Logiche istituzionali e allomorfismo in un campo organizzativo: le Agenzie per il Lavoro in Italia (Institutional logics and allomorphism in an organizational field. Temporary Work Agencies in Italy)

This paper analyses the interaction among organizations and societal-level logics, in order to understand how and why organizations adopt different or similar forms and practices. Institutional logics are taken for granted practices and beliefs concerning the institutions of modern societies. Organizational forms, behaviours and managerial practices are manifestations of institutional logics. Through the study of the rise and evolution of the Temporary Work Agencies (TWAs) field, we aim to study the mutual interaction among field actors and institutional logics. Many studies focused on the influence of a dominant logic on practices and organizations of a field. This paper contributes to better comprehend how multiple institutional logics coexist in an organizational field. In particular we discuss the impact of multiple competing logics on the almost "young" TWAs’ field. Our work brought out a new element: as a matter of fact the empirical research shows that institutional logics are not always consistent with related institutional pressures and with their effects on the organizational field and on organizational forms and managerial practices of the field’s organizations. Keywords: Institutional logics, events, managerial practices, temporary work agency