Rational Myths and Institutional Logic: Categories for the Analysis of Private Catholic Educational Organizations

Abstract

The aim of the research was to establish the categories of analysis and the theoretical framework of rational myths and institutional logics in the reconstruction of organizational culture and managerial management in a catholic girls' school in Mexico. The research method used was qualitative content analysis, documentary, and observational review for the triangulation of information. Hemerographic records were used to systematize historical data, operational processes and regulations; the field diary, for the recovery of contextual information, and unstructured open interviews for the confirmation or clarification of data. As relevant results, the categories of rational myths and institutional logics were obtained, in addition to the identification of the New Institutionalism as the administrative sociological approach for the analysis of the construction of the educational organization. The discussion highlights that in private Catholic educational organizations, the founding documents, the collaborators, and the relationships between them determine their cultures and behaviors. Administrative science has several theories, schools and approaches that can explain its construction and provide solutions to the different phenomena that occur. In order to answer questions that have their origin in the complexity of human behaviors and decisions, an approach is required that can respond to both objective acts and subjective behavioral ones. In conclusion, it is argued that educational organizations are socially constructed spaces, through objectivities and subjectivities that try to rationalize and institutionalize themselves, but that are ultimately loaded with symbolism and conversational practices.