An organisation becomes an institution when it acquires value beyond the task it was built for, at which point it will defend itself rather than the task.
Selznick's 1957 argument, with his 1949 TVA study as the companion: the authority co-opted local elites to secure legitimacy and was reshaped by them in the process.
In practice
- A programme run jointly with local partners has adopted their priorities within three years, and its funders describe this as successful engagement.
- A regulator created for one purpose acquires a constituency, a building and a professional identity, and will defend all three against reform of the purpose.
- Standing
- Selznick's earlier work on co-optation, from the TVA study of 1949, is the companion concept.
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- Why organisations learn, harden and decline