Mapping and Understanding Organizational Change: Ireland 1922–2010

Abstract

Capturing, mapping, and understanding organizational change within bureaucracies is inherently problematic, and the paucity of empirical research in this area reflects the traditional reluctance of scholars to pursue this endeavor. In this article, drawing on the Irish case of organizational change, potential avenues for overcoming such challenges are presented. Drawing on the resources of a time-series database that captures and codes the life cycle of all Irish public organizations since independence, the article explores the evolution of the Irish administrative system since the independence of the state in 1922. These findings provide some pointers toward overcoming the challenges associated with studying change in Whitehall-type bureaucracies.

Keywords:

• agencies
• mapping
• bureaucracy
• organizational life cycle
• politics

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Mary Shayne for undertaking the initial data gathering for this article and to Niamh Hardiman and participants at the ECPR 2011 General Conference in Reykjavik for comments on earlier drafts.

Notes

¹The database is a principal output of a project funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences from 2007 to 2010.

²The UN classification of functions of government (COFOG) categories are also used but are not part of the analysis presented here.