Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Baez, B.
Right arrow Articles by Abolafia, M. Y.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 12, No. 4: 525-552 (2002)
© 2002 Public Management Research Association

research-article

Bureaucratic Entrepreneurship and Institutional Change: A Sense-Making Approach

Bien Baez and Mitchel Y. Abolafia

University at Albany SUNY

This study develops a model for the analysis of institutional change in public-sector organizations. We use sense-making theory to explore the role of bureaucratic entrepreneurial action in institutional change. Metaphors from music composition illustrate the pace and depth of institutional change. We elaborate this analytic model by examining a major institutional change: housing for the developmentally disabled. The data trace changes in the institutionalized practices of a large state agency as it transformed its core technology. The events we trace in this article were precipitated by a landmark court decision. Over twenty-five years, the Department for Developmental Disabilities relocated the developmentally disabled population, many thousands of individuals, from campus-style residences to community homes. We use data from participant observation, interviews, and archival material to elaborate our model of institutional change


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.