Advantage And Disadvantages Of Bureaucracy

Introduction

There exist mixed opinions and perceptions about bureaucracy, and its relevance to the study of the modern-day organizations. While some feel that bureaucracy is suitable for a majority of 21st century organizations, others have the perception that it is unfit for these organizations. Those who maintain that bureaucracy is appropriate for modern organizations contend that it reinforces employee commitment, motivation, and trust, while easing tension emanating from conflict of interests as employees strive to accomplish their routine tasks. On the other hand, those opposing such proponents argue that bureaucracy is characterized by employee alienation, low commitment levels, and too much inflexibility, making it unsuitable for

For this reason, many of them are embracing the concept of decision decentralization, whereby decision-making responsibilities are dispersed or distributed among executives and representatives through delegation. Bureaucracy on it its side is a system that advocates that most important decision should be made top officials, with no involvement of elected representatives (Sørensen, 1984). It implies that, while decentralized organization structures are characterized by better, speedier and more accurate decisions, the decisions made on a bureaucratic basis are slower and less accurate. This owes to the fact that bureaucracy is characterized by fixed documented rules, hierarchical authority offices, and rigid labor division as well as extended document use, according to Gartner and Katz (1988) and Weber (1997). These are characteristics that hamper quick decisions needed in keeping the pace with the revolutionary administrative and corporate transformations being witnessed in the competitive present-day world. Braverman (1998) records that decentralization in the modern corporations emerged from the need to achieve streamlined operations in massive sub-corporations within the corporations that uphold a pyramiding

This is to state that bureaucracy was a valuable norm in past centuries when competition was a local phenomenon, and value for work among workers was diminished owing to motivation deficiency. Indeed, inappropriate motivation is not only among the characteristics associated with the inefficacy of the bureaucratic formal-rational organizations, but also the basis for questioning the efficiency of such organizations (Gajduschek, 2003). Back in those times when authority holders needed stricter techniques in reinforcing adherence to rules among the subordinate, bureaucracy served well beyond any reasonable doubt. Olsen (2005) confirms this by stating that bureaucratization an administrative system characterized by rule-bound hierarchical associations through obligatory authority is