000			01202pab a2200181 454500
008			180718b2006 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aRobinson, Scott E.
245			_aPath dependence and organizational behavior: bureaucracy and social promotion
260			_c2006
300			_ap.241-60.
362			_aSep
520			_aA long tradition in public administration describes administrative decision making as incremental. Despite the dominance of incremental models of decision making, few quantitative studies of administrative behavior take the implications of incrementalism seriously. This article introduces two concepts (path dependence and path contingency) to facilitate quantitative models investigating incrementalism in public agencies. The article illustrates the utility of these concepts in model building by analyzing school district promotion policies. The results show that path contingency and path dependence reveal interesting dynamics of promotion standards that traditional analyses would overlook. - Reproduced.
650			_aBureaucracy
650			_aOrganizations
700			_aMeier, Kenneth J.
773			_aAmerican Review of Public Administration
909			_a71674
999			_c71674 _d71674