The four Dysfunctions of Bureaucratic Organizations?

Question

I've looked everywhere for information of the four dysfunctions of bureaucratic orgainizations...does anyone know anything at all?

Answer 1

What you are looking for is apparently something thought up and set out in an official format by someone somewhere in a high enough position that the business world takes them and their pronouncements very seriously.

I do not know who the person that came up with this idea is or which 4 problems he/she has identified, but here are the 4 problems that I, personally, see with bureauctatic organizations - presented in no particular order:

1. Extreme positions on the matter of "change".  

........a.  Change for the sake of change, alone, when it is NOT needed.  That is, an almost frantic mania to fix everything that ISN'T broken.

........b.  Fear of change when and where it IS needed.  Such a fear of change that what IS broken and IS in need of fixing gets ignored, denied, "swept under the rug", etc., instead.

........c.  The inability to tell when change IS or ISN'T needed.  (Strangely enough, you will often find BOTH a. and b. in the SAME organization!)

2. Penny wise and dollar foolish spending habits.

Refusing to spend money where it is needed - always penny pinching and taking the cheapest way out of every situation and then having to spend huge amounts to repair the damage.

In short, refusing to pay for the "ounce of prevention" and ending up having to pay for the "pound of cure" afterwards.

3. Inflexibility.  

The viewpoint that "rules are rules and they MUST be enforced" even when they DON'T work!  The only justifiable purpose of laws and rules is to prevent and/or repair problems and problem situations.  When the enforcement of a rule or law CAUSES or FURTHER COMPLICATES a problem, then that action is going against the very purpose of even HAVING laws and rules to begin with!  (It is also an effective dodge and refuge for those bureaucrats who cannot think for themselves and rely on the written word to do their thinking for them!)

4. Self-perpetuation at any cost.

The organization loses track of its original goal(s) whatever it (or they) may have been at the onset - helping a certain group of people if it is a charity, or manufacturing an good quality product and providing it at a fair market price in the case of a for-profit business - and ends up pursuing the goal of self-perpetuation and self-enrichment BEFORE any and all others.  Charatable recipients, clients, customers, resellers, employees and everyone outside the executive circles become poor secondary concerns and get pushed off into the background.