People as Institutions or Why Taylor Swift Rules the World

Abstract

Drawing on Taylor Swift as an example, we propose that people, as individuals rather than as representatives of an office, can become institutions. We propose that an individual can become a focal point around which a distinctive and enduring set of roles and repertoire of interactions across roles emerges, enabling and embodying a distinctive set of values. In doing so, these people together with the role relations around them become institutions. As institutions, they provide an important blueprint for social life for at least some people in a broader society. Our work advances organizational and institutional theorizing by proposing a new mode, individuals, by which institutions, with their attendant values, norms and understandings, can develop and spread.