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From A Clash Of Social Orders To A Loss Of Decidability In Meta-Organizations Tackling Grand Challenges: The Case Of Japan Leaving The International Whaling Commission

Author

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  • Héloïse Berkowitz

    (LEST - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, AMU - Aix Marseille Université)

  • Michael Grothe-Hammer

    (NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Abstract

Meta-organizations are crucial devices to tackle grand challenges. Yet, by bringing together different organizations, with potentially diverging views on these grand challenges, meta-organizations need to cope with the emergence of contradictory underlying social orders. Do contradictory orders affect meta-organizations' ability to govern grand challenges and if so, how? This article investigates these essential questions by focusing on the evolution and intermeshing of social orders within international governance meta-organizations. Focusing on the International Whaling Commission and the grand challenge of whale conservation, we show how over time incompatible social orders between the meta-organization and its members emerge, evolve and clash. As our study shows, this clash of social orders ultimately removes the ‘decidability' of certain social orders at the meta-organizational level. We define decidability as the possibility for actors to reach collective decisions about changing an existing social order that falls under a collective's mandate. We argue that maintaining decidability is a key condition for grand challenges' governance success while the emergence of ‘non-decidability' of controversial social orders can lead to substantial failure. We contribute to both the emerging literature on grand challenges and organization theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Héloïse Berkowitz & Michael Grothe-Hammer, 2022. "From A Clash Of Social Orders To A Loss Of Decidability In Meta-Organizations Tackling Grand Challenges: The Case Of Japan Leaving The International Whaling Commission," Post-Print halshs-03271137, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03271137
    DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079010
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03271137
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mike Valente & Christine Oliver, 2018. "Meta-Organization Formation and Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 678-701, August.
    2. Heloise Berkowitz & Antoine Souchaud, 2019. "(Self-)Regulation of Sharing Economy Platforms Through Partial Meta-organizing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 961-976, November.
    3. Apelt, Maja & Besio, Cristina & Corsi, Giancarlo & von Groddeck, Victoria & Grothe-Hammer, Michael & Tacke, Veronika, 2017. "Resurrecting organization without renouncing society: A response to Ahrne, Brunsson and Seidl," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 8-14.
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    5. Héloïse Berkowitz & Hervé Dumez, 2016. "The Concept of Meta-Organization: Issues for Management Studies," Post-Print hal-01380375, HAL.
    6. Michael Gibbert & Winfried Ruigrok & Barbara Wicki, 2008. "What passes as a rigorous case study?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(13), pages 1465-1474, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Berkowitz, Heloise & Souchaud, Antoine, 2024. "Filling successive technologically-induced governance gaps: Meta-organizations as regulatory innovation intermediaries," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

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    Keywords

    social order; meta-organization; grand challenge; governance; marine ecosystem; decidability;
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