| With a budget of ;Despite the transformation of the EEOC from a legislative cartel to a fully entrenched institution, scholars have neglected to provide a broad understanding regarding how bureaucracies transform from organizations that handle specific tasks for clients to institutions with size, stability, rules, and value beyond the tasks at hand. To determine whether bureaucracies have the potential to emerge as institutions, this dissertation provides a longitudinal study of the emergence and evolution of the EEOC. Through an examination of multiple variables spanning from 1965 to 2010, the institutionalization of the Commission is examined along five dimensions: adaptability, complexity, professionalization, autonomy, and coherence. Findings reveal that, to emerge as institutions, federal bureaucracies must demonstrate an ability to deal with environmental challenges and age, develop complex hierarchical and functional structures, groom a professionalized staff, articulate interest distinguishable from external forces, and foster consensus around their functional boundaries and procedures used to address disputes that arise within their jurisdictions. |
