Conclusion: Administrative Traditions in an Era of Administrative Change

Abstract

The concept of administrative traditions tends to emphasize the continuities in governing and in the organizational life of the public sector, or the significance of ‘legacy effects’. This persistent nature of public organizations is well known and indeed is virtually a stereotype of the public sector. By looking at traditions in administration, however, we are able to examine not whether individual public organizations are ‘immortal’ (Kaufman 1976) but whether their ways of organizing themselves and their styles of administering programs are enduring. Individual public organizations may come and go, but the underlying way of doing the public’s business may not change as rapidly.