6/14/2007

inner dynamics of bureaucracies

Large bureaucracies are very complex organizations. Indeed, in terms of procedures, inner workings and resistance to change this is well known. But astonishingly, these complexities have a very serious impactl on the output capabilities of such an organization. This is to say, not only the individual motivation of employees is important (and because of their numbers and complex interdependencies really difficult to measure) but also the difference between levels of an organization. The cognitive distance between political management level and case officer/policy developer can be immense even though people work on the same issue/topic. One of the most important reasons for the distance is the variation in timelines/differences in timing considerations. Those are related to fundamental employment or term durations, but affect essentially every decision, especially those related to tactic and strategic planning. Essentially, the same issue/topic can not mean the same thing for employees on different level of a large organization or bureaucracy i.e. neither in administrations nor in private organizations.