Managerial Frames and Institutional Discourses of Change: Employee Appropriation and Resistance

This paper proposes that the notions of frame and frame appropriation are useful tools for the study of control in organizations, as well as for the analysis of the connection between micro-level discursive activities and wider discourses that enable and constrain such activities. To date, most studies of framing and of wider discourses have proceeded independently of each other. An empirical study of bank employees' accounts of their responses to two different changes introduced by management indicates that employees frame their responses in part according to their individual capabilities and experiences; that employee frames show an alignment with managerial frames and institutional discourses that are unified and reified; and that employee frames exhibit both alignment and misalignment with managerial frames that are open to contestation. The study also indicates that institutional discourses can both constrain and enable employee resistance to managerial frames.