Understanding the Organizational Change within Italian Parliamentary Administrations

Parliaments are the institutions through which governments are held accountable to the elec-torate. In any organization work staff is vital. Parliament is no exception. It is difficult to imagine even the most basic of legislative bodies operating effectively without being aided by a support staff administration. Members of Parliament (MPs), as representatives, legislators and scrutinizers of the government, constitute the operating core of the structure. Parliamentary administrations constitute a mini-organization within the structure and provide support and specific services to the organization outside the operating work flow. According to Neo-institutional theory organi-zations tend to model themselves after similar organizations in their field that they perceive to be more legitimate or successful. Institutional pressures may lead organizations to adopt the same organizational arrangements. Mimetic change is considered to be an organizational response to uncertainty. Organizations seeking legitimacy in their institutional contexts change their strate-gies, structures, and procedures in order to imitate other successful organizations. Public organi-zations, if exposed to institutional forces, may adapt and change, seeking legitimacy by conform-ing to institutional pressures. Parliament may select strategy and then tailor the staff structure to fit. The organizational design of parliamentary administrations can be affected by historical-political contingencies and strategic behaviors of the legislature in front of the executive power (Campbell and Laporte, 1981; Ryle, 1981; Blischke, 1981). Mimetic change is considered as an or-ganizational response to uncertainty which appears as the fundamental problem for complex or-ganizations such as parliaments (Fox and Hammond, 1977; Pacelli, 1984), because of the projec-tion of some organizations as more successful than others (Slack and Hinings, 1994). The aim of this paper is to describe strategic and organizational change within Italian parlia-mentary staff according to a historical perspective and elucidate that institutional pressures af-fected over time mechanisms of governance and organization of the support staff. This study relies on archival and qualitative data by a review and analysis of literature on gov-ernance and organization of Italian parliamentary administrations in the fields of law and history (1861-1932) (Bontadini, 1983; Cheli 1983; Chimenti, 1981; Ciaurro 1983; Garella and D’Orta, 1997; Pacelli 1984). Reports and literature let me describe different forms of governance and or-ganizational patterns from a historical perspective. The attentiveness to historical research and perspective in organizational analysis is rising. Historical analyses may urge organization theories to stand the test of a confrontation with historical developments (Kieser, 1994). The appreciation and re-emergence of a historical bent is also emphasized by neo-institutional perspective on ana-lyzing the development of organizations over time in order to investigate endogenous institu-tional change through long-term study (Usdiken and Kieser, 2004; Usdiken, Kipping and Eng-wall, 2011). The paper is organized as follows. In the first paragraph I adopt a Neoinstitutional framework in order to understand the organizational change and design within public sector organizations. In the second paragraph I elucidate characteristics of governance and organization within parlia-mentary administration. In the third paragraph I describe the organizational change of Italian par-liamentary administrations since 1848 to the appointment of the Secretary-General as administra-tive apex within Chamber of Deputies (1907) and Senate of Kingdom (1929). Finally, I draw some conclusions as to the relevance and implications of this study.