PMS and the Application by Organizational Actors of Diverging Institutional Logics: Insights From a Swedish NGO

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the institutional logic dimension, the rationale actors within an organization identify with, influences the incorporation of an organizational business logic-saturated PMS. The research is executed in the form of a single-case study of a humanitarian aid agency operating as a non-profit organization in Sweden with a strong, charity logic driven workforce. Our findings provide support to the observations that NGOs of today more frequently introduce formal and financially orientated PMS in an attempt to resolve numerous contextual challenges, and we further discuss some of the limitations of quantitative and cybernetic-focused evaluation approaches for assessing social value creation. The increased emphasis on business logic orientation, through the implementation of an organization-wide PMS and manifested by increased financial focus and uniformity, more structures, frequent internal reporting and follow ups, stands in contrast to the deep-rooted democracy, informality and flexibility typically characterizing this sector, that has traditionally provided the staff force with a high level of freedom and autonomy. We find that the relation between the dual logics, how they interplay, highly varies within different organizational units and we also suggest how such inconsistencies can be explained. In this way, we indicate that NGOs have the potential to be much more multifaceted than previous researches have displayed. Furthermore, in contrast to (most of) the NGO researchers, who have primarily studied managerial responses on an organizational-wide level, our study highlights the role of lower level leaders (unit managers) in response to the diverse demands of their subordinates and senior managers, by allowing decoupling, blocking and, the previously unexplored, concept that we name 'selective blocking' of logics.