Five years ago Associate Professor and Ann Brown Chair of Organization Studies, Charlene Zietsma, published her paper “Institutional Work in the Transformation of an Organizational Field: The Interplay of Boundary Work and Practice Work” with co-author Thomas B. Lawrence in the journal Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ).
Little did she know, half a decade later, their work would win the ASQ Scholarly Contribution Award for making the most substantial scholarly contribution to the field of organization studies.
“It is a dream,” Zietsma said. “The research extends my doctoral dissertation. We worked very hard on the paper through a long and difficult review process so to see it has made a significant impact is extremely rewarding.”
Zietsma and Lawrence’s paper was an analysis of the conflict over harvesting practices and decision authority in the British Columbia coastal forest.
“Our paper took a multi-level, multi-actor perspective to examine a conflict over the need for sustainable forest practices. We developed a process model of boundary and practice struggles which eventually led to a more sustainable forest industry,” Zietsma said.