ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the historical literature review and the conclusions from each of the case studies. This part of the study could be regarded as a reflection on the accumulated ‘techniques and clues’2 that have been uncovered about the notion of efficiency in Schön’s figurative swamp which was discussed in Chapter 1. The literature shows that hopes for management reform accompanied the introduction of efficiency principles to the management literature and management practice at the turn of the twentieth century. While it is evident from the literature that the scope and definition of efficiency was incomplete and unsatisfactory from the start, interest in the notion of efficiency was sustained in the management and administrative literature until the middle of the twentieth century.
