Progress versus expansion

I know it’s not fair to pick on an idea that is down and out (theoretically, that is), but there is one organizational system that keeps expanding anyway – bureaucracy. Talk about resiliency: Einstein called it “the death of all sound work;” Chris Salcedo defines it as “the art of making the possible impossible;” and it’s portrayed as a new game sweeping the country in which everyone stands in a circle and the first person to do anything, loses. The term, but not the concept, goes back to the German sociologist Max Weber who held that the ideal bureaucracy was a hierarchical organization with clearly delineated lines of authority and a set of regulations that would answer every possible exigency.
        Most scholars who work in the field acknowledge that bureaucracy may be technically superior to other forms of organizational theory, but recognize that the human element makes it ineffective in the long run. Even Weber saw it as a threat to individual freedom and feared that it could lead to a “polar night of icy darkness.” Let’s look at how bureaucracy works in our own democratic system.
        Every bureaucratic system seems to have the incredible ability to grow no matter what. In fact, growth appears to be its major purpose. As academic dean in a state university, I found myself at budget time looking for ways to spend unallocated money so next year’s budget wouldn’t be reduced. There is nothing wrong with growth except that isn’t the purpose of an educational institution (at least that kind of growth.) Further, the larger and more complex a bureaucracy becomes, the less able it is to get something done. There are too many levels of oversight that must give their okay to even the simplest task. And that costs time and dollars better spent elsewhere.
         Then there is a certain loss of individuality that accompanies bureaucracy. The very structure discourages creativity and innovation. It’s hard to move ahead with an idea if that idea must be okayed by a hierarchy of professional managers who may or may not have any interest in the contribution you wish to make. It’s nobody’s fault, just the way the system works. Bureaucracy creates its own jobs. Relatively insignificant agencies in the federal government have double or triple the number of employees that would be required by the private sector for the same task. While the current health care act is 960 pages in length, the necessary regulations (as compared to the bill) run 30 to 1, or some 588,500 words. That is a monumental task even for a bureaucracy!
            In the final analysis, bureaucracy is the organizational expression of a world-view that tends to place the welfare of the group over that of the individual. It runs contrary to the Christian emphasis on the supreme importance of the individual, made in the image of God created to live in a vital relationship with others, but not under the supposed superiority of the group.