Managing the Process of Decentralization : Transforming Old Public Entities into New Agencies in the Agricultural Sector

In an effort to reconfigure the system of delivery of agriculture services, the Regional Government of Sardinia in Italy decided, in 2006, to suppress five public entities and to establish, in their place, three regional agencies. Based on interviews conducted with managers and staff of these agencies, this paper narrates the episode of implementing the organizational restructuring of this part of the regional government's agriculture policy. Drawing from this case, this paper presents explanatory research arguments about the process of carrying out organizational transformations (namely, de-mergers and mergers) within sub-national governments' administrative systems. The research found that features of organizational interventions and context conditions figure prominently as explanatory factors for the trajectory and outcome of the implementation of the organizational restructuring. On the whole, the research argument made in this paper suggests some qualifications of extant generalizing arguments about the management of organizational transformations in the public sector