Description
A small project on Org Theory and Structure Design
Bureaucracy is dead?
Introduction & Meaning:
Bureau is actually a French word which means "the baize" (a woolen or cotton cloth) used to cover desks. The word came into common usage just before the French Revolution of 1789 and then became famous (or infamous) all around the globe. The Greek suffix kratia means "rule" or "authority." Bureaucracy thus essentially means office rule or the power of the office. A narrow minded person is also loosely called as being "bureaucratic. The word "bureaucratic" means "administrative". A person who devotes his or her work to bureaucracy or whose work includes administrative procedure is called a bureaucrat. Often the word relates to a government employee who follows a specific and inflexible process in overseeing the designation allotted to him. To abide by a set of rules, procedures and paperwork with a formal approach is described as being bureaucratic. Four structural concepts are central to any definition of bureaucracy: ? a well-defined division of administrative labor among persons and offices, a personnel system with consistent patterns of recruitment and stable linear careers, a hierarchy among offices, such that the authority and status are differentially distributed among actors, formal and informal networks that connect organizational actors to one another through flows of information and patterns of cooperation.
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Examples of everyday bureaucracies: ? ? ? ? ? Government Offices Hospitals Schools Court Armed Forces
Characteristics of the Bureaucratic Organization
1. Most employees blame their organization’s "bureaucracy" on senior management. They assume that management must want it, or it wouldn’t be tolerated. 2. Senior managers don’t want or like "bureaucracy" any more than the rest of the employees. The detestable effects of bureaucracy victimize everyone, regardless of level. Senior managers haven’t known what to do to get rid of it. Executives have tried many things to eliminate "bureaucracy," but the "program-of-the-year" approach generally hasn’t worked, because they have been fighting symptoms, not the root cause. 3. The root cause of "bureaucracy" is the organizing model, the "bureaucratic form." Yet, the bureaucratic form is so pervasive that its destructive nature is hardly ever questioned. 4. An organization "bureaucratic" when it has rigid policies and procedures that employees describe as "red tape." 5. when its policies don’t satisfy the customer’s individual situation, and the employees take refuge behind the idea that the policy is the same for all 6. When the organization has standard procedures, policies or practices that seem designed solely for the benefit of the organization and which work to the disadvantage of employees. 7. Each department has its own agenda; departments don’t cooperate to help other departments get the job done 8. There is political in-fighting, with executives striving for personal advancement and power. 9. People in their own department spend much of their time protecting their department’s "turf." 10. People in other departments spend so much time protecting their "turf" that they don’t have time to do the work they are responsible to do.
The major benefits promised by the bureaucratic form
Hierarchical authority promises control and responsibility. 1. Management by rules promises control and consistency An up-focused mission promised that governmental agencies would serve the legislative or executive bodies that formed them. Specialization of sub-units promised accountability, control and expertise. Being impersonal promises objectivity, consistency and equality. Employment based on technical qualifications promises equal opportunity, and protection from arbitrary dismissal promises job security to those who can pass a test and follow the rules.
How to Eliminate, Banish it OR De-bureaucratize
Each organization is different. Each must find its own way through the process. Each will have a different goal. Each will have a different sense of commitment. Each will have a different culture. Each will have different barriers and different advantages.
1. Replace bureaucracy with a more desirable state. So, the change process will be to
move "toward" something better, rather than to "get rid of" the existing state. 2. Get professional help, but do the work yourselves 3. Choose continuous improvement as a strategy 4. Make an assessment of your present situation. 5. Begin collecting employee feedback to drive the change. 6. Train front-line people to work in teams and to implement continuous improvement
7. Gain support of entire management team & take support of non management people
Alternatives to Bureaucracy The four possibilities….
1. The mission-driven organization will have an employee focused mission. 2. Hybrid organizations will make it their mission to achieve customer dazzling service and satisfying product or service quality. 3. The primary measures that define organizational success will be based on employee satisfaction, rather than in-focused measures like profit or funding.
doc_424652270.doc
A small project on Org Theory and Structure Design
Bureaucracy is dead?
Introduction & Meaning:
Bureau is actually a French word which means "the baize" (a woolen or cotton cloth) used to cover desks. The word came into common usage just before the French Revolution of 1789 and then became famous (or infamous) all around the globe. The Greek suffix kratia means "rule" or "authority." Bureaucracy thus essentially means office rule or the power of the office. A narrow minded person is also loosely called as being "bureaucratic. The word "bureaucratic" means "administrative". A person who devotes his or her work to bureaucracy or whose work includes administrative procedure is called a bureaucrat. Often the word relates to a government employee who follows a specific and inflexible process in overseeing the designation allotted to him. To abide by a set of rules, procedures and paperwork with a formal approach is described as being bureaucratic. Four structural concepts are central to any definition of bureaucracy: ? a well-defined division of administrative labor among persons and offices, a personnel system with consistent patterns of recruitment and stable linear careers, a hierarchy among offices, such that the authority and status are differentially distributed among actors, formal and informal networks that connect organizational actors to one another through flows of information and patterns of cooperation.
?
?
?
Examples of everyday bureaucracies: ? ? ? ? ? Government Offices Hospitals Schools Court Armed Forces
Characteristics of the Bureaucratic Organization
1. Most employees blame their organization’s "bureaucracy" on senior management. They assume that management must want it, or it wouldn’t be tolerated. 2. Senior managers don’t want or like "bureaucracy" any more than the rest of the employees. The detestable effects of bureaucracy victimize everyone, regardless of level. Senior managers haven’t known what to do to get rid of it. Executives have tried many things to eliminate "bureaucracy," but the "program-of-the-year" approach generally hasn’t worked, because they have been fighting symptoms, not the root cause. 3. The root cause of "bureaucracy" is the organizing model, the "bureaucratic form." Yet, the bureaucratic form is so pervasive that its destructive nature is hardly ever questioned. 4. An organization "bureaucratic" when it has rigid policies and procedures that employees describe as "red tape." 5. when its policies don’t satisfy the customer’s individual situation, and the employees take refuge behind the idea that the policy is the same for all 6. When the organization has standard procedures, policies or practices that seem designed solely for the benefit of the organization and which work to the disadvantage of employees. 7. Each department has its own agenda; departments don’t cooperate to help other departments get the job done 8. There is political in-fighting, with executives striving for personal advancement and power. 9. People in their own department spend much of their time protecting their department’s "turf." 10. People in other departments spend so much time protecting their "turf" that they don’t have time to do the work they are responsible to do.
The major benefits promised by the bureaucratic form
Hierarchical authority promises control and responsibility. 1. Management by rules promises control and consistency An up-focused mission promised that governmental agencies would serve the legislative or executive bodies that formed them. Specialization of sub-units promised accountability, control and expertise. Being impersonal promises objectivity, consistency and equality. Employment based on technical qualifications promises equal opportunity, and protection from arbitrary dismissal promises job security to those who can pass a test and follow the rules.
How to Eliminate, Banish it OR De-bureaucratize
Each organization is different. Each must find its own way through the process. Each will have a different goal. Each will have a different sense of commitment. Each will have a different culture. Each will have different barriers and different advantages.
1. Replace bureaucracy with a more desirable state. So, the change process will be to
move "toward" something better, rather than to "get rid of" the existing state. 2. Get professional help, but do the work yourselves 3. Choose continuous improvement as a strategy 4. Make an assessment of your present situation. 5. Begin collecting employee feedback to drive the change. 6. Train front-line people to work in teams and to implement continuous improvement
7. Gain support of entire management team & take support of non management people
Alternatives to Bureaucracy The four possibilities….
1. The mission-driven organization will have an employee focused mission. 2. Hybrid organizations will make it their mission to achieve customer dazzling service and satisfying product or service quality. 3. The primary measures that define organizational success will be based on employee satisfaction, rather than in-focused measures like profit or funding.
doc_424652270.doc