DIFFUSION OF STANDARDS: THE IMPORTANCE OF SIZE, REGION AND EXTERNAL PRESSURES IN DIFFUSION PROCESSES
| Author | KASPER M. HANSEN,POUL SKOV DAHL |
| Published date | 01 June 2006 |
| Date | 01 June 2006 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2006.00011.x |
Public Administration Vol. 84, No. 2, 2006 (441–459)
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA.
DIFFUSION OF STANDARDS: THE
IMPORTANCE OF SIZE, REGION AND
EXTERNAL PRESSURES IN DIFFUSION
PROCESSES
POUL SKOV DAHL AND KASPER M. HANSEN
Organizational standards or guidelines, although commonly applied in public sector
organizations, are rarely studied systematically. We report insights gained here into
the circumstances present when organizations adopt standards by studying the dif-
fusion of the Common Language Standard (CLS). Neo-institutional organization
theory constitutes the theoretical framework, which highlights the empirical phe-
nomenon that standards occasionally spread extremely rapidly to some – but not all –
organizations within the same fi eld. Empirical evidence from quantitative surveys of
civil servants and elected offi cials in Danish municipalities is used to analyse the fi eld
and organizational levels. The levels of external pressure and organizational re-
sources are important in order to understand why some municipal organizations
have adopted the CLS whereas others have not. We fi nd that the initial source of the
standard as well as regional pressure play a strong role, something which contradicts
other studies indicating that diffusion from organization to organization is more
signifi cant.
INTRODUCTION
Organizational standards occasionally become popular almost simultane-
ously in many organizations ( Røvik 1998 ); however, ‘ the mere existence of
a standard does not guarantee that it will be followed either by individuals
or by organizations ’ ( Brunsson and Jacobsson 2000 , p. 8). This article explains
the processes in which an organizational standard rapidly spreads to many
organizations – though not to all organizations. The empirical focus is on the
voluntary Common Language Standard (CLS), which has existed for just six
years, but has already been adopted by more than 80 per cent of all Danish
municipalities.
The aim of this article is to study the diffusion of standards within the
public sector in Denmark. ‘ Diffusion is the process by which an innovation
is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a
social system ’ ( Rogers 1983 , p. 5). In that sense, ‘ diffusion connotes the
socially mediated spread of some practice within a population ’ ( Strang and
Meyer 1993 , p. 487). Standards express rules informing actors what to do in
Poul Skov Dahl is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science, University of Southern
Denmark, Odense. Kasper M. Hansen is Assistant Professor in Political Science in the Department of
Political Science, University of Copenhagen.
442 POUL SKOV DAHL AND KASPER M. HANSEN
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006 Public Administration Vol. 84, No. 2, 2006 (441–459)
certain situations ( Brunsson and Jacobsson 2000 ). Standards represent a
specifi c type of rule alongside two other types, for example, norms and direc-
tives. Standards differ from norms in terms of their explicitness and by hav-
ing an evident source. At the same time, standards differ from directives in
the sense that standards are not mandatory; rather, organizations can volun-
tarily adopt them or not. Those issuing standards are unable or unwilling to
require others to adopt them, at least by exploiting any formal authority they
may possess. Standards represent a kind of set of guidelines or advice for
others regarding what they ought to do.
The paper begins by accounting for the diffusion of the CLS in the Danish
public sector over a six-year period. We then proceed to explain the processes
in which the diffusion of the standard has appeared by empirically testing
a number of theoretically generated hypotheses on the background of quan-
titative surveys ( Hansen et al. 2004 ). Neo-institutional theory in organiza-
tional sociology is applied to elucidate and discuss the fi ndings. Finally, the
implications of the fi ndings are discussed.
’ LOCAL GOVERNMENT DENMARK ’ AND THE COMMON
LANGUAGE STANDARD (CLS)
The Common Language Standard (CLS) is offered to the 271 Danish
municipalities as a standardized communication tool within elderly care.
From the outset in 1996, the purpose of introducing CLS was twofold
( Lützhøft 1996 ): fi rst, to provide a tool for internal documentation of services
rendered, work planning, resource control and standardized assistance to
the elderly. Secondly, to provide a tool for internal benchmarking between
districts within each municipality and external benchmarking between
municipalities.
CLS was initially created by Local Government Denmark (LGDK), a meta-
organization ( Ahrne and Brunsson 2001 ) which has the Danish munici-
palities as its members. LGDK is usually considered to have three tasks
(Blom-Hansen 2002): fi rst, LGDK lobbies for municipal interests in relation
to the state, thereby playing a particularly important role in annual budget
negotiations between the Minister of Finance and the municipalities. Second,
LGDK is an employer organization negotiating with the different employee
organizations which organize municipal employees. Third, LGDK acts as a
consultancy. We argue that LGDK also plays a fourth role as a standardizer,
that is, the organization establishes rules for its members to follow. In other
words, LGDK is also a ‘ soft ’ regulatory body ( Mörth 2004 ). LGDK has no
legal authority and cannot force its members to follow its rules. Furthermore,
the municipalities are not required to be members of LGDK. At present,
all 271 Danish municipalities are members with the exception of the two
municipalities within the capital of Copenhagen.
The fi rst version of CLS that was ready for adoption was introduced
in 1998 in a LGDK publication (KL 1998). Between 1996 and 1998, the CLS
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