Organizational CulturesAn International Journal

OntheOrgAnIzAtIOn.COm

VOLUME 13 ISSUE 2

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Pharmacies and Different LogicsJob Advertisements in Sweden, 1903-2013

PETRA ADOLFSSON

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL www.ontheorganization.com

First published in 2014 in Champaign, Illinois, USA by Common Ground Publishing LLC www.commongroundpublishing.com

ISSN: 2327-8013

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Pharmacies and Different Logics: Job Advertisements in Sweden, 1903-2013

Petra Adolfsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract: In this article, changes in the content of the job advertisements of pharmacies are analyzed. The profession in focus in these advertisements is the pharmacist, a profession with a long history. The job advertisements are for positions at pharmacies in a Swedish context between 1903 and 2013. By using a theoretical framework including both new institutional theory and cultural theory, shifts in how pharmacies and professionals are presented can be described. The results indicate that the identities of the organizations in the pharmacy sector simultaneously relate to similar social and cultural dimensions. Therefore, organizational identity and institutional logics seem to evolve dynamically whereby the professional logic seems to be recurrently important while other logics seem to be important to various degrees and for certain lengths of time. In other words, neither organizational identity nor institutional logics are static. Instead, different constellations of logics are fashionable at different periods of time, which legitimizes certain ways of presenting the pharmacy.

Keywords: Pharmacy, Job Advertisement, Institutional Logics

Pharmacy and Pharmacists in a Constantly Changing Field

he pharmacy is an organization with a long tradition in many countries throughout the world. However, the work that is performed and the legal basis both differ, not only between countries but also over time (e.g. Anderson 2002). The former task of the

pharmacist as not only the distributor of pharmaceuticals but also the producer has more or less disappeared from the pharmacy sector since the industry expanded at the beginning of the 1900s. This meant that the former scientific base of their professional knowledge was threatened; instead, a pressure has emerged to perform other tasks such as marketing and sales (e.g. Birenbaum, 1982; Morgall and Almarsdóttir 1999). However, recent studies indicate that a restoration of the former task of compounding, mixing various substances, can be a part of their reprofessionalization (Giam, McLachlan and Krass 2011) as well as the expanding of their professional role closer to medicine-related work done at hospitals, or as prescribers (e.g. Pojskic et al. 2011). The challenging environment of the pharmacy and the pharmacist makes this sector an excellent example for studying changes to the institutional and cultural dimensions of the organizations in this field.

The organizational field of the pharmacy might be a good example of a business fitting the description of institutional complexity (Greenwood et al. 2011). As shown by Goodrick and Reay (2011), in their longitudinal study of pharmacies in the United States, the work of the pharmacist seems to be affected by several logics. The implication of their study is interesting. Instead of seeing an organizational field in terms of being dominated by only one logic, or one set of social and cultural dimensions, affecting meaning and behavior, the authors suggest that pharmacy can be seen as a field wherein constellations of logics are at play, competing and/or cooperating sets of social and cultural dimensions. The professional work of the pharmacist is changing in relation to these constellations, leading to work which can incorporate two or more logics or which can be divided in order to handle logics separately. The study presented here will draw on these results and explore the extent to which constellations of logics can be used in a European pharmacy setting, more specifically a Swedish historical, cultural, and social context. The study takes its point of departure in recent academic discussions regarding the possibility of combining the concepts of institutional logic and culture (e.g. Schultz 2012; Hatch and Zilber 2012). In

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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

doing so, the aim is to contribute to this field of research by focusing on how we can explore and understand, in a historical perspective, the interrelationship between institutional logics and organizational identity in an organizational field with long traditions, but also complexity in the sense that several logics seem to be in play.

The studies of pharmacy, including the concept of organizational culture, are limited but some recent ones indicate a growing interest in such cultural dimensions (e.g. Scahill, Carswell and Harrison 2011; Jacobs, Ashcroft and Hassell 2011). In using a dynamic, rather than static, view of cultural dimensions, the results will contribute to the field of pharmacy research by showing the dynamic relationship between the field and the organizational level in a historical perspective. Based on the analysis, historical differences in how pharmacies are presented are shown by using the concept of identity. The study presented here will describe and analyze how changes in the identity and culture of pharmacy can be understood as various combinations of historically shifting logics. In understanding how pharmacies, and the profession, have changed over time in terms of being a part of contexts wherein dominant logics vary, a qualitative and inspired media analysis is used. Going back as far as 1903, it is shown how the pharmacy and the profession of the pharmacist, and their social and cultural context, are presented in job advertisements.

This study is limited to a Swedish context. Earlier studies of pharmacists in Sweden have also shown similar trends to those mentioned above. Malmstig (2001, 2004) says that it was a major change to go from independent pharmacies to a state-owned monopoly at the beginning of the 1970s, something which turned pharmacists into civil servants instead of employers or employees in a small business context. Additionally, even during the monopoly, financial changes in the public sector forced the profession and the pharmacy chain to focus more on selling and on financial targets. Some pharmacists found that trend difficult to handle as it forced them to expand their sales of self-care products. Recently, in 2009, Sweden’s pharmacy sector again underwent major changes, going from a state-owned monopoly chain to a deregulated market where parts of the state-owned company were sold off, resulting in new (national and international) private owners alongside the remaining parts of the state-owned company. However, as mentioned above, these recent events constitute only one change among many occurring in the field over the last century (Lilja 1987; Claesson 1989).

This article is arranged as follows. The introduction includes a description of previous studies of pharmacy and the pharmacist as a professional. The following section presents some relevant theoretical concepts that will be useful when analyzing historical changes to the profession based on the content of job advertisements. After that, some notes on methods are presented. Then, the content analysis of the materials, the job advertisements, is presented. The last section discusses how the material can be interpreted on the basis of previously described theoretical concepts and includes some concluding remarks.

Institutional Logics, Culture, and Organizations

Organizational fields are described as having common mindsets or arrangements of logics that are situated in a certain institutional order at the societal level. These fields can be seen as “structured relationships between organizational actors, bound together by a common meaning system, currently conceptualized primarily as an institutional logic” (Hinings 2012, 99). The historical contingency is important. The concept of institutional logic has been central to institutional theory, highlighting the importance of the social and cultural dimensions when it comes to shaping the actions of social actors by providing rather taken-for-granted material practices, vocabularies, identities, and cultural symbols (e.g. Thornton, Jones and Kury 2005). Institutional logics provide rules and thoughts of appropriateness that make certain actions or solutions legitimate within a field, in doing so reflecting the setting wherein organizational

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culture evolves in an ongoing process (e.g. Thornton, Ocasio and Lounsbury 2012). These multiple logics may “operate as sub-cultures” in an organizational setting (Hinings 2012, 99).

Traditionally, institutional logic studies showed us how a field had a dominant institutional logic, but recently, studies have revealed the rather complex process of relationship between logics, describing them as multiple logics, conflicting logics, and constellations of logics (e.g. Hinings 2012). The institutional logics often referred to in studies include market logic, corporate logic, family logic, state logic, and professional logic. The ideal type of corporate logic entails work being organized according to routines and control mechanisms set by a hierarchical managerial setting. The state logic entails work and knowledge being controlled by the state and not the desires of the professionals themselves. The market logic emphasizes competition and customer choice. The professional logic is based on abstract knowledge that guides the professionals’ work and relationships. But variations also exist, e.g. care logic and scientific logic when describing the field of medicine, meaning that, within a profession, several logics co-evolve (Dunn and Jones 2010).

Studies of institutional logics have focused on identifying the logics underpinning field-level institutions, but also on how these logics are historically contingent. Moreover, these logics are not static; they influence both individual and organizational practices and identities. This means that organizations direct their attention towards specific conventions and principles in a specific time and space. However, recent studies also emphasize the reverse process whereby the actions of organizations and individuals may also have an effect on changes to institutional logics and their interrelationships (e.g. Thornton et al. 2012).

This raises the following question: How we can relate these changes to organizational culture? Schultz (2012, 102) suggests that we might see “organizational culture as a source of positioning towards institutions”. The study presented in this article is based on printed material from more than a hundred years ago; however, the job advertisements to be analyzed do not provide the stories or accounts needed in order to say a lot about the changes to organizational culture and practices. Rather, they represent materialized accounts of how the organization presents itself. Therefore, the concept of organizational identity is better suited to analyzing this material in order to understand the historical changes to pharmacy. Identity and culture are both developed through processes of interaction or by comparison with others, e.g. other organizations in the field (Grandy and Mavin 2012, Schultz 2012). Whetten (2006, 228) says; “not all institutionalized organizational features qualify as identity referents, but all identity referents must be institutionalized features of an organization”. Identity can be both common and independent among actors and constitutes an important concept when studying institutional change (Goodrick and Reay 2011). As stated by Ravasi and Schultz (2006:, 434); “organizational identity resides in collectively shared beliefs and understandings about central and relatively permanent features of an organization”; however, these shared understandings can be renegotiated. These authors emphasize that organizational identity can be understood in relation to both organizational image and cultural practices and artifacts, entailing that materials such as advertisements and products can be important dimensions of renegotiating identity. In the process of making sense of rather superficial organizational dimensions (identity), cultural norms are relevant (ibid). Nevertheless, this does not mean that identity is something that management can easily direct. Instead, the relational dimension of the concept emphasizes the difficulty, facing anyone, of controlling its content and development. It is, rather, a constantly ongoing process involving actors both inside and outside the organization (Grandy and Mavin 2012, Kärreman and Rylander 2008).

To sum up, institutional logics and organizational culture are not static; rather, recent studies of both institutional logics and culture emphasize the importance of understanding the dynamics of, and between, the concepts and thus focus on change rather than stability as a point of departure. Recent research shows the importance of being open to the possibility that logics can be at play even though some of them are not being as extensively used as others, for the time

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being. While institutional logics are used as a concept representing the field level, organizational identity is used for the organizational level. These are used in order to understand shifts in the longitudinal empirical data.

A Note on Methods

In order to understand the historical changes undergone by pharmacists, a qualitative media analysis has been used. The material is a trade magazine that has been around for more than a hundred years, under different names and in different guises. Today, its name is Svensk Farmaci, but it has also been called Farmacevtisk Revy.

The material was collected by searching for job advertisements in all numbers of the trade magazine in the volumes of every decade between 1903 and 2013. The presence of job advertisements has varied considerably over the years. This means that, for example, in 1953, there was only one job advertisement while other years had many. A lack of positions and wartime etc. seem to have influenced the number of job advertisements.

Also, during the period when Apoteket AB was the only pharmacy retailer in the country, there was a change in the way vacancies were announced. The company made lists of positions and these were published separately, first on paper and then on the web, with only a few of them being in the magazine, mostly more senior positions at pharmacies. In recent years, there have been fewer job advertisements in the trade magazine for pharmacies. Job advertisements are now mainly on the Internet and thus the advertisements representing 2013 come from there. The same trend can be seen in a new pharmacy sector magazine (Dagens Apotek), which was launched when deregulation was initiated. When the job advertisements for 2013 were collected in July 2013, two of the largest pharmacy companies, one of them being Apoteket AB, had no advertisements in the trade magazine, or in the new pharmacy magazine. Instead, these two major pharmacy chains have been posting positions on their websites. It was also noted that many pharmacy companies posted job advertisements on their own websites as well. In other words, today, many job advertisements are to be found on the web. The large chains even have job and career coaching advice on their websites, besides job advertisements. Due to this trend of moving information away from the magazine and onto the website, the material from 2013 has been collected from the websites of the trade magazine and of the new pharmacy magazine, as well as the websites of the two largest pharmacy chains. On July 5th 2013, job advertisements were retrieved from the websites of two magazines (2 from www.svenskfarmaci.se and 29 from www.dagensapotek.se), as well as from the two largest pharmacy chains (47 from www.apoteket.se and 32 from www.apotekhjartat.se), totaling 110.

Inspired by Martin and Turner (1986), the initial analysis was done with an openness to empirically-based patterns. Subsequently, the job advertisements were analyzed on the basis of the conceptual framework presented above, including institutional logics, organizational culture, and identity. The field material is presented in the next section and the general pattern of the material is presented and supported using explicit examples from the job advertisements. Citations have been translated by the author. The job title prescriptionist refers to one of two types of pharmacist in Sweden. Contemporary pharmacists, do 5 years at university while prescriptionists do 3.

There are some restraints regarding the collected material which are important to highlight. Firstly, the analysis is only based on advertisements relating to work at pharmacies. The trade magazine also includes some job advertisements that are posted by employers other than pharmacy companies (chains or independent). This limitation in the selected job advertisements is based on the fact that the aim of the paper is to enhance our understanding of the development of institutional logics and organizational identities within the pharmacy and not the employment of pharmacists in general. Secondly, the fact that the job advertisements for 2013 are taken from the web, as described above, may make the material a little inconsistent. However, this

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broadening of sources is based on the fact that the trade magazine and the other magazines are transferring some parts of their information distribution to the web.

Job Advertisements

The Early Days – Qualifications are All There is to Know

One feature of the material from the early 1900s is that both parties place advertisements, both the employer and the jobseeker. The organization behind the trade magazine has a placement service and job advertisements are part of that service. A vital part of the content of job advertisements is qualifications and these are used by both jobseekers and employers. Here are two examples showing qualifications as the central part of what is being presented:

Graduate pharmacist seeking position immediately. Limited requirements. Contact the editor for further instructions. (Jobseeker, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1903, appendix. Bold part also in bold and in a larger font in original.)

Position as an analyst for knowledgeable and interested graduate pharmacist. Information about salary requirements and seniority to be sent to Pharmacy Gripen, Stockholm. (Employer, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1903, appendix. First bold part also in bold and in a larger font in original, second bold part is the name of the pharmacy, also bold in original.)

Besides qualifications, some other words marking expectations on the jobseeker are sometimes included in job advertisements. This can also include descriptions of the jobseeker him- or herself as quick. The following citation shows one example where an employer is looking for a graduate who is decent:

For an orderly and decent graduate pharmacist who has good references and has completed his military service, a position as a prescriptionist is available from July 15th at Piteå pharmacy J. A. Hedenlund. (Employer, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1903, appendix. Bold part also in bold in original)

The salaries of pharmacy employees at this point in time, the early part of the 1900s, are absent from job advertisements, with some very limited exceptions. A jobseeker can, for example, state “limited requirements”, as we can see in the example above. When describing the person that the pharmacy is looking for, the gender of the future employee is sometimes mentioned. Gender can also be a part of the description of the jobseeker when he/she has placed an advertisement. Age can also be stated, but this is quite rare. The following example shows an exception to this, while the next citation shows an example of how gender is stated as a requirement:

Candidate, youngish, skilled, permanent employment from June 1st or at some other time at Pharmacy Kronan in Ängelholm. (Employer, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1943, number 9, 136. Bold part also in bold and in a larger font in original.)

Permanent employment or temporary post for licensed pharmacist, will consider male pharm. kand. at pharmacy in Gislaved. (Employer, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1943, number 23, 380. Bold part also in bold and in a larger font in original.)

To sum up, during the period 1903-1953, most job advertisements are very brief, stating the level of education of the potential employee or the jobseeker. Sometimes, requirements are

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included, e.g. gender and age, and whether or not the person is skilled in general terms. In other words, the professional is in focus. However, specifications of duties are rarely mentioned. Neither the pharmacy nor the employer is described at all, or mentioned by name, with no more information being given regarding the organization wanting to attract a new employee.

The Independents Become a State-owned Chain - Some Dimensions are Added

As we can see above, the organization was rather invisible during the early decades of the 1900s. We now continue to the period of time when the independent pharmacies, based on charters awarded to individual pharmacists, are transformed into a single state-owned pharmacy chain. In 1963, almost ten years prior to monopolization, job advertisements are a little bit longer in general. They also include more information than previously. The pharmacy, as an organization searching for a new employee, sometimes includes a few words about its facilities. This can be either accommodation arrangements or the location of the pharmacy. Gender and jobseekers’ advertisements are not common anymore, instead being an exception to the rule. Below is an example of a job advertisement that includes details about the location. It is one of the few job advertisements that does not state the qualifications of the prospective employee. However, the area and the possibility of accommodation arrangements are described as attractive:

Summer temp wanted. Two rooms and a kitchen, bathroom, and large garden. Lake nearby. Access to rowboat. Beautiful area. THE PHARMACY IN THE TOWN OF NORA. Hans von Elern. (Employer, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1963, number 7, 144. Bold part also in bold and in a larger font in original, capital letters in original.)

The location and the facilities are mentioned in some job advertisements, as is the name of the manager and sometimes also a phone number. Another dimension presented in some cases is a few words indicating what duties the position entails or the working hours:

Position as shop steward for LIC. PHARMACIST available at pharmacy in SKELLEFTEÅ. Hospital pharmacy, hospital inspections. Family housing can be arranged. Further information through the pharmacy owner. Tel. 111 91. (Employer, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1963, number 24, 524. Bold part also in bold and in a larger font in original, capital letters in original.)

Lic. pharmacist wanted as SUPERINTENDENT of BRANCH OPERATIONS GYLLENE AXET in LINKÖPING. The service includes sterile manufacturing and chemical water monitoring (Competency can be arranged for later on). Hans Lundh Pharmacy Vasen, Linköping. (Employer, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1963, number 24, 524. Bold part also in bold and in a larger font in original, capital letters in original.)

The trend of stating the duties seems to be more important once the period of monopolization has been initiated. In 1983, the trade magazine generally has job advertisements for more senior positions. These are often presented in a joint advertisement, sometimes with common instructions regarding how to proceed as a jobseeker, last day of application, rules governing salaries, which application form to use, and where to send it etc. After this, the positions are listed. The example below includes a part of a job advertisement that not only states the duties but also some suitable but non-mandatory qualifications. These qualifications relate both to professional education levels and experiences and to personal abilities:

PHARMACIST… The pharmacy is a Group Manager pharmacy with a yearly expedition volume of 68,000 recipe to hospital establishments and 53,000 recipe to the public. A new hospital is under construction in Norrköping, and planning for pharmacy

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facilities is ongoing. Duties – being deputy pharmacy manager;undertake planning activities, managing and participating in ongoing work; being personnel manager, participating in information and training, being on the pharmaceutical and hygiene committees. Suitable qualifications: Pharmacist degree (scientific postgraduate studies as well), having the power of initiative and good stylistic abilities. Experience of the pharmacy sector or hospital pharmacies is a merit. More information from pharmacy manager Ove Rosén, tel. 011 187317. (Apoteksbolaget AB, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 198, number 2, 18. Bold part also in bold and in capital letters in original, italics in original. Duties listed in original.)

In 1973, when the monopoly Apoteket AB (initially called Apoteksbolaget) had just started its operations, job advertisements looked very much the same as they did in 1983. More or less the same texts were presented regarding duties, but stating other personal or professional dimensions is rare. In a job advertisement, some general requirements are stated regarding the position of pharmacy manager (several manager positions are listed in the same advertisement grouped by region):

…A suitable applicant for position of pharmacy manager is a pharmacist orprescriptionist with at least one year of noteworthy service at either a pharmacy or a hospital pharmacy, or equivalent qualifications. (Apoteksbolaget AB, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1973, number 3, 77.)

The descriptions of other dimensions, e.g. salaries and benefits, were also similar and stated that salaries and benefits would be in accordance with collective wage agreements. However, in 1973, the shift from independents to a monopoly is present in the advertisements with regard to pensions, for example:

…For former pharmacy owners in new pharmacy managerial positions, however,special terms regarding pensions will apply. (Apoteksbolaget AB, in Farmacevtisk Revy, 1973, number 3, 77.)

To sum up, during the period before and after the monopoly Apoteket AB came into being, some dimensions of job advertisements changed compared to the early part of the century. For example, the name of the pharmacy owner or manager was stated more frequently. Also, professional duties were seldom mentioned at the beginning of the century; however, these were presented to some extent in the 1960s and that trend intensified during the monopoly. The location of the pharmacy and facilities such as housing were mentioned in the 1960s, but such details of individual pharmacies more or less cease to exist when the monopoly starts. Instead, lists of positions were grouped by region by Apoteket AB.

Many Dimensions are Communicated

As we can see above, individual pharmacies were not presented in detail in the lists of positions published by Apoteket in the late 1900s. At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, there is another shift regarding job advertisements. The web has taken the stage and the trade magazine Apoteket has advertisements saying that vacancies can be found on the company website. In 2013, after deregulation, this change becomes manifested. Some job advertisements are still being published in the magazine; however, almost all jobs at pharmacy retailers are being published on the magazine website. The situation is similar for the new pharmacy magazine which started up at the same time as deregulation was initiated. However, the new pharmacy retailers and the former monopoly retailer Apoteket have websites of their own on which they

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also publish their vacancies. The job advertisements on the pharmacy retailers’ websites and on the magazines’ websites are very similar in content.

In the examples, few differences can be identified from previous periods. The trend of presenting duties is still present, with this part of the job advertisement becoming more descriptive and detailed. The statement regarding qualifications, e.g. education and professional experience, is still present and has also evolved. Considerable changes seem to relate firstly to dimensions regarding personal experience and qualifications and secondly to how the organization is presented. Starting with personal experience and qualifications, the job advertisements from 2013 include formulations, often of only a few lines, that describe how an employee should be and act. These descriptions often relate to demeanor vis-à-vis the customer. The employee is expected to be interested in his/her dialog with the customer. An interest in selling products that satisfy customer needs as well as in sales is prominent, the latter seeming particularly essential for managerial positions. The following two examples are taken from two different pharmacies and two different pharmacy chains. The first example is a managerial position for a mid-sized chain which was recently acquired by one of the larger chains. The second example is also a managerial position, at one of the large chains:

… We are looking for a lic. prescriptionist or a lic. pharmacist with good leadership and communication skills, who has an interest in economics, wants to create good customer relations, wants to make LloydsApotek the best pharmacy and the first choice of the customer, and who wants to meet our customers’ needs for a professional level of service… (Employer LloydsApotek, 2013. Bold part also in bold in original. Statements listed in original. Accessed July 5, 2013. http://www.dagensapotek.se)

… What we are searching for in you … being successful in your work makes you ambitious and interested in leadership and the business mindset. You are effective, full of initiative, target- and result-oriented, and you see operations from a holistic perspective… (Employer Apotek Hjärtat, 2013. Bold part also in bold in original. Accessed July 5, 2013. http://www.apotekhjartat.se)

If we move on and focus on how the different organizations present themselves, and what they stand for, both similarities and differences can be found. The similarities relate to the fact that the organizations want to satisfy both their employees and their customers, which the above examples concerning managerial positions show. However, the personality and competence of the employee, in general, are put forward as important in order to fulfill the needs of the customers and to generate profits. Here are two examples that show how employees are expected to be, highlighting the importance of being result- and customer-oriented:

Competence requirements You are a lic. prescriptionist or pharmacist with good pharmaceutical knowledge and a genuine interest in selling. You see your primary task as giving professional advice and individual service on the basis of each customer’s individual needs. You participate actively in order to grow the business and for the pharmacy to meet its targets. (Employer Apoteket, 2013. Bold part also in bold in original. Accessed July 5, 2013. http://www.apoteket.se)

Your profile You are an outgoing pharmacist who is most at home when working closely with the customer and in a varied environment, with duties which involve giving advice and selling. Being committed and independent as a person means that you can take the initiative and find new opportunities for improvement. Additionally, you work as well on your own as you do in a group and you appreciate a fast pace and being a part of large customer flows – a natural part of working at a pharmacy adjacent to a large

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supermarket. (Employer Cura, 2013. Bold part also in bold in original. Accessed July 5, 2013. http://www.dagensapotek.se)

Additionally, the pharmacies emphasize that the competence and development of their employees is important, and that they want to be first choice of the customer. However, some differences in how organizations present themselves can also be noted. For example, one of the chains promotes itself as being environmentally-certified while another says that it focuses on prescriptions, skin, and pain. Safety and historical or global dimensions can also be emphasized:

…is a nationwide pharmacy chain with an inspiring range. Our exciting business has itsbasis in sterling knowledge of the pharmaceuticals market, to which our 100 years in business attest … (Employer Kronans Droghandel, 2013. Accessed July 5, 2013. http://www.dagensapotek.se)

…We operate pharmacies manned by competent staff and availability, safety,credibility, and energy are our core values … (Employer Medstop, 2013. Accessed July 5, 2013. http://www.dagensapotek.se)

To sum up, the job advertisements of today indicate that it has become more important for organizations to present themselves, but also to say something about what an employee can expect from an organization, regarding personal experience, as well as how a person should be in order to become part of an organization and fit into its organizational culture. Moreover, job advertisements tend to be longer and are presented on the Internet more frequently. Even though it is outside the scope of this study, it would seem reasonable to relate this to a larger trend whereby the organizations of today are communicating with many different actors in real time and using social media to attract both customers and employees.

Discussion and Concluding Remarks

In the job advertisements, various social and cultural dimensions are included. These include expressions regarding how to act, what to achieve, competence stated as significant, and symbols such as logotypes. The advertisements include what the organization wants to emphasize and present as being important to it, even characteristic of it. Consequently, the job advertisements can be seen as materialized expressions of an organizational identity. One limitation of this study is that all the actions underlying the job advertisements have not been analyzed; therefore, the dynamics and changes occurring over time regarding these micro practices and how they are interwoven with the organization, the organizational culture, and day-to-day practices cannot be explained here. Rather, it is the result of these actions, packaged as organizational identity presentations, and how they change over time, that can be analyzed and explained. This study has revealed how these organizational level changes of identity can be interpreted as reflections of, and as part of, changes on the field level. These field level changes are dynamic ones among the institutional logics. The results show that some logics seem to be more relevant than others during specific periods of time. As presented in previous studies, these logics are present to varying degrees during different periods of time, as shifting constellations of logics (Goodrick and Reay 2011). The changes in the content of the job advertisements can be seen as an expression of how the organizations belonging to the field relate to and manage these constellations of institutional logics. For example, in the early part of the 1900s, the organization was presented in job advertisements using professional terms such as degree and license. The pharmacy owner’s specific objectives and aspirations were not mentioned in relation to many other logics than the professional one since the degree of the jobseeker was stated and sometimes also a general expression regarding skills. The organization is more or less the same as the professional

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practitioner. In other words, during this period of time, professional identity seems more important than organizational identity; expressed differently, the professional identity of the pharmacist is identical to the organizational identity. If you are a trained pharmacist, you will also be able to perform the actions needed to create a good organization, i.e. the pharmacy. During this period, the professional logic seems to be the most relevant one to relate to when communicating identity.

However, identity is not static and, when analyzing how the pharmacies are presented later on, we can see that other social and cultural dimensions have been added. The organization as a part of the society becomes part of the picture, e.g. the providing of housing, and being a part of a good neighborhood. Thus, the professional logic is still important to relate to when presenting the organization; however, identity needs to be related to other logics, too. The pharmacist, the pharmacy owner, not only communicates the importance of professional merits but also shows concern for the family. The organization also acknowledges a family logic, or maybe what Marquis, Lounsbury and Greenwood (2011) refer to as a community logic, i.e. the pharmacy as a part of a local entity.

Once the monopoly has been established, the family and community logics of the job advertisements become lost and are then replaced by impersonal and seemingly standardized lists of positions. The large organization has a standardized procedure and the individual pharmacy’s characteristics are not presented in job advertisements. On the other hand, the organization states very clearly what duties the employee can be expected to perform. This can be interpreted as a burden on the professional logic. However, it can also be seen as an expression of a state logic (or bureaucratic logic) in the form of rather standardized procedures and wages being brought to the fore. Organizational identity has to be in accordance with the expectations of both the professionals and the employees, as well as with the state as the owner.

The recent changes noted in job advertisements seem to be a part of a general trend whereby organizations communicate not only via traditional media but also via the web and, in particular, social media. This study indicates that this has changed the way the organizations are presented in at least two ways. Firstly, the audience has become, at least potentially, more heterogeneous and secondly the content can be much more comprehensive at the same cost. The trade magazine was produced for pharmacists. The job advertisements on today’s websites are most likely produced for pharmacists, too; however, they are also easily accessible to other groups such as owners and customers. There seems to be a need to present the organizational identity with social and cultural dimensions that attract these groups. At the same time, the shift away from a state-owned monopoly towards a more liberal level of regulation regarding the ownership of pharmacies has changed the sector as new actors enter the organizational field. For-profit companies, often large chains, are now part of the field, and managers and other professionals at these companies have experience of other fields, e.g. retailing in general. All these trends are reflected in job advertisements where the constellations of logics that the organizations relate to currently include many logics. Various themes in advertisements can be seen as communicating different cultural dimensions to various target groups, thus positioning themselves in relation to other organizations and other lines of business. The professional logic is still relevant, but the narratives in job advertisements indicate that other logics are now relevant enough to be expressed explicitly. Corporate and market logics are now important when a pharmacy presents itself, since selling and customer satisfaction have become important dimensions. This is not only relevant for the new actors, but also for the former monopoly pharmacy chain. Nevertheless, it can be noted that organizational identity is rather standardized across the chains. Similar expressions and dimensions are mentioned in job advertisements for pharmacies belonging to the same chain, with very few variations.

We can conclude by saying that our understanding of the dynamics and changes in social and cultural meaning in the organizational field can help us understand the historical changes in the way organizational identity is, and has been, presented. When organizations express their

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identity, they relate to the institutional logics of the field. Therefore, organizations tend to present themselves in similar ways in the sense that they draw on the same institutional logics during a specific period of time. Perhaps, we can say that some constellations of institutional logics (Goodrick and Reay 2011) are more fashionable than others and that fashion changes over time, making some logics more relevant in relation to organizational identity than others at a specific point in time (for the concept of fashion, see Czarniawska and Sevón 2005). Organizations need to show that they belong to the field. They do that by showing that the currently fashionable logics are used in their day-to-day practice, and in their presentations of themselves.

Consequently, pharmacies may be seen as hybrid organizations (Greenwood et al. 2011), managing complex settings containing multiple logics and a vast range of actors to relate to; not only other pharmacies, but also other organizations, e.g. those active in medicine. As the results indicate that the pharmacies of today need to satisfy several demands, both from inside and outside the organization, hybrid identities are presented in the job advertisements. Even though it is outside the scope of this study, parallels can be drawn with earlier studies of pharmacy which inform us that day-to-day pharmacy practice is affected by these logics, and vice versa, trying to find ways of managing this by introducing hybrid practices that can include several logics (e.g. Goodrick and Reay 2011, Malmstig 2001). In his studies, Malmstig (2001, 2004) has used observation as a methodology, which provides a deep understanding of practices over a limited time period. Goodrick and Reay (2011) have used mainly historical documents, focusing on the changes to the constellation of logics rather than the relationship between logics and culture. This study is also based on historical documents and tries to emphasize the dynamic relationship between institutional logics and organizational culture and identity; however, it is limited to the cultural expressions presented in job advertisements and does not reveal changes of day-to-day practice as such. Future research may show how various professionals, e.g. pharmacists and human resources staff, interact during the processes relating to job advertisements, per se, and organizational identity, in general.

To conclude, the implication in this study is similar to previous studies showing that neither institutional logics nor culturally-oriented concepts such as identity are static, they are dynamic. This study has been able to show, in a historical perspective, the dynamics that exist between the organizational field, with its changing constellation of logics, and the organization level, with its changes in identity. These results contribute to the field of pharmacy research by showing how dynamic, oriented, institutional, and cultural concepts can be used to enhance our understanding of this rather complex sector featuring many conflicting interests as well as changes in regulations and technology. Such a dynamically-oriented framework can capture the altered relationships between various actors and the intersections where the interests of the state, the companies, the customers, and the professions are inevitably present. For practitioners, this shows the importance of having both processes of recruiting and other work processes that involve many professional interests in order to be successful in communicating cultural dimensions to a wide range of actors and interests. However, it also enhances our understanding of why it can be difficult to be too unique. Using a different constellation of logics than all other organizations in the field can perhaps be difficult. It may require a lot of resources and efforts to explain why other actors should perceive the organization as for example a pharmacy.

The case of pharmacy may also advance cultural theory research by providing an empirical example of a historical account of organizational identity shifts in relation to institutional logics. Here, it become visible that, even though identities can be seen as markers of differences between organizations (what people within the organization say it is that makes the organization unique), they seem to relate to the same constellations of logics and consequently the organizational identities are perceived to be fairly similar. Thus, as an audience, it becomes rather easy to distinguish a pharmacy from other businesses since all pharmacies, at a specific point in time, have identities that are in dialog with the same logics, providing rather similar symbols and vocabulary. In this study, these cultural expressions have been traced within job

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advertisements and further studies would be able to show how various kinds of symbols, and practices, are more commonly associated with certain logics in order to understand changes to, and the interrelation between, organizations and fields.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and supportive suggestions. This study has formed part of a research project funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Petra Adolfsson, PhD: Associate Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

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Organizational Cultures: An International Journal is one of four thematically focused journals in the collection of journals that support The Organization knowledge community—its journals, book series, conference and online community.

The journal explores success factors in the management of organizational culture in responsive, productive and respected organizations.

As well as papers of a traditional scholarly type, this journal invites case studies that take the form of presentations of management practice—including documentation of organizational practices and exegeses analyzing the effects of those practices.

Organizational Cultures: An International Journal is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

ISSN 2327-8013