Making the Grade during Pandemic

Early-stage and Late-stage Provisional Institutions

Bibliographic Data

ID2363679
AuthorsAlexander B Kinney (0000-0003-2916-1791, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA, corresponding author), Nicholas J Rowland (0000-0003-2917-578X, The Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, PA, USA)
Year2021
Volume64
Issue5
Pages1012-1031
Publication date2021-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0731-1214 • E-ISSN: 1533-8673
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/07311214211028616
OpenAlexW3182619372
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

This is an article that draws on the institutional work literature about provisional institutions. To date, nearly every U.S. sector has been impacted by COVID-19. To sustain their core missions, highly institutionalized organizations such as universities have had to rethink foundational structures and policies. Using a historical ethnographic approach to investigate records from faculty senate deliberations at 'Rural State University' (RSU), the authors examine the implementation of a temporary grading policy to supplement traditional, qualitative grades spring 2020 during the outbreak. The authors find that RSU implemented a temporary, supplemental grading policy as a provisional institution to momentarily supersede traditional grading as a means to-as soon as possible-return to it. This finding contrasts with the common understanding that provisional institutions operate primarily as a temporary solution to a social problem that leads to more stable and enduring, ostensibly nonprovisional institutions. The temporary grading policy, the authors argue, constitutes a 'late-stage' provisional institution and, with this new lens, subsequently characterize the more commonplace understanding of provisional institutions as 'early-stage.' This contribution has theoretical implications for studies of institutions and empirical implications for research on shared governance and disruption in higher education

Corporate governance · Economic growth · Economics · Higher education · Institution · Management · Political science · Sociology · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Practises and Engagement · Higher Education Research Studies · Law · Public Administration

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