The Dynamics of Formal Organization: Essays on Bureaucracy and Formal Rules
Rules and bureaucratic formalities are a very recognizable and striking part of many organizations, despite numerous predictions by scholars and public figures of the rise of radically different forms of organization that would render bureaucracy obsolete. When dealing with organizations, we all experience situations when we might wonder why particular bureaucratic rules have suddenly changed, or why a rule can remain unchanged for a very long time.
In his dissertation, The Dynamics of Formal Organization: Essays on Bureaucracy and Formal Rules, Sergey Osadchiy addresses some of these questions. One idea, developed in one of the chapters, is that bureaucracies address new problems by stretching their rules, and that when bureaucratic officials realize that a given rules can no longer be stretched beyond a certain limit, change becomes more likely.
Furthermore, the dissertation’s empirical results suggest that high diversity of perspectives or lack of normative power on the part of the rule makers can cause delays in adjusting obsolete rules. Therefore, when planning organizational changes involving rule change, these factors need to be taken into account if the timing of changes is to be accurately estimated.
These findings are relevant to policy makers, business leaders and business consultants who may be concerned about the risks posed by the tendency of rules to become obsolete over time as conditions change. Obsolescence becomes a matter of concern due to the organization’s inability to adjust its formal rules sufficiently quickly to respond to new opportunities or threats.
Sergey Osadchiy defended his dissertation on May 6, 2011 at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). His promoter was <link people _blank>Prof.dr. P.P.M.A.R. Heugens. Other members of the Doctoral Committee were Prof.dr. J.J.P. Jansen, Prof.dr. J. van Oosterhout, and Dr.ir. P.W.L. Vlaar.
About Sergey Osadchiy
Sergey Osadchiy was born on September 24th. He moved from Russia to the Netherlands in 1997. He obtained an undergraduate degree in International Business Administration from Erasmus University Rotterdam and Master of Philosophy degree in Business Research from the Erasmus Research Institute in Management (ERIM), both cum laude. During his time as a PhD candidate first at the Department of Business-Society Management and then at the Department of Organization and Personnel Management, Sergey presented his work at several international conferences, including the Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting and the EGOS Colloquium. One of his papers was published in the AOM Best Paper Proceedings for 2010. Next to his research, Sergey also taught classes for an undergraduate course at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. In his work, Sergey addresses questions about the formal side of organizations from a dynamic perspective. His main research interests include bureaucracy theory, organizational learning theory, and institutional theory.
Abstract of The Dynamics of Formal Organization
Theories of bureaucracy in organization studies constitute a perspective in which formal or written rules are seen as fundamental to the understanding of organization. It is argued, for example, that formal rules facilitate organizational decision-making, establish the basis for coordination and control, and help to increase an organization’s legitimacy within the broader institutional environment. Like other elements of organizations, rules also change over time with potential consequences for decision-making, coordination, and legitimacy. This dissertation takes up questions about the causes of continuity and change of formal organizational rules, as well as of bureaucratic organizational forms more broadly. The first conceptual essay (Chapter 2) starts with the observation that bureaucracy is a remarkably persistent organizational form and suggests that the reproduction or transformation of this form and its prevalence in various organizational fields depends on the agency and interaction of different expert groups. In Chapter 3, we present a conceptual account of the dynamic process of codification and enforcement of formal rules and its influence on the preservation and retrieval of organizational memory via these rules. In Chapter 4, we offer a conceptual account of how the process of using existing formal rules to deal with new organizational problems can ultimately lead to change in such rules. Finally, Chapter 5 reports the results of a longitudinal empirical study of rule changes in UNESCO’s World Heritage Program. We find that that rule makers’ cultural heterogeneity tends to delay rule changes, while rule makers’ normative power tends to accelerate them.
