From bureauphobia to bureaucognitio

Abstract

Bureaucracy had been referred to as the usual suspect whose door was knocked with an attempt to address an organizational failure and had always been pointed at as the villain that rendered organizations incapable to adapt to the shifting paradigms in the global business environment. Nothwithstanding the fact that it has survived throughout the last century there is an extensive literature in organizational studies that is dedicated to reveal its imperfections especially after the incorporation of such concepts as fluidity and complexity into management studies. This conceptual paper proposes that bureaucracy and complexity are not mutually exclusive concepts. They both can co-exist on the way to create knowledge-based organizations in which novel ideas emerge and innovative outcomes are cultivated.