ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the analytical frameworks and conceptualisations of organisational, policy-orientated change and success. Change is not inevitable but dependent upon social, economic and political conditions and forces (Judge, 2005: 21). More specifically, the chapter discusses the ‘crisis’ aspects to change alongside the more traditional conceptions of ‘disruption’, ‘perturbations’, ‘critical junctures’, and ‘punctuation’ (Collier and Collier, 1991; Hall and Taylor, 1996; Baumgartner and Jones, 2002; Duit, 2007). Institutions have been largely associated with conservatism and a lack of, or sluggish, rates of change. Yet depending upon political, social, and economic forces, and, indeed, the levels of legitimacy enjoyed by the institution, change can be dramatic, gradual, or change can be described as an evolutionary process:
In relation to the dynamics of policy change, Peter John’s (2012) central argument is that approaches can be linked and synthesised in order to analyse the realities of change dynamics. Cairney (2007) also points towards the advantages of adopting a ‘multiple lenses’ approach. Cairney argues that, inevitably, researchers produce different explanations of change and, thus, multiple or pluralistic perspectives on policy change offer a more complete explanation of policy change.
