The Dynamics of Organizational Rules

This article examines the rate of rule founding and the rate of rule change in a university organization in its 100-year history. Organizational learning and institutional theories are used as research guidelines to explore the effects of path dependency, attention allocation, governmental intervention, and historical context on the evolution of organizational rules. The findings suggest that rule founding and rule change follow two distinctive processes. The former largely reflects an organizational response to external crisis and shocks, while the latter is strongly regulated by an internal learning process. Once rules are established, they are path dependent, sensitive to agenda setting, and adaptive to governmental constraints. There is also evidence that rules are institutionalized over time.