Toward a Post-Cold War Force and an Organization-Centric Model of Institutional Change
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TOWARD A POST-COLD WAR FORCE AND AN ORGANIZATION-CENTRIC MODEL OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: INSTITUTIONAL WORK IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 1991-1995 by Wade Philip Smith M.A. Sociology, University of Colorado—Boulder, 2012 B.A. Social Science/History, Thomas Edison State College, Trenton, New Jersey, 2005 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology 2015 This dissertation entitled: Toward a Post-Cold War Force and an Organization-centric Model of Institutional Change: Institutional Work in the United States Army, 1991-1995 written by Wade Philip Smith has been approved for the Department of Sociology ___________________________________________ Jennifer L. Bair, Ph.D., Chair, University of Colorado Boulder ___________________________________________ Isaac A. Reed, Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder Date: July 2, 2015 The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. Smith, Wade Philip (Ph.D., Sociology) Toward a Post-Cold War Force and an Organization-centric Model of Institutional Change: Institutional Work in the United States Army, 1991-1995 Thesis directed by Associate Professor Jennifer L. Bair Throughout the Cold War, the United States maintained a military prepared to confront a technologically advanced Soviet adversary. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the structure and purpose of the armed forces were called into question. In time, the U.S. military transformed from one prepared to conduct large-scale war, to one prepared to carry out a variety of missions ranging from war to humanitarian efforts. Throughout the 1990s, the U.S. Army’s senior leaders engaged in a campaign to transform the organization from its warrior-oriented mindset to a service-oriented one. I report in this dissertation my findings from an analysis of the efforts of the Army’s senior leaders in support of this transformation from 1991 to 1995. Specifically, I report my findings from an analysis of the discursive dimensions of their efforts. Theoretically, this dissertation contributes to two emergent perspectives in organizational analysis: the institutional logics and institutional work perspectives. These perspectives highlight the fact that individual and collective actors are not only influenced by the structural, normative, and symbolic dimensions (i.e., the institutional logic) of the institutional environments in which they act, but those environments are shaped by their actions (by institutional work). Through my analysis of the efforts of the Army’s senior leaders to disrupt and replace the Cold War institutional logic, I identified three distinct forms of institutional work. Environment work included efforts to construct an extra-organizational environment that demands change, and an intra-organizational environment hospitable to change. Organizational identity work involved the establishment of an organizational sense of self that encompassed new practices. Institutional logic work involved a recursive process of textualization that established a post-Cold War logic constituted in a well-structured discourse. In conclusion, I consider the institutional work I identified as situated within the institutional field of the armed forces. I demonstrate how the management of organizational change can influence the logic that prevails within the broader institutional field. I conclude by highlighting the utility of focusing on the organizational level of analysis in studies of institutional change, and the benefits of considering the institutional logics and institutional work perspectives as complementary. iii To the men of Charlie Company And there we were… ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere appreciation for those who contributed to the completion of this dissertation. I am indebted to my advisor, Jennifer Bair, who has pushed, challenged, supported, and guided me through not only the research in this dissertation, but my development as a sociologist. To Isaac Reed and Kathleen Tierney, not only members of my dissertation committee, but supporters of my research and challengers of my thinking, I owe a great deal of gratitude. In addition, the guidance and support of Hamilton Bean and Bryan Taylor, as experts in organizational communication and members of my dissertation committee, has been instrumental, spurring my thinking and research (in this dissertation and elsewhere) in new and necessary directions. I am thankful for financial support provided by the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado in support of the archival research that made this dissertation possible. Moreover, I appreciate the hospitality and assistance of the staff at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s (TRADOC) Military History and Heritage Office at Fort Eustis, Virginia in support of my archival research in 2013. Most importantly, I thank my family for their support and sacrifice in the process of completing this dissertation. First, I thank my wife, Jessica. Without her continued support and commitment to our family, graduate school and this project would never have been a possibility. Above all, however, I thank my daughters, Ainsley and Sierra, who do not yet know the sacrifices they made in support of this project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION: EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL MOTIVATIONS ...........................................................................................................................1 Military Change: Common Explanations and New Directions ....................................................5 Military Forces from Environmental Conditions ....................................................................6 Military Forces from Traditional Military Planning Processes ...............................................9 New Directions: Military Forces from Institutional Work ....................................................14 Neoinstitutional Theory: Emergent Perspectives and Paths Less Taken ...................................19 Theoretical Motivations: Paths Less Taken ..........................................................................22 Case Study: Institutional Work in the United States Army, 1991-1995 ....................................25 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................28 CHAPTER TWO: ‘LOGICS’ FROM ‘WORK’: TOWARD A MULTI-LEVEL MODEL OF INSTITUTIONAL STABILITY AND CHANGE ..............................................................33 Neoinstitutional Theory: From Isomorphism and Stability to Agency and Change ..................34 ‘Logics’ from ‘Work’: Toward a Multi-Level Model of Stability and Change .........................39 A Discursive Approach to Institutional Work ............................................................................48 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................52 CHAPTER THREE: FROM FORCE TO FORCES: TOWARD A U.S. ARMY FOR A POST-COLD WAR WORLD .....................................................................................................54 Conceptualizing Armed Forces as an Institutional Field ...........................................................57 Institutional Logics of the U.S. Military in the 20th Century .....................................................62 Military Logics from Institutional Work ....................................................................................72 Maintaining the Cold War Logic: Institutional Work in the United States Army ................74 Toward a Post-Cold War Logic: Institutional Work in the United States Army, 1991- 1995 .......................................................................................................................................80 A Stage for Change and a Site for Analysis ...............................................................................88 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA AND ANALYTICAL STRATEGY .............................................92 vi Data: Sources and Comments ....................................................................................................93 Open-archival Source ............................................................................................................95 Open-published Sources ........................................................................................................97 Data: Overview and Comments ..........................................................................................102 Analytical Strategy ...................................................................................................................105 CHAPTER FIVE: TOWARD A CONTEXT FOR CHANGE: ENVIRONMENT WORK .......................................................................................................................................109 Institutional Work: Overview of Findings ...............................................................................111 Motivations for Institutional Work .....................................................................................112 Categories of Institutional Work .........................................................................................113