The Social and Economic Significance of Status in Organizations

This chapter summarizes the theoretical propositions examined and discusses their implications for companies and organization. Status is oftentimes examined as an ordering mechanism on the level of individuals (say, executive decision makers, or celebrity figures) or certain communities (say, professional groups with jurisdictional discretion), but the concept is also applicable when examining corporate and organizational activities and decisions. Status can therefore be understood as a social fact that structure day-to-day activities and confer authority to certain individuals or groups so they can acquire the professional role confidence to make the difficult decisions needed, also under the influence of scarce information and uncertainty more widely. At the same time, status beliefs can blindfold actors if the ambition to preserve status relations overshadow other interests and activities.