This chapter summarizes and draws some implications from the study of finance agencies. The first section is a recapitulation of key empirical results. The bearing of these results on organizational theory is discussed in the second section; some implications for the management of public agencies are drawn in the third section; and directions for sociological research are sketched in conclusion.

Recapitulation of empirical results

Causal patterns in ongoing agencies

A number of empirical results have been presented so far, and a summary of them might help buttress the argument developed in Chapter 1, namely that public bureaucracies are considerably more open to their environments than stereotypes would suggest. Figure 9 depicts relations among variables describing finance agencies and quantifiable elements in their environments for the jurisdictions where reorganization of the finance function did not occur. The causal relations among these variables can be described as follows:

Effects of demand. As Figure 9 indicates, the measures of environmental demand often have a negative effect on the size of finance agencies and on the number of divisions and sections in them. The effects of environmental demand are greatest under conditions of leadership turnover and dependence on higher authority; and they are nearly absent where leadership has been stable in the past and has autonomy. At the same time, demand stimulates formation of agencies with fiscal functions outside of the focal finance departments studied. It should be noted that the negative effect of demand on size (and structure) of finance agencies over time is generated by deteriorating positive correlations of size with demand.