Bureaucracy is particularly prevalent in large organisations and is often a bi-product of ineffective risk-management. In a lot of cases systems, processes, and controls are introduced to try and mitigate real or perceived risk. However, if the cost of mitigating that risk is greater than the risk itself, then there is little or no point in mitigating that risk in the first place. This is plain unadulterated Bureaucracy!!
Organisation that improve knowledge and application of risk management will significantly reduce bureaucracy, allow them to become market leading, bureaucracy busting organisations which encourage innovation, and attract and retain the best and brightest minds.
Whilst standardisation and control are often beneficial to an organisation particularly where consistency and quality of output is of upmost importance, unnecessary controls and bureaucracy slows down progress, frustrate staff, and stifles innovation.
Simply, if a system, process, or control doesn't add value to the organisation as a whole, then that system, process, and or control shouldn't be introduced in the first place. However the problem is, most systems, processes, and control are introduced progressively overtime; therefore it is imperative systems, processes, and controls are reviewed periodically to identify and weed-out any unnecessary constraints.
Hi Cameron! Really smart observations in here. In your last paragraph, you state: "if a system, process, or control doesn't add value to the organisation as a whole, then that system, process, and or control shouldn't be introduced in the first place. However the problem is, most systems, processes, and control are introduced progressively overtime; therefore it is imperative systems, processes, and controls are reviewed periodically to identify and weed-out any unnecessary constraints."
Totally agree, and your observation reminds me of one of my favorite hacks that came out of a previous hackathon. Take a read of this hack, entitled Chuck out your Chintz-- I think you will enjoy it!
Hi Chris, thanks for bringing this hack to my attention. A great read and very pertinent is today’s business environment.
From my experience and observations, HR is a function which is far too often burdened down by too much focus on risk control; the risk that an employee may take a case against the organisation for wrongful dismissal, when in fact the cost of retaining that individual (through lost sales/revenue, corrosive attitudes that undermine a healthy culture, ineffective work methods that can’t be changed, the list goes on…) is far greater than the cost of exiting an individual from the organisation in the first place. How many times has an organisation been restructured (at great expense I might add) with the objective of getting rid of a few bad apples, only to find that these individuals (bad apples) have been side shifted to another part of the organisation and they are creating havoc for a new group of people?
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