Bureaucracy and Development

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Bureaucracy as an organization is expected to play a pivotal role, in process of development. The concept of Development Administration had originated in U.S.A. and as such bureaucratic systems are expected to be effective instruments to achieve objectives of development. With their emphasis on rules and regulations, division of labour, hierarchy, role specialists, rationality, impersonally and neutrality, bureaucracy was expected to ensure smooth process of development. In fact, bureaucracy played a key role in stability standard of integrity and professional competence. Bureaucracy supported industrialized developed nations to achieve their objectives. But the capacity of bureaucracy to adopt to change is rather low. In developing countries where temporal dimensions play a key role in process of development, according to some thinkers, bureaucracy is a misfit. The Weberian model is subject to the dysfunctional consequences of failing to take into consideration the individual or behavioral aspects of people who work within organizational system. It has been observed that in an unstable environment it cannot take up the challenges of situation. Stalker identified two distinct systems of management namely mechanistic and organic and found that mechanistic system of management which relied heavily on Weberian norms cannot function in an unstable environment whereas organic system of management with its emphasis on individuals, downward and lateral communication, continuous interaction and participatory management would be suitable for unstable environment. Much of the bureaucratic pursuit was directed towards activities other than achievements of goals whereas the need was to fulfill development programs. According to Warren Bennis, bureaucracy is likely to go out of use in changed socio-economic environment. In Indian context bureaucracy,
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