2nd class for "Getting Things Done": We really do need to understand bureaucracy better!

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09/08/2014

2nd class for "Getting Things Done": We really do need to understand bureaucracy better!

I taught on classical management theory, bureaucracy and scientific management today. This is where ideas of 'the one best way' crept into management theory, and where top down structures were introduced to governments, and where rules and merit hiring and the like emerged as important devices in large (especially public) organizations.

Before we get negative about these things, it is important that we understand why they were presented as good ideas...and it is perhaps even more important that we understand how they have shaped much of the toolbox of 'doing government' in development...and continue to do so today.

Here are my powerpoint slides from the class

Download Mld1022014secondclasss

Here are class 2 readings, for Monday Sept. 8

Scientific management and classical bureaucratic theory:

What is it and does it matter?

Class objectives and themes:

Overall: Scientific management and bureaucratic theory are often taught as the foundations of thinking about management. It is really important to know what this thinking suggests as solutions to the challenge of ‘getting things done’, partly because it does form a foundation and also because it has been very influential in development.

We will discuss the following themes:

Scientific management and bureaucratic theory offer a variety of ideas about what ‘good management’ involves: What are these ideas? What do these theories offer as practical additions to a ‘toolbox’ for those of us trying to get things done?
How influential has this theory been in development?

Today we will introduce an active learning mechanism into the preparation process and the class. I would like you to listen and read these materials while playing the role of a consultant on a team advising a middle income country (with quite high levels of inequality) called Messaria about how it should reform its health sector. The basic information you have is that:

The country’s health sector is comprised of three types of providers: private providers (that offer services mostly to higher income people), non-profit (or voluntary) providers (that offer services mostly to lower middle and lower income people), and a set of locally run public sector providers (set up by municipal governments).
The sector is very disorganized and there is no way to ensure quality in terms of who works in the sector, what facilities do, or what they charge, etc.
There are many claims of patronage and favoritism in the hiring and management of most health facilities, and of corruption affecting who gets served and how.
There is a general sense that health outcomes are weak, but no one really measures these.
There is general agreement that most citizens cannot afford health care offered in the sector, and government wants to work out a way to finance care across the sector.

As part of the consultant team, you have been asked to develop a summary of the approach a classical organizational theorist would take to reorganize the sector. In doing this, you have been asked to fill the following table out and then develop a one page proposal for what the government should do and how the government should do it:

Author/Theory	Key ideas, principles	Practical ‘tools’ to get things done

Video preparation (watch before class, taking notes on details):

Theme 1. Scientific management and bureaucratic theory offer a variety of ideas about what ‘good management’ involves: What are these ideas? What do these theories offer as practical additions to a ‘toolbox’ for those of us trying to get things done?.

Weber’s bureaucracy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yI1gytXQGs

Henry Fayol’s Administrative Management. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJrlOfDi2rU

Taylorism on ABC World Report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slfFJXVAepE

Required readings (read before class, taking notes on details…30 easy pages here):

Theme 1. Scientific management and bureaucratic theory offer a variety of ideas about what ‘good management’ involves: What are these ideas (or principles)? What do these theories offer as practical additions to a ‘toolbox’ for those of us trying to get things done?

Taylor. Undated. The principles of Scientific Management. Brief section: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/gilded/progress/text3/taylor.pdf

Wren and Bedeien. 2009. Chapter 10 of The Evolution of Management Thought. pp. 211-234. http://wiki.zirve.edu.tr/sandbox/groups/economicsandadministrativesciences/wiki/88283/attachments/f41d4/management%20functions%20.pdf

Additional readings (I will refer to these in class…they are not mandatory):

Theme 2. How influential has this theory been in development?

Evans, P. and Rauch, J. 1999. ‘Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of “Weberian” State Structures on Economic Growth’
American Sociological Review, Vol. 64, No. 5. http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~kslin/macro2009/Evans%20and%20Rauch%201999.pdf

Henderson, J., Hulme, D., Jalilian, H., and Phillips, R. 2003. ‘Bureaucratic Effects: ‘Weberian’ state structures and poverty reduction.’ CPRC Working Paper 31. http://www.chronicpoverty.org/uploads/publication_files/WP31_Henderson_et_al.pdf

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