Amit Nigam

Amit is a Senior Lecturer in Management at the Cass Business School. Prior to Cass, he was an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. He received his PhD in a joint program in management and sociology at Northwestern University, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. His primary research interests include organizational change, institutional change, and the role of professions and occupations in change processes. His research has been published a mix of management, medical sociology, and health services journals including Organization Science, Organization Studies, Academy of Management, Social Science & Medicine, and Medical Care Research & Review.

Qualifications

• PhD, Northwestern University, unknown
• MA, Yale University, unknown
• BA, Wesleyan University, unknown

Memberships of Committees

Leadership roles (e.g. chair), Industry Studies Association - Early Career Development Committee

Memberships of Professional Organisations

• Academy of Management
• Industry Studies Association
• European Group on Organizational Studies

Expertise

Primary Topics

• Management
• Organization Theory
• Qualitative Research Methods

Industries/Professions

health care

Geographic Areas

Americas - North

Research

My research explores two themes: Institutional change and organizational change with particular foci on the role of professions and occupations in change processes and on interpretive or sensemaking processes in change. I've published papers on these topics in various journals, including Academy of Management Review, Medical Care Research & Review & Social Science & Medicine and forthcoming at Administrative Science Quarterly

Research Topics

• How do organizations select routines for change? Drawing on participant observation of a facilitated initiative to increase perioperative efficiency in Ontario hospitals, this work aims to draw on insights from the behavioral theory of the firm to understand how organizations come to select routines for change in organizational search. I am the lead author on this research with Ruthanne Huising (McGill University, Canada) and Brian Golden (University of Toronto, Canada). This manuscript, titled “Explaining the selection of routines for change during organizational search” is currently forthcoming at Administrative Science Quarterly
• How can ‘strangers’, through their interactions with organizational insiders, build insiders’ organizational change capacity? Drawing on the same participant observation study described above, this paper draws on Simmel’s concept of the stranger to develop theory focused on social position and organizational change. It seeks to understand how people who are simultaneously outsiders and insiders can play a recognized role in change processes that leads to enhanced organizational change capacity among insiders. I am the lead author on this research with Esther Sackett (Duke University, USA) and Brian Golden (University of Toronto, Canada). This manuscript, titled “The strengths of strangers: The unrecognized role of outsider-insiders in influencing organizational change processes” is under 3rd review at Academy of Management Journal
• How can career scripts enable individuals to change institutions? This work develops a historical case study of early researchers from diverse academic specialties (e.g. medicine, public health, economics, sociology) who came to create health services research as a distinctive career. Our research examines how career-related actions in having a distinctive career allowed this collection of individuals to ultimately change the larger institutions of the American health care system. I am the lead author on this research with Gina Dokko (University of California, Davis, USA). We are revising this manuscript, titled “Career scripts of institutional entrepreneurs” for resubmission after receiving a Revise and Resubmit at Academy of Management Journal
• How do front-line workers achieve change from within in a public agency? This work develops a historic case study of the transformation of Brazil’s Ministério Publico with the aim of contributing to research on change in the institutions of law and regulation. Complementing research that focuses on top-down and voter-driven change in regulatory institutions, this work aims to develop our knowledge of how front-line regulators can accomplish change from within. I am second author on this research with Salo Coslovsky (New York University, USA). This manuscript, titled “Building state capacity from within: The transformation of the Ministério Publico in Brazil” is under 2nd review at Law & Policy
• How does evidence inform decision-making and change in health services? This is a new collaboration with an emerging group of scholars at City University (School of Health Sciences & Cass) working at the intersection of organizational theory, health services research, and leadership. Together we pulled together a multi-faceted team and developed a research proposal which we intend to submit for funding from the National Institute for Health Research.

Chapter

Nigam, A. and Trujillo, D. (2016). Quantification as a philosophical act. In Mir, R., Willmott, H. and Greenwood, M. (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy in Organization Studies (pp. 525–532). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-46608-5.

Journal Articles (11)

• Nigam, A., Huising, R. and Golden, B. (2016). Explaining the Selection of Routines for Change during Organizational Search. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61(4), pp. 551–583. doi:10.1177/0001839216653712.
• Rotteau, L., Webster, F., Salkeld, E., Hellings, C., Guttmann, A., Vermeulen, M.J., Bell, R.S., Zwarenstein, M., Rowe, B.H., Nigam, A. and Schull, M.J. (2015). Ontario's emergency department process improvement program: The experience of implementation. Academic Emergency Medicine, 22(6), pp. 720–729. doi:10.1111/acem.12688.
• Ocasio, W., Loewenstein, J. and Nigam, A. (2015). How streams of communication reproduce and change institutional logics: The role of categories. Academy of Management Review, 40(1), pp. 28–48. doi:10.5465/amr.2013.0274.
• Vermeulen, M.J., Stukel, T.A., Guttmann, A., Rowe, B.H., Zwarenstein, M., Golden, B., Nigam, A., Anderson, G., Bell, R.S., Schull, M.J., Afilalo, M., Anderson, G., Bell, R.S., Carew, D., Carter, M., Cooke, M., Golden, B., Guttmann, A., Nigam, A., Rowe, B., Rutledge, T., Schull, M., Stukel, T., Vermeulen, M. and Zwarenstein, M. (2014). Evaluation of an Emergency Department Lean Process Improvement Program to Reduce Length of Stay. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 64(5), pp. 427–438. doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2014.06.007.
• Nigam, A., Huising, R. and Golden, B.R. (2014). Improving hospital efficiency: A process model of organizational change commitments. Medical Care Research and Review, 71(1), pp. 21–42. doi:10.1177/1077558713504464.
• Nigam, A. (2013). How institutional change and individual researchers helped advance clinical guidelines in American health care. Social Science and Medicine, 87, pp. 16–22. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.03.006.
• Nigam, A. (2012). Changing health care quality paradigms: The rise of clinical guidelines and quality measures in American medicine. Social Science and Medicine, 75(11), pp. 1933–1937. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.07.038.
• Dokko, G., Nigam, A. and Rosenkopf, L. (2012). Keeping Steady as She Goes: A Negotiated Order Perspective on Technological Evolution. Organization Studies, 33(5-6), pp. 681–703. doi:10.1177/0170840612443624.
• Nigam, A. (2012). The effects of institutional change on geographic variation and health services use in the USA. Social Science and Medicine, 74(3), pp. 323–331. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.07.017.
• Nigam, A. and Ocasio, W. (2010). Event attention, environmental sensemaking, and change in institutional logics: An inductive analysis of the effects of public attention to Clinton's health care reform initiative. Organization Science, 21(4), pp. 823–841. doi:10.1287/orsc.1090.0490.
• Lau, D.T., Banaszak-Holl, J. and Nigam, A. (2007). Perception and use of guidelines and interprofessional dynamics: Assessing their roles in guideline adherence in delivering medications in nursing homes. Quality Management in Health Care, 16(2), pp. 135–145. doi:10.1097/01.QMH.0000267451.78370.d3.

Editorial Activities (12)

• Advances in Strategic Management, Referee, 2013 – present.
• American Sociological Review, Referee, 2013 – present.
• Journal of Management Inquiry, Referee, 2013 – present.
• Strategic Management Journal, Referee, 2013 – present.
• Academy of Management Journal, Referee, 2006 – present.
• Administrative Science Quarterly, Referee, 2006 – present.
• Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Referee, 2006 – present.
• Organization Science, Referee, 2006 – present.
• Organization Studies, Referee, 2006 – present.
• Social Forces, Referee, 2006 – present.
• Social Science & Medicine, Referee, 2006 – present.
• Strategic Organization, Referee, 2006 – present.