The effects of legal versus business education on decision making in public administrations with a Weberian tradition

摘要

We analyse the socialization effects of a university education on decisionmaking in a public-sector context with a Weberian tradition. The results of ourvignette study of 331 law and business students and 155 professionals in Germanpublic administrations show that business students—in contrast to law students—make decisions significantly more in line with private-sector logic. This phenomenon is not observed for professionals. Individuals’ transformations from student to professional status appear to be affected by particularly strong internal andexternal pressures to socialize, which widely neutralizes the differences betweenlegal and business professionals.