Decision making and Bureaucracy

An event is being planned. Thanks to technology, stakeholders spread across globe, from New Zealand to Malaysia to India to North America are collaborating in planning, resource mobilisation and organizing.

A proposal was made by one stakeholder to procure an item. And I commented on why is it proposed? It has become a habit, perhaps obsession, to relate everything that is happening with sociological and psychological concepts. The present act was linked by me with process of decision making.

And that triggered series of recalls. I was educated as an engineer and though we did study management and business organization as a subject in final year, it was more related with Workshop Management. In fact the subject was named WMBO (Workshop Management & Business Organization). I do not recall if I studied theories of management including process of decision making in that final year.

I recalled the decision process in a Public Sector Undertaking, which I believe is same as in all Government departments, the delegation of authority, the proposals, financial concurrence, recommendations and approval, and I wondered were did I learn this?

And then came thoughts around pros and cons of that process, general dislike and detest perpetrated in 21st century business organizations and management theories and how the process termed as 'bureaucratic' is contemptuously looked down upon.

My experience both in PSU and in Private business organization has led me to conclude that bureaucratic process of decision making is not all that bad, as it is being made out. And the Learner in me started looking for information and knowledge to support my conclusion.

I came across this article "Management Theory of Max Weber: Principles of bureaucracy" by Patrick Ward. You may find the same here: https://nanoglobals.com/glossary/management-theory-max-weber-bureaucracy/  and may like to study.

I found support I was looking for my conclusions about 'bureaucratic' process of decision making. Max Weber's theory states that there are six principles of bureaucracy, including:

• Specialization
• Formalized rules
• Hierarchical structure
• Well-trained employees
• Managerial dedication
• Impartiality of management

Are these not the same principles by which businesses, public service, social service or for profit, are /or should be managed?

Weber stated that a bureaucracy has specialization. This includes:

• Distributing and assigning specific duties to specific roles;
• Giving management the authority to give commands and providing guidelines on the methods they should use; and
• Assigning people to these roles based on merit.

Weber said bureaucracy has formalized rules, we now refer to as policies and procedures. His focus was primarily on the broad, exhaustive, and relatively stable rules that govern managers. The rules that are standardized and documented can be learned and will ensure uniformity, consistency and transparency. .

Weber also stated that an organization should have a hierarchical structure, with one clear leader at the top. This structure provides clarity about escalating responsibilities and accountability based on delegated authority or power to take different types of decisions strategic, tactical, operational, transactional including financial. Weber did not specify depth of hierarchy. And show me one modern large successful organization which does not have hierarchy. And compare clarity about accountability in such modern organization with that in bureaucratic organization. 

Weber says an organization should have well-trained employees. Weber states that managers should have thorough expert training, especially in case of specialized positions, and that subordinate employees should also receive training.

Furthermore, Weber stated that a bureaucracy requires managerial dedication. Weber wrote that managers should be dedicating their “full working capacity” regardless of how long they will hold their position and always put official business ahead of other distractions.

Finally, Weber stated that there should be impartiality of management. This includes managers following the established rules and keeping business interests separate from personal interests. 

I am clear now. We seem to be hating bureaucracy because of failure of some systems where we selected or elected wrong people against the principles of bureaucracy. It is not systems which fails an organization. It is implementation and dishonest operators who fail. My take. You may differ.