Institution as a Linguistic Agency: Managing Interests by Encoding and Decoding the Organization Purpose as the Representation of Institution

Abstract

This paper focuses on the linguistic aspect of institution and explores the relationship between institution and actors’ interests. Neither do free individuals create institution nor does institution determine actors’ interests. Institution is a linguistic agency that acts on actors. Therefore, actors find diverse interests by facing the institution. If institution creates diverse interests, institutionalization is associated with political work and can be reworded as management, which is based on power relations. By discussing the linguistic aspect of institution, I propose that institutionalization has a dual nature. While institutionalization is initiated by the encoding representation of language to adjust diverse interests, decoding it creates new diverse interests. In addition, referring to the representation of language paves the way for management to act directly on actors. Based on the theoretical consideration, I examine a case and ascertain a concrete way of management, which could not be derived from the theoretical consideration.