Bureaucracy refers to procedures, structures, regulations, protocol to be followed while conducting a task within an organization (Nikmahajan, 2007). On the other hand, internal cultural is the shadow culture that is not found in the policy manual, but shapes much of the behavior of the employees. The internal culture in an organization affects the operation of bureaucracy. Internal culture has a lot to do with values, beliefs, attitudes and norms that exist within an organization. The success of a bureaucratic policy will depend on whether it is in line with the internal culture of the organization or not. Attempt by an organization to introduce bureaucratic policies that are not in agreement with the organization internal culture will most likely lead to a loosely coupled system (Beerkens, 2007). A loosely coupled system is whereby organization policies do not achieve their intended effect on organizational practices. Bureaucracy involves manipulation so that tasks can be performed efficiently and effectively.
It is centralized at the top of the hierarchy and strictly defines people by their role and responsibilities. Manipulation is usually not the best strategy to make employees achieve organization goal. In such cases employees are reduced to mere workers who have to do specific duties making them to find it difficult to commit themselves to going an extra mile or to step out of their stipulated duties in order to assist the organization meet its objectives. The centralized systems of bureaucracy also deny employees the power to make decisions and therefore limiting the effectiveness of employee which was the primary goal of the bureaucratic process. For example, bureaucracy that requires an employee of a hotel to wait for decision from his/ her superior in order to change a client into another room limits the ability of that employee to effectively serve the client.
References
Beerkens (2007), University policies for the Knowledge Society: global Standardization, Local Reinvention, retrieved on November 02, 2010, from Http://www.beerkens.info/files/beerkens_PGDT.pdf
Nikmahajan (2007), What is Bureaucracy, Business and Society, retrieved on November 17, 2010, from Http://bizcovering.com › Business and Society
