MAKING SENSE OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: NARRATIVES OF DE-INSTITUTIONALIZATION.

This study examines changes in housing for the developmentally disabled. We look at what happens to the institutionalized practices in a public agency, the State Department of Developmental Disabilities (SDD), as it changes its core technology. The events we trace in this paper were precipitated by a landmark court decision, which declared that the SDD could no longer house the developmentally disabled in campus-like facilities. Over 25 years, the SDD moved the developmentally disabled population, many thousands of individuals, from campus-style residences to community homes. We use the metaphors of keying, improvisation, and reprise to elaborate three organizational change narratives during this period. These narratives are used to illustrate how the pace and depth of institutional change are contingent on the sensemaking context. Our findings are based on participant observation, interviews, and archival material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]