Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings
The market’s tendency to organize personal spheres of life is not always unfettered, and while past studies have identified public discomfort as a bar to market expansion, this study considers a commercialization project that gained public acceptance yet nevertheless failed. The study’s key theoreti...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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University of Chicago Press
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88138 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0216-8689 |
| _version_ | 1826199539031212032 |
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| author | Turco, Catherine |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Turco, Catherine |
| author_sort | Turco, Catherine |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The market’s tendency to organize personal spheres of life is not always unfettered, and while past studies have identified public discomfort as a bar to market expansion, this study considers a commercialization project that gained public acceptance yet nevertheless failed. The study’s key theoretical insight is that the organizational decoupling required for successful commercialization may complicate companies’ ability to gain employee acceptance. Rich ethnographic data from Motherhood, Inc., an organization offering support and services for new mothers, is leveraged to identify two conditions under which employee resistance may arise and undermine successful commercialization. This article contributes to sociological understandings by theorizing the important role of employees in commercialization and to organizational theory more generally by specifying conditions under which decoupling may be difficult to achieve. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:21:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/88138 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:21:35Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/881382022-09-27T19:00:21Z Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings Turco, Catherine Sloan School of Management Turco, Catherine The market’s tendency to organize personal spheres of life is not always unfettered, and while past studies have identified public discomfort as a bar to market expansion, this study considers a commercialization project that gained public acceptance yet nevertheless failed. The study’s key theoretical insight is that the organizational decoupling required for successful commercialization may complicate companies’ ability to gain employee acceptance. Rich ethnographic data from Motherhood, Inc., an organization offering support and services for new mothers, is leveraged to identify two conditions under which employee resistance may arise and undermine successful commercialization. This article contributes to sociological understandings by theorizing the important role of employees in commercialization and to organizational theory more generally by specifying conditions under which decoupling may be difficult to achieve. 2014-06-30T17:23:48Z 2014-06-30T17:23:48Z 2012-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 00029602 15375390 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88138 Turco, Catherine. “Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings.” American Journal of Sociology 118, no. 2 (September 2012): 380–419. © 2012 The University of Chicago Press https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0216-8689 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/666505 American Journal of Sociology Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf University of Chicago Press University of Chicago Press |
| spellingShingle | Turco, Catherine Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings |
| title | Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings |
| title_full | Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings |
| title_fullStr | Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings |
| title_short | Difficult Decoupling: Employee Resistance to the Commercialization of Personal Settings |
| title_sort | difficult decoupling employee resistance to the commercialization of personal settings |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88138 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0216-8689 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT turcocatherine difficultdecouplingemployeeresistancetothecommercializationofpersonalsettings |