The Political Dynamics of Corporate Governance: Institutionalization, Resistance and Paradoxical Outcomes

This paper discusses the relationship between social movements and corporate governance practices in large firms in Norway and Sweden in the post-war period. It presents two paradoxical outcomes and tries to make sense of them. The theoretical argument is that structural features (national trajectories, shared cultures, industrial structure) alone cannot explain the choice of management strategies and the evolution of corporate governance practices. National cultures as well as organizational cultures are dynamic and conflictual. Strategies evolve within organizational fields that are based on heterogeneity of interests, and the structural outcomes, as well as the actors’ strategies and identities, tend to be ambiguous and paradoxical.