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4.4 Post-bureaucratic Organisations - Coggle Diagram
4.4
Post-bureaucratic Organisations
What are post-bureaucratic organisations?
The changes which businesses implemented in order to cope with evolving conditions signalled the emergence of what have been named (rather broadly) post-bureaucratic forms of organisation
there was increasing dissatisfaction with organisations which were based on a combination of Taylorist principles of work organisation and rigid hierarchical managerial structures
three fundamental reasons why bureaucracies became ill-suited to changing work environments:
The perceived impact of bureaucracies on the human element became less acceptable (e.g. the way they stifled personal initiative).
The rigidity of the bureaucratic approach, and the slowness of its processes, meant that it impeded organisations in a variety of ways, negatively impacting on their ability to compete in dynamic, changing environments
The premise on which this approach was based (one universal best form of organisation) was no longer tenable.
What do the changes consist of?
The changes are aimed at moving from:
a tall hierarchy of authority and vertical form of exchange, to flatter organisations and stronger forms of horizontal communication and co-ordination
centralised to decentralised decision-making and locus of authority
precisely defined and narrow roles to roles that were less-well defined and broader in scope
reliance on standardised rules and procedures to co-ordination through mutual adjustment between staff.
New Public Management (NPM)
The New Public Management (NPM) initiative was an attempt to make the public sector follow business-like rules, to improve both its efficiency and its public image with regards to the quality of services it provided.
This paradigm is characterised bu:
market-driven competition
managerial freedom
client orientation
value-for-money service delivery
result-based performance.
What does NPM involve?
At managerial level, NPM is based on:
a more decentralised control of resources
delayering (reducing the number of hierarchical reports) and downsizing (reducing the number of staff)
encouraging more entrepreneurial management than the rigid bureaucratic format had previously allowed (i.e. more initiative from individual staff)
moving away from standardised forms of service to more varied or customised forms of service
creating more fragmented or loosely contracted public service organisations.
Post-bureaucratic changes and people in organisations
Typically, restructuring is often undertaken to reflect a new strategic direction, or to respond to changes in the organisation’s environment such as new technologies or increasing competitive pressures.