Max Weber pretty much defined the modern conceit of bureaucracy. [1]
W.E Deming wrote extensively on the "American Disease". [2]
In a few words management and measurement are both inescapable beyond
a certain organisational size, and they are the problem, because in
almost all scenarios they will expand to displace/strangle the actual
work.
It is a recognised general structural problem in systems.
Of course there is much more to it than the above simplification which
may sound like an extreme philosophy - but I have yet to encounter
good refutations or counterexamples to this tendency.
The answer, perhaps, is that small and many is beautiful.
Thanks for the recommendation. I am a big fan of Weber, not familiar with Deming but his work sounds very relevant. In general I tend to agree that beyond a certain size organization these problems seem unavoidable. I've read Systemantics/The Systems Bible and it seems to come to a similar conclusion.
Max Weber pretty much defined the modern conceit of bureaucracy. [1]
W.E Deming wrote extensively on the "American Disease". [2]
In a few words management and measurement are both inescapable beyond a certain organisational size, and they are the problem, because in almost all scenarios they will expand to displace/strangle the actual work.
It is a recognised general structural problem in systems.
Of course there is much more to it than the above simplification which may sound like an extreme philosophy - but I have yet to encounter good refutations or counterexamples to this tendency.
The answer, perhaps, is that small and many is beautiful.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming