How to Build Better Bureaucracies

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Leadership and Human Resource Management - Miscellaneous, Henley Business School University of Reading, course: MCs International Human Resouces Management, language: English, abstract: The bureaucratic organisation is the organisation characterised by a formal chain of command, a rigid or semi-rigid hierarchy, specialisation of tasks, and strict rules and procedures (Cole, 2012, p. 80). The dilemma of any bureaucratic organization is to maintain its efficiency while unleash creativity, remove silos, appear transparent and deliver timely and accurate service to the community and the customers. Despite often negative connotation tied with the perception of bureaucratic organisations, they have a good basis of rational, effective structure, universally applied and tested by years of experience. Bureaucratic organisations have seen through the development of Western capitalism and aided developed economies until second half of the 20th century.

The etymology of the term traces back to 1665, when the French economy was in turmoil and King Louis XIV has put Jean-Baptiste Colbert in charge of finance. Colbert has prosecuted the corrupt officials and reorganised commerce and industry according to economic principles known as mercantilism, demanding that officials abide by certain rules and apply them uniformly to everyone. Then, in 1751, another official became France¿s administrator of commerce. He was outraged by the multitude of government regulations that he thought suppressed business activity. The government, he said, was run by rigid enforces and creators of rules who neither cared nor understood the outcomes of their actions. He started the term bureaucratie, which translates as ¿government by desks¿. (Cole, 2012, p.82) [...]