Published comments made by Helen Volska, Managing Partner and Director of EBS in the business issue “Investgazeta” (¹13)
Bureaucracy in modern business – is it transparency and orderliness or procedures, which are obstacles to the operational activities of a company?Management in which there is hierarchal rule; the subordinate level, where every employee depends on higher authority involves much paper work. This is Volodymyr Dal’s definition of bureaucracy in the explicatory Russian language dictionary. The word finds its origins in the French and Greek languages and is translated to mean the ruling chancellery. It evokes a strong negative reaction from most of us. However, we can’t exist without it even in modern business.
Each time we cross the entrance to a building, we wipe our feet. In most cases, we don’t even think twice about it? Essentially, this simple habit is an indicator of household bureaucracy.
In Helen Volska’s opinion, regardless of the numerous debates on the advantages and disadvantages of bureaucracy in the modern business, it can be stated that today’s businesses practically can’t function without it. The smaller the company the more freedom it has. On one hand, the lack bureaucracy in the decision-making process in a small business speeds up the process improving the competitiveness of the small business. On the other hand, lack of bureaucracy in the decision-making process provides no guarantees of its accuracy.
The larger the company and the number of its employees are, the more bureaucratic it becomes. Delegation and division of responsibilities, creation of the business hierarchy– all of this becomes difficult to achieve without bureaucracy. One can hardly imagine a big multinational company where bureaucracy processes are at a minimum. On the contrary, they are highly developed and as a rule, the employees accept it as is and offers no resistance.
“Bureaucratization” processes are much more complex in companies, which grow quickly beginning with say 20 employees and expanding into a hundred or thousand employee companies. In these situations, the resistance is stronger. As a rule, the “long-term employees” don’t understand the need for bureaucracy and even the “novices” often complain that the Management doesn’t pay heed to the peculiarities of the Slavic mentality.
Helen Volska believes that while discussing the issue of bureaucracy in modern business, one should remember the following:
• Bureaucracy is essential, but it’s neither a business objective, nor its panacea
• Bureaucracy requires control of its support system and, thus – significant costs for the development of its control
• Balance is essential as well as analysis of the value of bureaucratization process and its potential advantages
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