The Effects of Bureaucracy and its Implications for Adhocracy in the Workplace: A Study of Lagos State University

Abstract

Bureaucracy is a formal organization established in a deliberate manner for the realization of specific social goals. It is the dominant institution in modern industrial society. Unfortunately, bureaucracy has developed into objects leading to inflexibility and turning of means into ends. Adhocracy is the opposite of bureaucracy meant to reduce red tapism and rigidity in the latter. Data was collected from administrative staff of the Lagos State University in grade levels 7-14. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 180 respondents. In terms of data analysis, frequency distribution and simple percentile were used. The study found that about one-quarter of the respondents mentioned red-tapism as the major negative
effect of bureaucracy. The workers complained of lack of discretionary power in decision-making as work was too centralized. In fact, others complained that it could lead to loss of interest in the job. Therefore, the overcentralised nature of decision-making process in the institution would
retard the pace of work, thus the need for Adhocracy. The study therefore recommends the use of Adhocracy in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the work place.

Key words: Bureaucracy, Adhocracy, workplace and Over centralization