Practice question · Put in order
Arrange the steps of Crozier's vicious circle in order.
- Rules remove the discretion needed to handle unusual cases
- Rigidity increases and the cycle repeats
- Impersonal rules are introduced to guarantee equal treatment
- New rules are written to cover the failures
- Failures accumulate where the rules do not fit
Hints
- The circle begins with a well-intentioned rule.
- Each failure is answered with another rule.
Show the answer
- Impersonal rules are introduced to guarantee equal treatment
- Rules remove the discretion needed to handle unusual cases
- Failures accumulate where the rules do not fit
- New rules are written to cover the failures
- Rigidity increases and the cycle repeats
Why
The circle is a trap rather than a mistake: every individual step is reasonable, and the outcome is an organisation nobody designed and nobody wants. That is why Crozier's account is more damaging than simply calling bureaucracies inefficient.
Practise The Weberian Model of Bureaucracy
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