03 Sep Paragraph 4 – Bureaucratic
What are your reflective viewpoints about bureaucracy? How and why does it make sense to you? Can you see the bad and good points associated with this form of governance?
For topic reference:
As organizations become larger and more complex, shared decision making, for example, becomes untenable giving rise to bureaucracy as being a more logical way of organizing and dealing with leadership-followership matters. Imagine bureaucracy as being a very large impersonal place. It is no longer warm and fuzzy but cold and unforgiving.
Here are some characteristics of the Bureaucratic Theory.
- Basic Image: A mean, cold machine. Red tape. Procedures are impersonal and mechanical. Unitary and governed by an abundance of rules and regulations. Hierarchical. Standardization. All positions are scientifically analyzed and there is a clear division of labor. Christmas-tree organizational chart. There are clear and scientific understanding of organizational goals and how resources are converted into clear processes or activities to accomplish goals.
- Basic Foundations: Theory X; classical scientific managerial approaches (Taylor [father of scientific management], Weber, Fayol, Gulick, and Urick).
- Process of Decision Making: Specialized and/or rationalistic by following formal rules and regulations. There is aa clear chain of command and everyone is expected to follow it.
- Concern for Change: Minor
- Conflict Resolution: Conflicts are considered abnormal and controlled by bureaucratic or formalized rules and regulations. There is a set of prescribed sanctions and rewards.
- Sources of Power: Mostly legitimate. The higher up in the hierarchy, the more the power. In other words, rank and prestige are synonymous with each other, which is usually not the case in other organizational theories.
- Role of Leaders: Administer, manage, or lead by formal rules and regulations. Human satisfaction aspects of subordinates or followers are considered peripheral, not important, and therefore ignored.
- Role of Followers: Expected to meet defined roles and responsibilities, to follow the chain of command, and to stay in their “lanes.”
- Advantages: The mechanical and formal structures and procedures allow the organization to function even under a crisis or turbulent conditions. There is a sense of organizational fairness due little to no interference from personality or group influence. Everything is scientifically analyzed following Taylor’s principles.
- Disadvantages: The top-down communication prevents reporting and caring of organizational problems due to fear of repercussions. There is no information about the informal structure of the organization, which may be more important than the formal structure. There is no understanding of how policies, rules, and regulations were developed in the first place. It only explains the formal structure at a particular time.
Organizational changes are difficult to address, particularly when existing rules and regulations cannot detect changes that need to be handled. It is unrealistic to assume that in current times with fluctuating and ever changing environmental conditions that a rational thinking will always apply or prevail.
Most organizations, including the profits, have to deal with unclear goals, unclear processes or activities, external influence, non-economic issues, political considerations, social issues, and questionable power of organizational leaders to decide, innovate, or execute decisions based on incomplete or inconclusive information. Human satisfaction of employees, subordinates, and relevant stakeholders is an important axis for ensuring continued organizational survivability and continued progress.
Most modern organizations are no longer in the manufacturing business and many do not have clear processes or goals, yet are expected to “perform” and serve needs of constituents or customers; therefore, there needs to be a better of organizing and leading most modern organizations.
This is not to say Theory X and scientific managerial theories are passé. Indeed, some of aspects of them, particularly those that deal with known workable routines, still need to be maintained and practiced. The idea is this theory cannot be the primary governance principle in modern organizations.
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