When Organizations Rule: Judicial Deference to Institutionalized Employment Structures

This article offers a theoretical and empirical analysis of legal endogeneity-a powerful process through which institutionalized organizational structures influence judicial conceptions of compliance with antidiscrimination law. It finds that organizational structures (e.g., grievance and evaluation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of sociology 2011-11, Vol.117 (3), p.888-954
Main Authors: EDELMAN, Lauren B, KRIEGER, Linda H, ELIASON, Scott R, ALBISTON, Catherine R, MELLEMA, Virginia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Compliance
Compliance (Legal)
Discrimination
Employment
Employment Discrimination
Governance
Indexes (Measures)
Institutionalization
Judges
Judges & magistrates
Jurisprudence
Law
Lawyers
Organizational Structure
Organizations
Sociology
Sociology of law and criminology
Sociology of law and justice
Subordination
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Summary:This article offers a theoretical and empirical analysis of legal endogeneity-a powerful process through which institutionalized organizational structures influence judicial conceptions of compliance with antidiscrimination law. It finds that organizational structures (e.g., grievance and evaluation procedures, antiharassment policies) become symbolic indicators of rational governance and compliance with anti-discrimination laws, first within organizations, but eventually in the judicial realm as well. Lawyers and judges tend to infer nondiscrimination from the mere presence of those structures. Judges increasingly defer to organizational structures in their opinions, ultimately inferring nondiscrimination from their presence. Legal endogeneity theory is tested by analyzing a random sample of 1,024 federal employment discrimination opinions (1965-99) and is found to have increased over time. Judicial deference is most likely when plaintiffs lack clout and when the legal theories require judges to rule on unobservable organizational attributes. The authors argue that legal endogeneity weakens the impact of law when organizational structures are viewed as indicators of legal compliance even in the face of discriminatory actions. Adapted from the source document.
ISSN:0002-9602
1537-5390
DOI:10.1086/661984