Finding Bureaucracy

Abstract

This thesis will use survey data from Norwegian managers to answer the following research question: Are managers in public administrations more bureaucratic in their attitudes toward structure and values than managers in private enterprises? I will argue that the classical bureaucracy, as described by Max Weber, can be understood as defined by structure and values. One often disparages the structural elements of bureaucracy and forgets about the bureaucratic values. The mean scores from AFF's 2011 leadership survey will be used to learn if managers in public administrations and private enterprises differ in reported attitudes toward bureaucratic structure and values. The following analysis and discussion will debate and present explanations for the results, and suggest that there are both similarities and important distinctions between managers in public administrations and private enterprises. My main findings are that managers in public administrations are not more bureaucratic than managers of private enterprises in their attitudes to structure. They do however show more bureaucratic-values, such as bureaucratic ethos and public values. I will discuss these results with the appropriate theory; similar attitudes toward structure will be explained with a higher degree of professionalism in public administrations, multi-divisional hierarchies, complex goals, homogenous organizational forms, demand for delivery, fear of consequences and differing expectations. Differences in value will be explained by the nature of public service, and a higher degree of professionalism in public administrations. Higher "post-bureaucratic"-values, such as employee-involvement and communication with their stakeholders, will be used to indicate that even though public administrations show more bureaucratic values, they are not necessarily more rigid and unable to adapt. At the end I will discuss how contemporary public managers should be understood as more complex actors than those of the classic machine-bureaucracy, and the implications this has for our understanding of public administrations.