Bureaucracies

A nice and short article here about Weberian bureaucracy. https://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/encyclop/bureaucracy.html It gives some historical perspective about how (and why!) bureaucracies formed – evidently with positive intentions in response to the prior feudalistic modes.

Many bureaucratic tendencies remain in companies still today, but without the human memory of what we had prior to that, nor the vision about what’s next. It’s only when you look at the historical context that you realise how important and radical these original bureaucratic concepts were, such as: the promotion of technical competence or record keeping for accountability of actions. It’s radical when contrasted with the prior system of a feudalistic overlord who could do or demand whatever he wanted, and face no consequences for actions. In the meantime, bureaucracies have morphed into a what we now perceive as rigid self-sustaining systems that have difficulty adapting.

I think there’s a further point about how the survival of a bureaucracy is to remain stable by reducing risks. Any change is therefore a risk, so it’s no surprise that a transformation will have push back from a bureaucratic system, especially from those who have the most to lose from a transformational change.