8.3 Bureaucracy checklists

Topic	Bureaucratic syndrome	Non-bureaucratic syndrome
Organizational goals	Societal goals of the organization are only adhered in name, but neither understood nor clearly implemented	Development of a broadly shared vision about the societal reason d’être of the organization and the way to realize it
Overall strategy	Stimulating sameness and oneness through standardization and obedience	Continual skilled improvisation on the basis of a shared vision and well-chosen procedures
Competence	Ignoring, discouraging, and demoralizing competent “subordinates”	Relying on and fostering all proven and budding competencies in the organization
Autonomy	Subordinate autonomy is not an option. Obedience is more important than competence	Autonomy and competence development of subordinates expected
Content	Complete disregard of content while favoring form	Content is leading, form a means
Organizational development	Structures and procedures adapt to the lowest competence level	Everyone is expected to learn and grow towards autonomous roles in organization

Topic	Bureaucratic syndrome	Non-bureaucratic syndrome
Stability versus development	Stability and other forms of high predictability leading. This defines the organization	The workers in the organization are constantly developing their skills in order to improve all aspects of the societal role of the organization (i.e., quality and efficiency)
Form versus optimization	Obsessed with form and formalisms. Centralized optimization of standard responsibilities	Actively eliciting creative and decentralized optimization of organizational goals. Disregard of form when counter-productive
Standardization versus diversity	Obsession with standardization and curtailing diversity, at the cost of quality if quality entails diversity.	Concerned with the overall optimization of all work processes in context, of which both standardization and increasing diversity are options
Error versus learning	Obsessed with preventing errors and mistakes. The organization redefines itself to produce what it can, not what it should; “race to the bottom”	Error and correction after error part of continual creative optimization of work processes
Short versus long term	Exclusively short-term (form) oriented, no care for or understanding of mid of long term goals	Optimization on all time-scales and all dimensions of success

Topic	Bureaucratic syndrome	Non-bureaucratic syndrome
Role of hierarchy	Hierarchy formalized and inflexible, based on assumed competence of superiors	Hierarchy task dependent, and therefore flexible and competence-based
Perception of authorities	Authorities never fundamentally questioned	Incompetent authorities not accepted, but coached or dismissed.
Locus of control	Formation of stable authoritarian cliques, who take control over the institutional change processes to prevent further complexity	Loosely and varyingly linked libertarians at control positions.
Measures of success	Performance measures redefined to what is delivered	Performance measure based on what should be delivered (given reason d’être)
Accountability	Suppression of all forms of accountability at the higher levels and prevention of errors and retribution in case of error at the lower levels	Accountability part of normal institutional learning and competence building.

Topic	Bureaucratic syndrome	Non-bureaucratic syndrome
Overall role of emotions	Rationality and “objectivity” leading. Emotions treated as irrelevant source of variation, to be suppressed	Central role of positive emotions (compassion, enthusiasm, interest) as key motivators; pervasive negative emotions indicative of organizational failure
Emotion of workers	Motivating emotion negative: activities guided by the fear of losing control	Motivating emotion positive: activities aimed at realizing shared benefits
Emotions of co-workers (esp. lower in the hierarchy)	Disregard of the feelings and emotional wellbeing of co-workers and clients	Strong focus on the creation of optimal working condition in which coworkers feel optimally motivated to give their best

	Red flag
Vision	The absence or insufficiency of a shared, living vision about the organization’s goals in a larger societal context
Leaders	Leaders insensitive to reasoned arguments by competent individuals at any position in the organization
	Leaders only sensitive to arguments related to goal achievement or procedure: realizable goals are preferred over desirable goals
	Leaders preferring obedience over autonomy and who curtail work-floor autonomy
Competences	Neglect of work-floor competences
	Demotivation of highly autonomous, competent and committed co-workers
	Gradual deterioration of quality of the working environment, the most competent and committed co-workers leaving
	Standardization at the cost of curtailing of essential/useful diversity
Uniformization	Strong focus on formalities while neglecting (or indefinitely) postponing content
	Compartmentalization of information and plans
	Mediocracy

Stenner, K. (2005). The authoritarian dynamic (First Edition.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Stenner, K. (2009a). “Conservatism,” Context-Dependence, and Cognitive Incapacity. Psychological Inquiry, 20(2), 189–195.
Stenner, K. (2009b). Three Kinds of “Conservatism.” Psychological Inquiry, 20(2), 142–159. doi:10.1080/10478400903028615
van rossum, E. J., & Hamer, R. (2010, May 26). The Meaning of Learning and Knowing. (J. Vermunt, Ed.). University of Utrecht.