Theorizing Management Reforms in International Organizations

The starting point for this volume is our still rather limited understanding of management reforms in international organizations, both in theoretical and empirical terms. These deficits are not only linked to a lack of investigations of management reforms in international organizations, but also emerge from the fact that little theoretical attempts have been made in order to link the findings from existing studies to broader and more general theories on organizational change and administrative reform. Against the backdrop of this constellation, it is the central objective of this concluding chapter to elaborate on the extent to which this gap can be addressed on the basis of the articles collected in this volume. The articles within the present volume point indeed to some essential variables and relationships with respect to management reforms in international organizations. Building on the results of the case studies, we attempt to draw some tentative conclusions by formulating a number of crucial hypotheses that not just summarize the added value of our joint effort but bear as we think challenging questions as well as promising potential for further empirical and theoretical research in this area.