Interpreting roads in roadless areas : organizational culture, ambiguity, and change in agency responses to policy mandates
By: GINGER, Clare
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ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks : SAGE, January 1998Administration & Society 29, 6, p. 723-757Abstract: This article examines how Bureau of Land Management personnel interpreted roads in the context of wilderness policy implementation. It assesses ambiguity of and change in policy using three frameworks from the organizational culture literature. The frameworks emphasize (a) shared understandings, (b) differences among agency units, and (c) fragmentation within units. The analysis shows how interpretations of roads are shaped by existing understandings and provide opportunities for new understandings to develop. It also shows how policy initiatives can be understood as simultaneously requiring organization-wide change, selective change, and no change. This suggests that using multiple analytical frames is important for understanding the implementation of ambiguous and changing policy
This article examines how Bureau of Land Management personnel interpreted roads in the context of wilderness policy implementation. It assesses ambiguity of and change in policy using three frameworks from the organizational culture literature. The frameworks emphasize (a) shared understandings, (b) differences among agency units, and (c) fragmentation within units. The analysis shows how interpretations of roads are shaped by existing understandings and provide opportunities for new understandings to develop. It also shows how policy initiatives can be understood as simultaneously requiring organization-wide change, selective change, and no change. This suggests that using multiple analytical frames is important for understanding the implementation of ambiguous and changing policy
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