What i are the advantages and disadvantages of bureaucracy?

            Once upon a time, a man moved from one apartment in London to another. He dutifully notified everyone of his new address, including his bank; he went to the bank and filled out a change of address form himself. The man was very happy in his new apartment. Then, one day, the man tried to use his credit card but couldn’t. He discovered that his bank had invalidated his credit card. Apparently, the bank had sent a new card to his old address.

            For weeks, this man tried to get the bank to acknowledge his change of address form. He talked to many bank officials, and filled out new forms, and tried to get a new credit card issued, but nothing worked. The man had no credit, and the bank behaved like, well, a bank.

            It’s a sad story, one that gets replayed every day for millions of people worldwide. Of course, sometimes it’s not a bank at fault: sometimes it’s the postal service, or an insurance company, or the telephone company, or an airline, or the Government. But all of us, at one time or another, feel persecuted by a bureaucracy.

            A bureaucracy can be defined as a system or method of functions (Bureaucracy, para. 1). These functions are applied to an organization or a type of government. The many duties of the organization are divided into departments. With this, there is a main boss, but with larger organizations, such as a bank, a group of people could all be considered for top position.

            Many of the older organizations that you will find today will more than likely use the bureaucratic system. This is because the bureaucratic system was the only kind of system exposed to them.

            “A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures that bureaucrats so strongly resemble.” -Marcus Tullius Cicero

            Kenneth B. Johnston (1992) suggests that the bureaucratic system is so persuasive that many executives are unable to even imagine that there are alterations to bureaucracies.

It is common to find modern organizations adopting a system other than the bureaucratic system. They are becoming more focused on their customers, the goal of the organization. (Leslie Jacobs has created her own organization that helps other organizations make that transition www.lwjacobs.com .) This erases the hierarchy and flattens things out. The satisfaction of their customers become top priority and group teams evolve. Now if you think back to the story, this type of system was clearly not present with the bank. If the bank did have this type of system then that man would have had no problems with getting his credit card.

There is more of a challenge for existing bureaucratic organizations to try and transform into a non-bureaucratic organization. This is because change is being brought into the organization and most people do not like change. The employees will become frustrated which will lead to a slow transformation.

“Society, community, family are all conserving institutions. They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least to slow down, change. But the organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations is a destablizer. Because its function is to put knowledge to work – on tools, processes, and products; on work; on knowledge itself – it must be organized for constant change.” –Peter F. Drucker

            One reason why organizations use the bureaucratic system is because there is clearly one person in control. Everybody, within and outside of the organization, knows who to address with their problems. People like the idea of having someone at the top that sets the rules and guidelines (Read about bureaucracy and organizational politics: www.systems-thinking.org/bop/bop.htm)

Weber (You can read more about Weber’s ideas on bureaucracy at www.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DDS/Weber ) said that bureaucracy creates a more structured work place (Cheney, 2004, p. 32). The “I” in individual is buried in a bureaucratic system in order to have a more universal organization that is based on principles. No one is treated better or worse than another. And people like that fact that bureaucracy is based on merit.

“Everything about business comes down to PEOPLE. Where in business can we escape the impact of human care, human creativity, human commitment, human frustration, and human despair? There is no reason for anything in business to exist if it does not serve the needs of people.” –Bruce Cryer

However, bureaucracy does have its disadvantages. There is minimum space for one to be an individual. Each department in a bureaucratic system depends on the next department in some kind of way. It is like a machine: if one department is not doing its part then the machine does not function properly.

“We find a threat to individuality: the conflict surfaces because the organizational rules become more important that the individuals they were designed to serve.” (Cheney, 2004, p. 33)

Weber believes that bureaucratization of the modern world has led to its depersonalization (Bureaucracy, 1977). You are expected to leave your personal matters outside of the office.

So it does not really come down to the question of “Is bureaucracy good or bad?” It is based on your organization and the people that make up your organization.

References

“Bureaucracy”. A Joint Center for Politics and Economics. < http://www.joinctr.edu >. (1

           February 2005)

Cheney, George (2004). Organizational Communication in an Age of Globalization.

           USA: Waveland Press.

Coser, “Bureaucracy”. 1977. < http://www2.pfeiffer.edu >. (1 February 2005)

Johnston, Kenneth B. (1992). Busting Bureaucracy: how to conquer your organization’s

            worst enemy. USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies.