Bureaucracy in organizations is an outgrowth of its being viewed, designed, and operated as a machine. The great sociologist, Max Weber, noted that modern organizations, that run like machines, tend to be very bureaucratic in nature, with strict hierarchies and structures. Frederick Taylor’s Time and Motion Studies advanced the mechanistic view of the organization and the production line mentality of the workplace, by promoting the division of labor and the highly monotonous, standardized work routines of laborers.
In bureaucratic enterprises, issues do not get addressed and resolved at the lowest levels where they are first encountered and can be handled most efficiently by those with subject matter expertise. Instead they get pushed up the chain of command, where ingrained organizational silos, competing interests, and empire building hamper an effective response. In frustration, management throws their hands up and assigns the issues to working groups or task forces or consultants who are assigned to try and deal with change. But these “outside groups” too, even if they can grasp the complexity of the issues, cannot effectively resolve them due to the barriers to organizational change that exist in the organization.
Despite the best intentions of all, bureaucracy is typical in large businesses and in government as well.
In user-centric EA, the impact of mechanistic organizations and bureaucracy is recognized as an impediment to change and growth of the enterprise, the ability of the organization to meet its full operating potential, and the valuation of its people as its greatest asset. EA is dedicated though to unleashing human capability and building a better organization for the future.
How does EA do this? By capturing and analyzing the as-is environment, and formulating a to-be environment and transition plan, EA not only shows the organization where its gaps, redundancies and inefficiencies are, but also facilitates a proactive solution to resolving them.
By envisioning what could be, rather than just what is, EA challenges the status quo (even a highly mechanistic one) and continues to chip away at it, slowly but surely—working to eliminate stovepipes, build integration, interoperability, information sharing, and an open environment where people can innovate, create, and truly contribute to its success.
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