Foundings and Terminations: Organizational Change in the Norwegian State Administration 1947–2011

Abstract

The article examines organizational change in the Norwegian state administration in the post‐World War II period, based on data from the Norwegian State Administration Database. The main focus is on different types of foundings and terminations of state agencies. The importance of international and national administrative doctrines and party constellations in government for organizational change are analyzed. To some extent, the pattern of change is found to reflect global trends in new public management (NPM) and post-NPM administrative reforms, but national doctrines, party constellations, and agency-specific characteristics like the form of organization and the extent of specialization are also relevant.

Keywords:

• foundings
• terminations
• organizational change
• state agencies