The Organizational Behavior of Small/Marginal Institutions: The Case of Hispanic Museums

Most historical accounts of museums focus on mainstream or large institutions. However, according to surveys the majority of museums in the United States are of small size.(1) Studies on nonprofit organizations and museums in particular generally predict the disappearance or transformation of smaller or marginal organizations. Yet, small or marginal museums continue to exist, and although some of them fail to survive over time, many are able to endure and develop. Rather than being transformed into mainstream institutions, small/alternative museums continue to perform unique roles.(2)

Latin American museums in the United States belong to this category. According to surveys, all Hispanic museums (a total of 8 in the U.S.) fall in the small/medium categories in terms of budget and staff size. (3) However, despite their size and marginal position, Hispanic museums have an impressive survival rate. More than half of all Hispanic museums were founded more than 20 years ago. Moreover, 5 of 6 Hispanic museums founded between the 1950's and 1970's are still in existence today. (4)

The study of Hispanic museums brings new questions and insights to the analysis of organizational behavior. Why do community/small museums continue to exist and perform a particular role despite their size and marginal position? (5) To what extent do smaller/marginal organizations commit to an identity or transform themselves in order to survive? How do smaller/marginal organizations adapt to environmental conditions? Can smaller/marginal organizations have an impact in the environment?

Organizational theory (i.e. institutional, resource dependency, and population ecology approaches) would predict Hispanic museums to either disappear or be transformed into mainstream institutions. From the perspective of population ecologists, competition and selection in organizational fields eliminates marginal or smaller organizations. (6) Organizational theories such as institutional and resource dependence models also question the mission-commitment character of nonprofit organizations and predict the possible transformation of smaller museums. (7) According to these perspectives, nonprofit organizations may change their goals and orientations over time as a response to internal and external conditions such as: organizational growth, professional, legal, and economic pressures, and field-wide competition. Thus, leaders may alter the goals of an organization in order to conform to the requirements of outside funding agencies (resource dependence theory) or professional standards (institutional theory). Moreover, from the perspective of these theoretical models, field-wide competition for outside resources (as a result of resource dependence or the professionalization and density of organizational fields) contributes to an increase in convergence (decrease in diversity) of organizational types in institutional fields. Researchers have referred to this phenomenon as "institutional homogeneity or isomorphism."

The case of Hispanic museums and museums in general questions and expands these theoretical propositions. Contrary to what organizational theories predict, the professionalization and increasing resource dependence of museums have not brought about an increasing convergence or decrease in diversity within the museum sector which continues to be characterized by the presence of a large variety of museums. The existence of a population of Hispanic museums and other community institutions confirms this point. My study of the first generation of Hispanic museums (the 1969-1975 cohort) has revealed that community/alternative museums generally survive and maintain their original identities and missions over time despite their marginal status, dependency on outside resources, and professional development. According to collected data, the development of the first generation of Hispanic museums has been characterized by a lack of economic and organizational stability. However, despite their financial problems, most Hispanic museums have been able to develop and professionalize with the aid of local (community) support and limited outside funds. The structural forms of these institutions (modeled after professional museums) have become more similar to each other and to those of mainstream museums as they have professionalized. This professionalization has implied two developments: the balancing of the preservation-public missions of these originally public-oriented museums and their expansion to the larger Latin American community as a response to demographic changes and funding pressures.

The unstable and professional development of Hispanic museums has not implied however the transformation of these organizations into mainstream institutions since they continue to be identified as Latin American museums with a primary community-oriented role. Ironically, the marginality and professionalization of Hispanic museums have brought about a strengthening of their particular identities and community roles, rather than their transformation. For instance, the Museo del Barrio increased its community role by becoming a museum of Latin American art since the late 1970's. Similarly, the Cuban Museum is at the present time seeking the support of the larger Latin American community by becoming a museum "of the Americas" and the "exile experience."

The question remains as to what variables have dictated these paradoxical processes. The results of my study suggest that while field-wide factors push toward homogeneity of form, local and internal factors push toward heterogeneity of identity. Hispanic museums respond to the demands of funding agencies and to the standards of professional associations (the American Association of Museums) by modeling their structures after professional museums. Still, the case of Hispanic museums reveals that small organizations are not only resource dependent, but can also become resources (e.g. art resources for other museums, community centers) and create a niche for themselves. By identifying with a unique role within the competitive cultural sector, Hispanic museums create an institutional space for themselves and obtain the support of outside (state, federal) agencies and the community. The case of Hispanic museums suggests that the identities of smaller organizations respond primarily to local conditions such as the local museum sector (its density and diversity ), demographic factors (the population composition of the local context), and the local political and economic support. Moreover, an additional factor that defines the commitment of museums to their original identities is the internal characteristics of these organizations. Museums are centered on collections, an expensive investment that impedes the flexibility of these institutions and contributes to their permanent identities.

The study of Hispanic museums reveals that organizational evolution is a complex process that involves several levels of adaptation to external and internal factors. It suggests that museums do tend to change their structures to a greater extent than their identities. Thus, institutional homogeneity in the museum sector is characterized by a convergence of structure but not necessarily of identity. While institutional (professional, legal, and economic) pressures push toward convergence and homogeneity of structure, local and internal factors push toward diversity of identity. Moreover, the case of Hispanic museums suggests that smaller/ community organizations are not reactive but interactive entities that can have an impact as a group.

Maria-Jose Moreno recently received a PhD in Sociology from Columbia University and has just completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

1. The 1989 National Museum Survey of the American Association of Museums indicated that 80.6 % of all museums in the U.S. are of small size and 12.1% are of medium size (in terms of budget size). Among art museums, 67.2 % are of small size and 17.7 % are of medium size. American Association of Museums, "Data Report from the 1989 National Museum Survey," p.50.

2. By "alternative" and "marginal" museums I mean those museums that are not mainstream in their content. For instance, the term "alternative" describes museums that specialize in non mainstream art forms (e.g. folk art), ethnic groups (e.g. African American museums), or nationalities (e.g. Mexican museums).

3. The list of major Hispanic Museums (primarily art museums) includes: the "Museo del Barrio" (1969), the Cuban Museum of the Americas (1974), the Mexican Museum (1975), the Art Museum of the Americas (1976), the Mexican Fine Arts Center (1987), the Museum of Latin American Art (1996), and the Florida Museum of Hispanic and Latin American Art (1991). The "Fondo del Sol Visual Arts Center" (1973), although not exclusively a Hispanic museum, does exhibit primarily art by Hispanic artists. The "Museo del Barrio" and the "Mexican Fine Arts Center" are medium size museums. The Mexican Museum, originally a medium size museum, is currently going through a fiscal crisis.

4. The Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, founded in New York City during the 1950's, closed during the early 1990's.

5. The adjective "community" refers to those museums that specialize in the study and dissemination of the culture of particular ethnic communities and primarily focus on the organization of public programs.

6. See: Howard A. Aldrich, Organizations and Environments (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979); Michael T. Hannan and John Freemen, Organizational Ecology (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989).

7. See: Walter W. Powell and Paul J. DiMaggio, eds. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1991); Walter W. Powell and Rebecca Friedkin, "Organizational Change in Nonprofit Organizations," in The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, ed. Walter W. Powell (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987).