Abstract

A person’s social position shapes whether and how they can influence organizational change. While prior research establishes people whose social position combines outsider-ness and insider-ness as important change agents, we know little about how they influence change. We analyse a peer coaching initiative in Canadian hospitals to explain how outsider-insiders — in this case, organizational outsiders with professional proximity—advance change. Peer coaches were able to influence change by establishing and enacting a dual outsider-insider role and associated role expectations. We advance theory by showing that role expectations emphasizing duality that are rooted in social position, but created through social interaction, are a key mechanism by which the potential of outsider-insider social positions can be activated and mobilized to influence change. We advance theory on social position generally by highlighting the potential for integrating a symbolic interactionist perspective—focused on role expectations—into Bourdieu’s theory of fields.

Publication Type:	Article
Publisher Keywords:	This article has been accepted for publication in the journal Organization Studies.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Departments:	Business School > Management
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2020 13:22
URI:	https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/25340

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