“Bureaucracy is no longer applicable in today’s business

environment.” Discuss.

Bureaucracy which is also known as “Red Tape”. In my point of view,

office organization is combine with standardized procedure, regulations

is set in place to manage activity, hierarchy, and impersonal social

relationships, usually in large organizations. While according to Weber,

bureaucracy is a goal-oriented organization which is operate efficiently

to attain their goals according to rational principles. Rank of hierarchical

order in offices is flowing up and down with information along the chain

of command. The organizations operate with standardized rules and it

applies to the outsiders and the internal staff that they should know their

responsibilities, duties and need to follow the standard procedures and

regulations that have imposed.

In bureaucracy, high level of division of labour and specialization

because of the nature of bureaucratic work, and probably because the

training and coordination is very importance in the job, thus they need to
recruits the educated applicant. In addition, they normally look more

into the specialized qualifications than ascribed criteria. All of these

characteristics are need to fulfill one goal, to encourage the efficient

achievement of the organization's goals. The remuneration issue is

concerned; the bureaucrat often receives a salary based on the status of

his position than his productivity performance. In the forms of

traditional administration in bureaucracy, the civil servant cannot pass or

sell his position to his sons or daughter. This is the difference between

the public and private sectors of bureaucracy management.

The idea of bureaucracies is that it normally tends to focus on the

drawbacks and this might lead to the potential negative impact on their

individual rights and efficiency. However, Weber emphasized that

“Bureaucracy becomes inefficient when a decision must be adapted to

an individual cases.” People who work in bureaucracy organization

normally sacrifice their own individual needs and exist for the welfare of
others. The organization becomes more efficient because of division of

labour and the impersonal rules and regulation.

Is Bureaucracy applicable in today’s business environment? Toffler

contents “Today’s organizations have moved on from the industrial

revolution to the informational one and because fast-paced change in the

form of technological advances is now the defining factor of the so

called new economy” where the business environment is more

competitive and dynamic. Bureaucracy is vertical hierarchies of

authority management where one level of job is command by another

higher level of job; they make decision slow and it’s time consuming as

many paper works procedure need to be done which we can say it is

“inefficient”. They might lose the business opportunities to their

competitors which is more efficient.

On the other hand, the workers need to be flexible in their tasks to adapt

the business environment. Individual worker might not alert of the others

impact of their decisions or actions due to overspecializations. They only

specialized in their own duties, they are not aware of other issue.

Nowadays, the organizations need to work as a team in order to success.

On the other hand, the worker might feel bored and tired which will

result in the quality of their work be affected.

Decision making tends to be favoritism, i.e. choices are previously

programmed and this discouraged the search for further alternatives. For

example, an applicant who does not meet the requirements of the job

position is employed, because his father who works in the organizations

misused his authority. According to Peter Principle, “employees in a

bureaucracy are promoted to the level of their incompetence. In other

words, competent managers continually receive promotions until they

attain a position in which they are incompetent. And they usually remain

in this position until they retire or die. The bureaucracy can only

continue because competent employees are constantly working their way

up the hierarchical ladder.”

There is a case study where the government does provide B$ 3000 per

month of house allowances for the government servant. Initially, the

house rental is B$ 1500 per month, however, standardize of rules and

regulations of bureaucracy cannot be changed. Thus, the government

pays B$ 3000 per month to the landlord instead of B$1500. In these

circumstances we can see that the rigidity of bureaucracy thinking is

lack of flexibility. Standardizations and routine procedure may delay the

changes, it is hard to evolve or adapt to new circumstances with old

procedures. In addition, when we emphasis more on rules and

regulations may become more important in its own right than as a means

to an end. Furthermore, positions and responsibilities in the organization

can lead to officious bureaucratic behavior. There may also be a

tendency to conceal administrative procedures from outsiders i.e. the

reason of rejection of application is not clear, no feedback or reply.

The outcomes of impersonal relations are often damaging management-

worker relationships and also customers or client’s relationships.

Customers are unable to have customized services, employees have to

work within a framework of rules and regulations which has been more

or less imposed on them and have to accept the standardization. This

will lead to stereotyped behavior and a lack of responsiveness to

individual incidents or problems.

However, “Bureaucracies has changed the society into its most

developed form, the state. As such, it provides the opportunities for

government to function effectively and efficiently a leading the larger

and larger societies, with increasingly complex and diverse ways of life

for its citizens. Beyond government, numerous other social

organizations, both in the public and private sectors have developed

bureaucratic forms of leadership, which have succeeded in advancing

the goals of their organizations.” (Retrieved 27 March 2010, from

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org) “While, benefits to the

proverbial “red tape” associated with bureaucracy do exist. For example,

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) apply bureaucratic rules and

regulations to ensure that appropriate precautions are taken when

approving new medication. Thus, if any problems arise, data is exist for

analysis and correction.

Likewise, the procedures are standardized which in turn creates the

ability to pass knowledge to new or future workers more easily as well

as facilitating better communication among colleagues and regulation,

decisions and actions are formulated and recorded in writing. Take for

instances, in a lawyer firm, all the cases files and paper works are

recorded and keep for future reference. They can refer to the past cases

files and gives them idea for solution. In addition, specialization and

division of labour creates economies of scale within organizations,

increase productivity. For example, in a factory, one person could

specialize in making the frame of the car, another in the wheel, another

engine, etc. They can do their individual tasks more efficiently and

increase in productivity than if each of them needs to create every part of

the car themselves.

In the same way, impersonally rules and regulations might have benefits.

For example, an applicant who applies for a government student

scholarships must submit a great deal of paperwork. However, an equal

treatment is develop for all applicant even the process is time consuming

and frustrating, which means everyone has a fair opportunity to get the

funding from government. Bureaucracy also discourages preferential

treatment. In a well run organization, there should not have the bias

problem such as friendships and political clout to affect on the access of

funding. On the other hand, impersonal relationships do contributes

greater efficiency, i.e. easy to dismiss the workers.

Ben Gussen has concluded “that in the form of how applicable

bureaucracy is, not in the form of whether bureaucracy is applicable.”

By underlying concepts on both sides of viewpoint, it depends on the

different ways of analyzing and judgments done. However, in my point

of view, it is not whether bureaucracy is applicable or not but it is how

individuals or the public view on bureaucracy in today’s business. Some

organizations such as government and organizations where there is a

high level of interdependence and require for coordination, might find

bureaucracy functional in their business while others not. “Highly

bureaucratic organizational structures, while still fine for companies in

old, mature markets that do not rely on innovation, are not able to

quickly move on new ideas and are not able to restructure their

workplaces to take advantage of new manufacturing techniques or the

ideas of their employees.” (Retrieved 27 March 2010, from

http://answers.yahoo.com)

Hence, having to say that, in today’s competitive markets, some

companies are at a state of deficiency, especially when it comes to

modernization and time-to-market. Bureaucracy which is very routine

and impersonal is not applicable in the market where there is high level

of competition. It delays changes and adaptation to new business

environment. Besides, lack of flexibility and responsiveness might have

a great impact on the businesses. Nowadays, business environment is too

dynamic and modernized, organizations can no longer be subsequent

with all the old rules and procedure which may be the obstacle of

evolution.