setter attracts the most followers? What factors foster and
impede competition among standards? Which factors foster monopoly and
stability? What is the relation between competition and compatibility
among standards? Does competition among standard setters drive
creativity in terms of the content of standards?

Literature:
Beck, M. and P. Walgenbach: 2005, Technical Efficiency of Adaptation to
Institutional Expectations? - The Adoption of ISO 9000 Standards in the
German Mechanical Engineering Industry, Organization Studies 26(6),
841-866.
Brunsson, N. and B. Jacobsson: 2000, A World of Standards (Oxford/New
York: Oxford University Press).
Déjean, F., Gond J.-P. and B. Leca: 2004, `Measuring the Unmeasured: An
Institutional Entrepreneur Strategy in an Emerging Industry', Human
Relations 57: 740-64.
Djelic, M.-L. and K. Sahlin-Andersson (eds.): 2006, Transnational
Governance - Institutional Dynamics of Regulation (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press).
Mörth, U. (ed): 2004, Soft Law in Governance and Regulation: An
Interdisciplinary Analysis. (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).
Perry, J. and A. Noelke: 2005, International Accounting Standard
Setting: A Network Approach, Business and Politics 7: 1-s2.