Administrative reforms as routines

Administrative reforms are sometimes perceived as dramatic organizational changes solving administrative problems once and for all. In this article, it is argued that reforms reflect organizational stability more than organizational change. Reforms are driven by problems, solutions and forgetfulness, which are all common phenomena in modem organizations. Reforms are also driven by reforms—reforms are highly self-referential. Organizations may have reasons for avoiding reforms, for instance because reforms may increase a preference for values that the organization has particular difficulty in achieving rather than improving performance. Paradoxically, one effective way of stopping reforms is to try to implement them and to propose new reforms, which is a further reason of why reforms are common in organizations.