ADJUSTING TO BUREAUCRACY
Bureaucracies tend to accumulate rules and procedures. Many bureaucracies become so entangled. in red tape that their daily work can be acorn polished only by violating or evading some of the rules. Employees can stage a limited form . of strike a work slowdown" -by")simply abandoning their shortcuts and following the rule book. The difficulties of bureaucratic organization lead to attempts both to- improve it and. to revolt against it. The formal study of administration is an attempt to make bureaucracy an efficient instrument for meeting organizational needs. Training programs for business persons,· educators, public officials, and the clergy all stress courses in "administration" (a more popular term for bureaucratic. -procedures), Since bureaucracy is both a necessity and an annoyance, efforts to improve bureaucracy are as continuous, and perhaps as effective, as crusades against sin Discontent with bureaucratic rule appears among members or clients of all kind' of formic organizations. The established churches are often threatened by irregular clergy or by competing religious sects and cults. The elaborately organized business may be undercut by a smaller competitor which can change direction faster.Schools, face .taxpayers' revolts due in part to a feeling 01 helplessness of the average citizen in dealing with educational administration. Labor-union leaders often find their control jeopardized by wildcat strikes in which the rank and-file take action that official union leaders outdo rather suppress Various kinds of "direct action" seek to force modification In bureaucratic action and have brought a type of voluntary group action which is noisy, abrasive, and intolerant of bureaucratic delay parents roll baby carriages into the streets to keep bulldozers from cutting new highways through their neighborhoods professional women strike and march for women's rights penitentiary inmates go on' hunger strikes. White 'collar professionals and managers join in boycotts against gun manufacturers and non union lettuce farmers. . . suburban housewives march against escalating meat prices. Blue collar workers demonstrate against busing their childr across town. (Theodore Levitt. Tile Third Set Mr New Tacjics for a Responsive Society, Amacom New York, 1~73,pp. 73-7 Whether or not they work, such tactics produce an "adversary society" [Levitt, 1973, p. 72] which exacts a high price in loss of trust and in disorder. A different tactic is attempt to work within the bureaucracy through the ombudsman.
