Flowing with the Current and Making Waves: A Model of Personal Control and Institutional Migration

We develop a theory of institutional migration based on the basic human motive to achieve personal control—the expectation that one’s actions will yield predictable outcomes. We propose that institutionalized action supports personal control, and that individuals migrating to a new institutional domain therefore suffer a personal control deficit. Institutional migrants are hence motivated to reestablish personal control through dual pathways: transposition of their previously acquired institutional knowledge (primary control) and internalization of the institutional rules of their new environments (secondary control). These pathways are moderated by a set of individual and institutional characteristics, respectively. A personal control perspective thus illuminates a crucial moment in institutional dynamics and augments the psychological grounding of institutional accounts.