Why do coercive bureaucracies exist

Common usage of the term bureaucracy is pejorative. To most people, bureaucracy is synonymous with red tape, rigid rules, autocratic superiors, and alienated and apathetic employees. But … Expand. View 5 excerpts, cites background. Balancing enabling and coercive formalization: a case study in an accounting firm. Adler and Borys distinguish two types of formalization in organizations: enabling and coercive formalization. Procedures in the enabling type of formalization provide employees with … Expand.

View 32 excerpts, cites background and methods. Our research analyzes how organization dynamics develop in order to initialize telebanks, which can facilitate or hinder the enactment of enabling or coercive structures.

The data revealed that … Expand. Formalization and innovation revisited. The many studies into the relationships between formalization and innovation have produced little but inconsistent findings. The conceptual and operational definition of the formalization construct … Expand. Controls can become … Expand. View 11 excerpts, cites background and methods. Organizational learning and bureaucracy: an alternative view.

This paper aims to reconceptualize the relationship between organizational learning and bureaucracy. Although the two are generally considered to be antithetical, this paper shows that, in some … Expand. Managers as consultants: The hybridity and tensions of neo-bureaucratic management. The nature and extent of changes in management remain subject to debate, especially around the notion of post-bureaucracy. Most research concedes that there has been some change, but towards hybrid … Expand. The psychological drivers of bureaucracy: protecting the societal goals of an organization.

This chapter addresses the psychological enablers of bureaucracy and ways to protect bureaucrats and society from its adverse effects.

All organizations benefit from formalization, but a bureaucracy … Expand. Journal of Information Technology, 22 1 , Organizational resilience and using information and communication technologies to rebuild communication structures.

Management Communication Quarterly, 27 2 , Espacios Caracas , 38 1 , These studies provide evidence that the design and use of the system influence individual and organizational resilience. In this study, it is conjectured that a management control system MCS , from a broader perspective, can both inhibit and enable resilience in organizations.

The effects of the interactive use of management control systems on product innovation. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 29 8 , Inspired by principles from the area of systems, technology, and automation, Adler and Borys Adler, P. Two types of bureaucracy: Enabling and coercive. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41 1 , Accounting for flexibility and efficiency: A field study of management control systems in a restaurant chain. Contemporary Accounting Research, 21 2 , In this context, there is the presumption of a possible association between both enabling and coercive MCSs and organizational resilience.

Hence, the study aims to examine the impacts of enabling and coercive MCSs on organizational resilience. Based on the study by Adler and Borys Adler, P. The study contributes to the field of knowledge by examining the relationship between both enabling and coercive MCSs and organizational resilience. Change is an inevitable characteristic in organizations, whether due to external effects, some natural consequence, or some strategic initiative to increase competitive advantage Lengnick-Hall et al.

Thus, organizations must be able to alter their resources, competences, and business models in order to resolve problems, leverage resources and capacities, and explore and exploit new opportunities. Understanding the role of MCSs in the creation and use of resilience capacities offers a new way of explaining why some companies manage to outperform others during adverse and turbulent events.

The research also provides a practical contribution, since it supports the understanding of how MCSs should be planned and used for organizations to deal with changes and unexpected events. The study broadens the discussion of the research on information systems and organizational resilience Chewning et al.

Finally, the taxonomy of enabling and coercive controls proposed by Adler and Borys Adler, P. Information system integration, enabling control and performance. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34 2 , The effect of managers' enabling perceptions on costing system use, psychological empowerment, and task performance.

Behavioral Research in Accounting, 25 1 , Burney, Radtke, and Widener Burney, L. Journal of Information Systems, 31 2 , The effects of uncertainty on the roles of controllers and budgets: An exploratory study. Accounting and Business Research, 41 5 , Creating dynamic tensions through a balanced use of management control systems.

Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35 5 , Management Accounting Research, 23 3 , A review of definitions and measures of system resilience. The authors mention that there are various concepts of resilience circulating in the literature, although there is an overlap with a set of already-existing concepts, such as fault tolerance, flexibility, survival capacity, and agility.

Bhamra et al. The idea of resilience is firmly based on ecology and the definitions used in various studies have followed the propositions of Holling Holling, C. Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4 1 , Thus, there have been various definitions proposed for resilience, each one slightly different, depending on the context Bhamra et al.

In the organizational field, resilience is analyzed based on different perspectives, for example using an individual, sectorial, organizational, social, as well as a supply chain focus Lengnick-Hall et al. The concept of organizational resilience emerged for companies to respond to a rapidly-changing business environment Hosseini et al. Threat rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A multilevel analysis.

Administrative Science Quarterly, 26 4 , Adapting to environmental jolts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 27 1 , Based on a literature review, Ruiz-Martin et al. Somers Somers, S. Measuring resilience potential: An adaptive strategy for organizational crisis planning.

Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 17 1 , Relationships, layoffs, and organizational resilience airline industry responses to September The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 42 3 , Resilience conceived based on an active approach implies an organization being proactive in order to ensure that it prospers in the event of adversity and turbulence Lengnick-Hall et al.

These authors suggest that resilience capacity is developed based on a combination of cognitive, behavioral, and contextual capacities at an organizational level. They propose that as an organization develops its resilience capacity, it will come to interpret uncertain situations more creatively cognitive resilience and will, therefore, be more capable of devising unfamiliar and unconventional activities behavioral resilience and taking advantage of relationships and resources contextual relationship.

Ruiz-Martin et al. Cognitive resilience enables the organization to perceive, interpret, analyze, and formulate responses that go beyond its survival.

Behavioral resilience makes the organization work. The elements that contribute to building behavioral resilience are an inventory of complex and varied actions and functional habits or routines. Contextual resilience is a structure in which cognitive and behavioral resilience occurs. The characteristics used to create contextual resilience are social capital and an extensive resource network Ruiz-Martin et al.

In this research, resilience is analyzed in a wider organizational context and as one of the consequences of the MCS. MCS is a broad concept, but in essence it represents a strategic and operational control system that integrates the functions of organizational, personnel, and cultural control Chenhall, Chenhall, R. Management control systems design within its organizational context: Findings from contingency-based research and directions for the future. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 28 2 , Management control systems as a package: Opportunities, challenges and research directions.

Management Accounting Research, 19 4 , This concept covers the design and use of the elements that compose it. Therefore, they are rules and systems meant to support, instead of controlling the employee.

Developing performance-measurement systems as enabling formalization: A longitudinal field study of a logistics department. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 33 4 , Ahrens and Chapman Ahrens, T. This requires internal transparency an understanding of the workings of the local processes and global transparency an understanding of where and how these local processes fit into the organization. Adler and Borys Adler, P. Although Ahrens and Chapman Ahrens, T.

Do suppliers' formal controls damage distributors' trust? Journal of Business Research, 65 7 , For example, Hartmann and Maas Hartmann, F.

Designing better schools: The meaning and measure of enabling school structures. Educational Administration Quarterly, 37 3 , The complex world of control: Integration of ethics and uses of control. Theoretical arguments and some empirical evidence, although from other areas of knowledge, support the insight that enabling and coercive MCSs are associated with organizational resilience due to their characteristics. Natural Hazards Review, 14 1 , Resilience is characterized as being dependent on how information is managed and used Barasa et al.

It involves a dynamic capacity for organizational adaptation that grows and develops over time Gittel et al. It results from the capacity for organizations to flexibility monitor what is occurring, anticipate interruptions, and learn from experience Lee et al. Enabling MCSs are planned to incentivize the sharing of information, worker interaction, learning opportunities, and problem solving.

According to Free Free, C. Contemporary Accounting Research, 24 3 , Therefore, they enable organizations to return to their previous state in the event of some adversity or, also, to prosper during turbulences, becoming more resilient. Management control in new product development: The dynamics of managing flexibility and efficiency.

Journal of Management Accounting Research, 21 1 , Sheffi and Rice Sheffi, Y. A supply chain view of the resilient enterprise. This is based on the characteristics of repair, internal transparency, global transparency, and flexibility of the enabling control, proposed by Adler and Borys Adler, P.

They observed that this occurs through the incorporation and breaking down of information and the creation of power differentials. They also found that too much control may streamline company operations, but at the same time it can reduce resilience to respond to future changes. Little control can cause excessive deviation and can also be damaging. According to Ignatiadis and Nandhakumar Ignatiadis, I.

Chewning et al. Therefore, the MCS can constitute an antecedent of resilience, under the assumption that its enabling and coercive characteristics are reflected in organizational resilience. It is conjectured that these characteristics affect organizational resilience in the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual dimensions. The development of cognitive resilience involves questioning fundamental assumptions, conceptualizing new and appropriate solutions, and minimizing rules and procedures Lengnick-Hall et al.

Companies with cognitive resilience seek opportunities to develop new abilities, instead to emphasizing standardization and the need for control.

Enabling characteristics of new budgeting practice and the role of controller. These characteristics are in contrast with the development of cognitive resilience in terms of conceptual orientation and constructive direction.

Conceptual orientation, formed based on a strong sense of purpose and fundamental values, enables problem solving and actions, instead of leading to threat rigidity or a dysfunctional escalation of commitment Lengnick-Hall et al. It involves reciprocal interaction in the search for information, meaning, attribution, and action Lengnick-Hall et al.

Behavioral resilience is the mechanism that drives an organization. This dimension enables a company to learn more about a situation and use its own resources and capacities fully through collaborative actions Lengnick-Hall et al. Open communication, incentives for sharing knowledge and for reflexive practices, experimentation freedom to fail , and broad work descriptions are some of the characteristics present in MCSs designed under the enabling logic and suggested by Lengnick-Hall et al.

Lengnick-Hall et al. According to Chapman and Kihn Chapman, C. Although unconstrained flexibility is not beneficial, enabling MCSs offer a structure with various options, ranging from blocking specific actions to automatic reports. The resources obtained by a company as a result of its network of organizational relationships ensures some measure of continuous slack, they widen the range of viable actions, and they promote a variety of interpretations for alternative applications of these resources Lengnick-Hall et al.

This, according to the authors, stimulates innovation and challenges the predominant assumptions. Free Free, C. This leads to the formulation of the study hypotheses, which are:. H 1 : the enabling controls of an MCS are related to organizational resilience in the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual dimensions, in that they present positive associations with conceptual orientation H 1a , constructive direction H 1b , improvised agility H 1c , behavioral preparation H 1d , psychology H 1e , and resource network H 1f.

H 2 : the coercive controls of an MCS are related to organizational resilience in the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual dimensions, in that they present positive associations with conceptual orientation H 2a , constructive direction H 2b , improvised agility H 2c , behavioral preparation H 2d , psychology H 2e , and resource network H 2f.

From the hypotheses established it follows that enabling and coercive controls directly influence organizational resilience, which is analyzed here in the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual dimensions, as proposed theoretically by Lengnick-Hall and Beck Lengnick-Hall, C.

Companies from the financial and property sector were excluded from the sample, as well as investment funds, foreign companies, and mergers, asset acquisitions, and financial transfers. The research data were collected using a questionnaire elaborated on the SurveyMonkey platform and sent to divisional managers of these companies via the LinkedIn network in March and April of The idea was to consider different roles and organizational areas in the companies studied, given that resilience is made up of different organizational agents.

First, the invitation was sent to join the network created on LinkedIn. After acceptance, the link to the research instrument was sent. It was not possible to cover all the companies mapped out, since there were not people registered in the network from all of them, nor was contact possible with managers from firms, most of which were small companies.

The link to the research instrument on SurveyMonkey was sent to the managers who accepted the invitation to take part in the research, in the period from March to April of , and answers were obtained, of which 65 were eliminated because they were incomplete. Therefore, the final research sample covered respondents. Of these, 60 communicated that their company had been bought by another, while 98 stated that the company in which they worked had acquired another or others.

Thus, there are both companies that were bought and ones that acquired others in the period analyzed. These constructs were measured based on multiple items, using the five-point Likert scale, varying from totally disagree to totally agree. Customers frequently complain that stores like Walmart care little about individuals, other businesses, and the community at large.

Bureaucracies are, in theory at least, meritocracies , meaning that hiring and promotion is based on proven and documented skills, rather than on nepotism or random choice. In order to get into a prestigious college, you need to perform well on the SAT and have an impressive transcript. In order to become a lawyer and represent clients, you must graduate law school and pass the state bar exam. Of course, there are many well-documented examples of success by those who did not proceed through traditional meritocracies.

Think about technology companies with founders who dropped out of college, or performers who became famous after a YouTube video went viral.

How well do you think established meritocracies identify talent? Wealthy families hire tutors, interview coaches, test-prep services, and consultants to help their kids get into the best schools. This starts as early as kindergarten in New York City, where competition for the most highly-regarded schools is especially fierce. Are these schools, many of which have copious scholarship funds that are intended to make the school more democratic, really offering all applicants a fair shake?

There are several positive aspects of bureaucracies. They are intended to improve efficiency, ensure equal opportunities, and ensure that most people can be served. And there are times when rigid hierarchies are needed. But remember that many of our bureaucracies grew large at the same time that our school model was developed——during the Industrial Revolution. Young workers were trained, and organizations were built for mass production, assembly line work, and factory jobs.

In these scenarios, a clear chain of command was critical. Now, in the information age, this kind of rigid training and adherence to protocol can actually decrease both productivity and efficiency. Too much adherence to explicit rules and a division of labor can leave an organization behind.

And unfortunately, once established, bureaucracies can take on a life of their own. State governments and current budget crises are examples of this challenge. It is almost impossible to make quick changes, leading states to continue, year after year, with increasingly unbalanced budgets.

Finally, bureaucracies, as mentioned, grew as institutions at a time when privileged white males held all the power. While ostensibly based on meritocracy, bureaucracies can perpetuate the existing balance of power by only recognizing the merit in traditionally male and privileged paths.

Michels suggested that all large organizations are characterized by the Iron Rule of Oligarchy , wherein an entire organization is ruled by a few elites. Do you think this is true? Can a large organization be collaborative? Watch this Khan Academy video to learn more about types of organization.

Which is not an example of a normative organization? Which of the following is not a characteristic of bureaucracies? Skip to main content.