DYSFUNCTIONS OF BUREAUCRACY

Bureaucracy:

Bureaucracy plays an important role in our lives. Being a common man our lives are affected by

bureaucracy because bureaucrats are the persons that are responsible to implement policies of the

government to the people, so if there are some loop holes in the system of bureaucracy then it

becomes very difficult for the government to act upon their own policies.

“Policies are made by the government and implemented by the bureaucracy”

So both actors plays an important role in running the state, and in order to make our states

system well we should keep check on both of them and try to eradicate their flaws.

Dysfunctions of bureaucracy:

Here we will discuss about the some dysfunctions of bureaucracy, because in order to sort out

them we need to know about them.

 Red tape bureaucracy:

Red tape is an idiom that refers to excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules

that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-

making.

“Rule is rule”
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Here bureaucracy is very keen on the rules and very much particular to further reinforce the

rules, bureaucracy’s view is that the department’s procedures and people’s roles and lines of

responsibility need to be absolutely clear. Rules here are seen to reduce power relations, reduce

the need of close supervision. In addition, adherence to rules also leads to rigidity on the part of

administrators and employees.

 Lack of Communication in the Units:

Each unit within a bureaucracy performs specialized tasks, which are designed to contribute to

the organization’s overall goals. At times, these units fail to communicate with one another and

end up working at cross purposes. Bureaucratic structure has a tendency to obstruct

communication. Information does not flow freely and easily throughout the system. In most

cases, there are no mechanisms in place to report problems to superiors. . The result of this is

that important information is frequently withheld. Staff abilities and voices are gone ignored or

underutilized resulting in lowered staff motivation.

 Bureaucratic Alienation:

Alienation refers to the detachment of the person from his or her work.

Many workers find it disturbing to deal with others in terms of roles, rules and functions rather

than as individuals. The traditional bureaucrat like BS does not take initiative, will not do

anything for the organization beyond what he or she is absolutely required to do and uses rules to

justify doing as little as possible.

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 Bureaucratic Incompetence:
 In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their

level of incompetence. People who perform well in a bureaucracy come to the attention of those

higher up the chain of command and are promoted. If they again perform well, they are again

promoted. This process continues until finally they are promoted to a level at which they can no

longer handle the responsibilities well; this is their level of incompetence. There they hide

behind the work of others, taking credit for what those under their direction accomplish.

In conclusion, different levels of managers should have different functional

responsibilities but they are supposed to act in co-ordination. That is the senior level officer’s

should be free to accept their junior opinions with open communication or take decisions over

riding them. Here, co-ordination becomes the basic ingredient of an efficient bureaucracy. The

sense of powerlessness and consequent lack of responsibility found among the junior staff

apparently affected the overall functioning of the organization. 

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