Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Management Learning
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (2)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Comtois, E.
Right arrow Articles by Langley, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Rhetorics of Efficiency, Fashion and Politics

Hospital Mergers in Quebec

Elise Comtois

Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, Canada, elise.comtois{at}chsrf.ca

Jean-Louis Denis

University of Montreal, Canada, jean-louis.denis{at}umontreal.ca

Ann Langley

HEC Montreal, Canada, ann.langley{at}hec.ca

Drawing on a content analysis of discourse surrounding five sequential hospital merger decisions, this research examines the role of efficiency considerations, fashion and politics in stimulating the adoption of a managerial idea. The article analyses how different arguments come to be intertwined. It illustrates how rational and institutional arguments are used to legitimate political strategies while simultaneously constituting the apparatus of legitimation for others in a reciprocal process that contributes to the persistence of those same strategies. The article thus confirms the key role of politics, interests and agency in the evolution and constitution of institutions, and in the diffusion of managerial ideas.

Key Words: discourse analysis • hospital mergers • institutionalism • managerial ideas • politics

Management Learning, Vol. 35, No. 3, 303-320 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1350507604045608
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Management LearningHome page
L. Perriton
A Reflection on the Significance of Numbers
Management Learning, September 1, 2009; 40(4): 393 - 399.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 LeadershipHome page
M. Clarke
A Study of the Role of 'Representative' Leadership in Stimulating Organization Democracy
Leadership, November 1, 2006; 2(4): 427 - 450.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Organization StudiesHome page
S. Riad
The Power of 'Organizational Culture' as a Discursive Formation in Merger Integration
Organization Studies, October 1, 2005; 26(10): 1529 - 1554.
[Abstract] [PDF]