Constructing Organizations: The Example of Public Sector Reform

Organization Studies · 2000 · Volume 21 · Issue 4

Abstract

Organizations are socially constructed phenomena. A crucial task for organizational research is to analyze how and why people construct organizations rather than other social forms. In this paper, it is argued that recent public-sector reforms can be interpreted as attempts at constructing organizations. Public-sector entities that could formerly be described as agents or arenas have been transformed into `more complete' organizations by installing or reinforcing local identity, hierarchy and rationality. This interpretation helps to explain important aspects of the reform process.

Keywords

constructing organizations, reform, public sector, new public management, agent, arena

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