Is it possible to build better bureaucracies?
Introduction
The conception of bureaucracy is one of the most dominant notions in both organization theory and social science. It plays a significant role in modern society. (Clawson, 1980) Ever since the basic characteristics of bureaucracy were formulated by Max Weber, it has been suffered from derogatory remarks and harsh criticism and from various perspectives. For example, feminists such as Kathy Fergusson (1984), liberals such as Mills (1951), Marxist writers such as Dan Clawson (1980), management researcher such as Michel Crozier (1964), Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises (1944), they all expressed critiques on bureaucracy. (Styhre and Börjesson, 2006) Various studies are
That is to say, lack of innovation and motivation is not inherent in bureaucracy; it is the poor implementation methods that create the problem.
In the same vein, Styhre and Börjesson (2006) conducted a study interviewing 28 managers worked in an automotive company Volvo and a pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The two companies have the same organizational structure and Max Weber’s bureaucratic characteristics are significantly in the organization. However, both organizations are successfully in providing innovative products. After the interviews with 28 managers in the two organizations, Styhre and Börjesson (2006) find no relations between the innovation and the functional, hierarchical characteristics in the organization. In contrary, managers agreed that the obstacles of innovative capacities are the various poor managerial practices, which forcing extra workload and complicating operations. Therefore, the problem of bureaucracy is unlikely to be inherent. As long as the right method to develop innovation and motivation in bureaucratic organizations are found, it might be possible to building better bureaucracy.
Find possibilities for building better bureaucracies
Actually, many analysts and theorists have proposed the evidence that it is feasible to create innovation and increase motivation in bureaucratic organizations. Especially for innovation, it could be developed in bureaucratic organization where rules, procedures, functional specialization also existed.