Unit 4 Part 3 Current Events Post - The Negative Side of Bureaucracy

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/26/bureaucracy/

This article points out pretty much every flaw you could possibly think of involving the federal bureaucracy in this country.  The author points out that leaders of organizations should be chosen based on their good qualities of leadership rather than their political knowledge.  His main point is that every single part of the bureaucracy slows down the process of implementation and action.  He sees each and every government organization under the bureaucracy as a hierarchy, where there are countless levels of management positions, and so it seems as though every manager has more managers to look to. He makes note of the barriers that stand in the way of taking risks or doing something new.  He is critical of everything that the federal bureaucracy entails, because he believes that the process of getting anything done is too slow and unsuccessful under the system our government currently has.

This photo (which was a comic shown in class a few days ago) pretty accurately shows the opinion of Gary Hamel, the author of the article; positions in an organization are like a hierarchy of "chairmen," a system that slows production and implementation.

 Gary Hamel was in a lot of ways correct about the many obstacles that have the ability to slow the federal bureaucracy.  Along with the issues pointed out in the article, there is red tape, or the forms and procedures required to receive bureaucratic approval.  Red tape is known to considerably hinder the approval process in every organization of the bureaucracy, including the departments in the Presidential Cabinet.  What Hamel fails to make note of are any suggestions concerning the restructuring or replacement of the bureaucracy.  Although the system can definitely be flawed, there are many things that have improved it to where it is today; for example, Clinton and Gore's National Performance Review made huge changes to the bureaucracy, making it run much more smoothly and cost less to the country.  Also, the organization of agencies into either the executive or regulatory category helps to keep the federal bureaucracy system in order.

 Author Gary Hamel is correct in comparing the federal bureaucracy to a maze, but he fails to recognize how difficult it would be to make the maze easier.  The only thing the government would be able to do to increase the simplicity of the maze would be to try and shift some walls.