Why do Organizations Resemble or/and Be Different? A Research on Public Administration Undergraduate Programmes in Turkey

The institutional theory claims that organizations are getting similar to each other over time due to the pressures of the institutional environment. According to institutional theory, organizations become uniform to adapt to the pressures coming from the institutional environment in order to provide legitimacy and eliminate uncertainty. Legislations, professional patterns, legitimacy behaviors to eliminate uncertainty and model large organizations constitutes the environment formed by the institutions within the organizational field. Responses to institutional pressure can sometimes be different from affinity. The organizations can show different reactions to the pressures coming from the institutional environment; it can be compromise, avoid, refuse or transform them. In this study, the responses to pressures coming from institutional environment of the public administration degree programs in Turkey were examined. The study results showed that the public administration undergraduate programs in Turkey are becoming uniform by model organizations and government and due to legal obligations, also they are differentiated through their institutional logic of Western teaching models and demonstrating hybrid and pluralistic image