Policy-making for industrial competitiveness in Portugal: Patterns of change in a traditional bureaucracy

Abstract

[Excerpt] Introduction: Recent administrative studies of change in organisations have been influenced by the new institutionalism approach to political science and the idea of path dependence (March and Olsen, 1989:167-168; North, 1996:100). The original creation of organisations and the evolution and interaction between organisations and their environment have established the prevailing practices that are institutionalised through rules, norms and procedures. Olsen points out that organisations may be conceptualised as institutions, with a set of rules and routines which “define legitimate participants and agendas, prescribe the rules of the game, and create sanctions against deviations as well as establish guidelines for how the institution may be changed” (1991:131). For instances it is expect to find in institutionalised organisations certain practices and procedures which guide the actions and organise the way units operate and articulate among them internal issues and problems. This institutional framework embodies an organisational culture, and shapes values, beliefs and interests (March and Olsen, 1989:53-55). This is an useful approach to analyse the process of change in a traditional organisation and the persistence of institutional features. The continuity of traditional features can be explain by the concept of path dependence. [...]