Bureaucratic Entrepreneurship and Institutional Change: A Sense-Making Approach

Abstract

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 campusstyle residences to community homes. We use data from participant observation, interviews, and archival material to elaborate our model of institutional change.