Impact of bureaucracy on an organization

Description

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The purpose of a Bureaucracy is to successfully implement the actions of an organization of any size (but often associated with large initiatives such as government corporation and non-governmental organizations), in achieving its purpose and mission, the bureaucracy is tasked to determine how it can achieve its purpose and mission with the greatest possible efficiency and at the least cost of any resources.

The principle of social organization which characterizes the twentieth century industrial society is “rational coordination” otherwise known as “Bureaucracy”. Under this form of organization, people are brought together in formal and complex settings run by professionals and experts. The professionals are called “Bureaucrats” while the organizations they run are known as “Bureaucracies”. The nineteenth century produced a number of brilliantly descriptive and literacy accounts of modern bureaucracies.

Many writers call attention to the increasing bureaucratization of human activity but Max Wcber a German Sociologist historian and economist is credited with having made the most thorough analysis of bureaucracy (Mullins 1999). The main contention in the writings of those scholars is that more and more spheres of life are being dominated by large organizations and increasing number of people are becoming employees of complex organization.

As a matter of fact, quite a few aspect of medium society can be studied without reference to bureaucracy. Most obviously in the business world and in modern establishments, the coordination of specialization in accordance with impersonal rule is highly developed and adopted. The same trend has also been observed to be the pattern in every other areas of the society. Wilmot (1785) and Applebaum and Chamblis (1995) argued that bureaucracy starts from birth (health bureaucracy) to family upbringing (social welfare), to school (educational) to work (civil service, military, commercial, industrial) to worship and death (religion): man is increasingly dominated by bureaucracy. Every sphere of modern life has thus become very bureaucratic as people are born into bureaucracies; grow in it, live with it and even die in it. It is bureaucracy all the way and all the time. Right from the unset of this world, man has co-operatively organized as a group to work towards a directed goal in a directive manner. Indeed the prevalence of complex bureaucracies is believed to be the structural frame work in our recent organizations.

No less important to mention is the fact these complex organizations are established not only to find solution to given human problems but to do efficiently. It is not surprising therefore that in the new turn era; the central concern of several classical society analyses was the issues of how man is going to organize human society in general and more specifically his productive activities in the most efficient way to achieve maximum benefits.

It is at this basis that bureaucratic organization are guided and pirated in man’s bid to perfect and actualize him through socio-economic development that any impediment to their efficient operation should be incised seriously. Indeed, the fact that Nigerians fought a civil war six years after independence, followed immediately by another six years of unprecedented oil boom in which extreme materialism took over the control of Nigerians mind and total soul, led to the enthronement of indiscipline, corruption and a lot contempt for order honors and excellence within the whole society including the bureaucratic public.

In the light of this, one sees bureaucracy as a formal- rational organized social structure with clearly defined pattern of activities in which every series of action is fundamentally related. The study therefore centers on ministry of education, Oyo state in order to determine the extent to which bureaucracy contributed towards the Civil service delivery.

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In the recent times, the Nigerian economy has witnessed a steady and rapid decrease service delivery in almost all the areas of the economy. The preliminary investigations carried out by this research shows that the civil service also experienced similar problems of the steady and rapid decrease in productivity which was due to lack or inadequate motivation and bureaucratic efficiency following this, the researcher has decided to find out whether the problem arose because of bureaucratic inefficiency, if so, what could be done to ensure efficiency and enhance service delivery and productivity. In doing this, an attempt will be made to expose the bureaucratic system already being employed by the management of Civil service. The reactions of the workers to these techniques and whether they were understood as expected.

1.3       PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

1. To examine the relationship between bureaucracy and service delivery in the Civil service.
2. To show the bureaucratic pattern employed by the management of Civil service aimed at inducing over reaction for the enhancement of service.
3. Probe and find out what may be the likely management problem with bureaucracy in the Civil service.
4. Show the effects bureaucracy has on productivity and efficiency in the service delivery of the Ministry of education, Oyo state.
5. Proffer solution to identified management deficiencies in the management of bureaucracy.
6. Finally, document the findings for interested researchers in the future.

1.4       RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Is there any relationship between bureaucracy and service delivery in the Civil service?
2. To what extent do you think that bureaucracy determine the service delivery of Civil service?
3. Does bureaucratic process prevent Civil service from formulating and implementing effective policies?
4. How do you think the ministry of education, Oyo state can best apply the process of bureaucracy?
5. Should the principles of bureaucracy be abolished in our Civil service?
6. Has bureaucracy no significant impact in Nigeria Civil service?

1.5       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is expected to be of immense importance in management decision making in ministry of education, Oyo state as well as other top researchers and consequently to the nation in general. The study will specifically be beneficial in the following ways:

1. It will make the management of ministry of education, Oyo state to appreciate fully the principles of bureaucracy.
2. It will enable managers to identify the causes of how productivity is in relation to principles of bureaucracy.
3. The result will help in the enhancement of efficiency and consequently productivity at the ministry of education, Oyo state when properly addressed.
4. It will be of immense guide to future researchers who intend to explore and understand further concepts of bureaucracy especially in service organization like.

1.6       SCOPE OF THE STUDY

For the purpose of clarity, the subject of this researcher work focuses on the impact of bureaucracy in the service delivery of the Nigeria civil service. This study intends to cover the activities of ministry of education, Oyo state.

1.7     LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1. Network interconnectivity to enhance elaborate research •
2. High level of illiteracy
3. Organization operational huddles.
4. Time and cost  constraints  due  to  cause  of  scarcity  in  gasoline  to go about the research.