Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 507
Procedures can repair or police
Enabling and Coercive Bureaucracy distinguishes procedures that equip employees to understand and repair work from procedures chiefly built to monitor conformity
Premise
More formalization does not necessarily mean less capability. An elaborate rule can help employees resolve irregularities, or it can turn the same irregularities into disciplinary evidence. Enabling and Coercive Bureaucracy changes the executive question from how many procedures exist to what those procedures allow workers to understand and accomplish.
Standardization can protect safety and reliability. Its operating orientation matters more than its length or strictness. Inspect the information and discretion made available at the point of work, not the organization’s stated intention to be supportive.
What the model is: Enabling and Coercive Bureaucracy in Knowledge →
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
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What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.