Problem
Bureaucracy as an organizational disease
Experimental visualization of narrower problems
Nature:
Large organizational units tend to develop a multiplicity of tortuous procedures, narrow outlooks, and a high-handed manner in dealing with individuals and external bodies. This organizational malaise may include failure to allocate responsibilities clearly, application of rigid rules and routines with little consideration of cases, elevation of status over function, blundering officials, diffusion of responsibility, overstaffing, administrative delays, conflicting directives, duplication of effort, departmental empire building, and concentration of real power in the hands of relatively few people.
Incidence:
Contrary to current belief, bureaucracy as a disease is not confined to governmental agencies, but can be found in all kinds of organizational units, particularly large ones.
Broader Problems:
Organizational empire-buildingIneffectiveness of individual participation in large communities Narrower Problems:
Extortionate bureaucracyBureaucratic cooperativesComplex government bureaucracyResignation towards corruptionAbuse of bureaucratic proceduresEmbourgeoisement in socialist countriesDomination of individuals by institutionsOrganizational bureaucracy in the environmental movementOver-development of bureaucracy in ex-colonial countries Related Problems:
Political apathyBureaucratic biasBureaucratic aggressionBureaucratic fragmentationDisengagement of citizens from community activitiesInadequacy of the committee system of decision making Aggravates:
Anti-sciencePolitical inertiaBureaucratic inactionBureaucratic oppositionSuspicion of bureaucracyTedious office employmentUnpredictable governmental policyLack of participation in developmentInadequate local government financingGrowing size and impersonality of firmsDelays in elaboration of remedial legislationCost overruns in large-scale public programmesInadequacy of governmental decision-making machineryInadequate budgetary coordination within the United Nations systems Strategies:
Studying organizational diseases References:
Chaudhurry, Muzaffar Ahmed: Examination of the Criticism Against BureaucracyRam, N V R: Games Bureaucrats Play Subject(s):
Management → AdministrationMedicine → Pathology
Social Activity → Organization
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
D: Detailed problems Date of last update
04.10.2020 – 22:48 CEST