Prof. Katherine Cissel Kellogg

Katherine Kellogg studies institutional change with a particular focus on health care. She examines how professional workers in organizations change institutions by changing their day-to-day work practices in response to shifts in the extra-organizational environment. In order to change their practices, Kellogg finds that professionals must often challenge defenders of the status quo whose expertise, identity, and status depend upon traditional arrangements. Her research shows how institutional change is made through the culturally and politically charged daily contests between organization members as they work to either protect or change their way of life and the persona and authority associated with it.