Organizational Responses to Institutional Complexity in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Field
摘要
The diffusion of global issues such as sustainability, human rights, and climate change results in complex challenges for organizations in various fields. Complexity arises due to the need to conform to new societal expectations while staying aligned with traditional organizational goals, norms, and values. The past two decades saw an extensive investigation of organizational responses to such institutional complexity. Still, new global trends are prompting the emergence of novel societal expectations and organizational response strategies. In this study, I examine responses to institutional complexity in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) field. Results of a qualitative analysis of interviews, focus group discussions, field notes, and archival documents reveal four conflicting logics and six response strategies available among actors in the Zimbabwean ASM field. Two logics—subsistence and elitism—and three organizational responses—capitulation, elusion, and override—are novel contributions to theory on institutional logics and organizational responses to institutional complexity. The study also discusses sustainability, including the ethical implications of these organizational responses, and calls for more research on sustainable development under institutional complexity.