IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v9y2019i2d10.1007_s13412-018-0537-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of leadership in depleting institutional ethos: the case of Scott Pruitt and the Environmental Protection Agency

Author

Listed:
  • Nino Antadze

    (University of Prince Edward Island)

Abstract

By borrowing theoretical insights from institutional theory and environmental and military sociology, the paper examines a relatively unobservable yet deep impact of Scott Pruitt’s tenure as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator: changes in the institutional ethos of the EPA. Institutional ethos refers to the intangible and invisible fabric of the institution—its “spirit”—and implies the interconnection between moral priorities and emotions. The paper argues that Pruitt’s actions have been depleting the value dimension of the institutional ethos by devaluing the EPA’s mission, and depleting the emotive dimension of the institutional ethos by demoralizing EPA employees. The paper adds to the growing literature on the implications of the ongoing changes to US environmental policy and practice under the Trump Administration, and the counter-actions initiated by those opposing the current policy priorities. This paper serves as a call for further empirical research to uncover relatively intangible impacts of the Trump presidency on the EPA and other environmental institutions. More broadly, the paper intervenes in the scholarly discussion about the moral implications of institutional changes, especially ones exerted by political processes, and the impact of these changes on the character and integrity of institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Nino Antadze, 2019. "The role of leadership in depleting institutional ethos: the case of Scott Pruitt and the Environmental Protection Agency," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(2), pages 187-195, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:9:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-018-0537-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-018-0537-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-018-0537-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13412-018-0537-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jessica Hejny, 2018. "The Trump Administration and environmental policy: Reagan redux?," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(2), pages 197-211, June.
    2. Julie Battilana & Bernard Leca & Eva Boxenbaum, 2009. "How actors change institutions : Towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship," Post-Print hal-00576509, HAL.
    3. Richard L. Wallace & Susan G. Clark, 2018. "Environmental studies and sciences in a time of chaos: problems, contexts, and recommendations," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(1), pages 110-113, March.
    4. Monty Hempel, 2018. "AnthropoTrumpism: Trump and the politics of environmental disruption," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(2), pages 183-188, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mahzouni, Arian, 2019. "The role of institutional entrepreneurship in emerging energy communities: The town of St. Peter in Germany," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 297-308.
    2. Richard Hunt & Lauren Ortiz-Hunt, 2018. "Deinstitutionalization through Business Model Evolution: Women Entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa," Chapters, in: Ladislav Mura (ed.), Entrepreneurship - Development Tendencies and Empirical Approach, IntechOpen.
    3. Modell, Sven & Yang, ChunLei, 2018. "Financialisation as a strategic action field: An historically informed field study of governance reforms in Chinese state-owned enterprises," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 41-59.
    4. Elizabeth J. Altman & Frank Nagle & Michael L. Tushman, 2013. "Innovating Without Information Constraints: Organizations, Communities, and Innovation When Information Costs Approach Zero," Harvard Business School Working Papers 14-043, Harvard Business School, revised Sep 2014.
    5. Jayanti, Rama K. & Raghunath, S., 2018. "Institutional entrepreneur strategies in emerging economies: Creating market exclusivity for the rising affluent," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 87-98.
    6. Pandza, Krsto & Ellwood, Paul, 2013. "Strategic and ethical foundations for responsible innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 1112-1125.
    7. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus, 2017. "Entrepreneurship and Institutions: A Bidirectional Relationship," Working Paper Series 1153, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 05 May 2017.
    8. Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
    9. Yuzhuo Cai & Borja Ramis Ferrer & Jose Luis Martinez Lastra, 2019. "Building University-Industry Co-Innovation Networks in Transnational Innovation Ecosystems: Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach of Integrating Social Sciences and Artificial Intelligence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-23, August.
    10. Shih-Chang Hung & Yung-Ching Tseng, 2017. "Extending the LLL framework through an institution-based view: Acer as a dragon multinational," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 799-821, December.
    11. Victoria Johnson & Walter W. Powell, 2015. "Poisedness and Propagation: Organizational Emergence and the Transformation of Civic Order in 19th-Century New York City," NBER Working Papers 21011, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Suyash Jolly & Rob Raven, 2013. "Collective institutional entrepreneurship and contestations in wind energy in India," Working Papers 13-10, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies, revised Nov 2013.
    13. Zec, Dejan & Rüling, Charles-Clemens & Wang, Tao, 2020. "Parliament in action: Drug withdrawals and policy changes in the U.K," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(9), pages 984-990.
    14. Kurikka, Heli & Grillitsch, Markus, 2020. "Resilience in the periphery: What an agency perspective can bring to the table," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/7, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    15. Y. Sekou Bermiss & Benjamin L. Hallen & Rory McDonald & Emily C. Pahnke, 2017. "Entrepreneurial beacons: The Yale endowment, run‐ups, and the growth of venture capital," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 545-565, March.
    16. Darbi, William Phanuel Kofi & Knott, Paul, 2016. "Strategising practices in an informal economy setting: A case of strategic networking," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 400-413.
    17. Macfarlane, Fraser & Barton-Sweeney, Cathy & Woodard, Fran & Greenhalgh, Trisha, 2013. "Achieving and sustaining profound institutional change in healthcare: Case study using neo-institutional theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 10-18.
    18. Babita Bhatt & Israr Qureshi & Suhaib Riaz, 2019. "Social Entrepreneurship in Non-munificent Institutional Environments and Implications for Institutional Work: Insights from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 605-630, February.
    19. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus & Stenkula, Mikael, 2017. "Institutional Reform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Agenda for Europe," Working Paper Series 1150, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 16 Feb 2017.
    20. Hensel, Przemysław G., 2019. "Supporting replication research in management journals: Qualitative analysis of editorials published between 1970 and 2015," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 45-57.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:9:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-018-0537-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.