BAEZ, Bien

Bureaucratic entrepreneurship and institutional change : a sense-making approach - oct.2002

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 rom 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 Developmental Disabilities relocated the developmentally disabled population, many thousands of individuals, from campustyle residences to community homes. We use data from participant obeservation, interviews, and archival material to elaborate our model of institutional change