Public Administration Role in Implementation of Bureaucratic Reform in Indonesia
Bureaucratic reform is one of the government's efforts to achieve good governance. The experiences of many countries show that bureaucratic reform is the first step to achieve the advancement of a country. Bureaucratic reform is not only about the effectiveness and efficiency of the reform process in the bureaucracy, but also become the backbone in the life of the nation. Bureaucratic reform applied in ministries and government agencies in accordance with the demand of current conditions and situations. Nowadays, bureaucracy required to be able to serve the public in a timely, accurate and professional manner.
Bureaucracy is an important factor in achieving national development goals. Therefore, the bureaucratic reform goals are the government provides professional attainment, has legal certainty, transparent, participatory, credible, and also develops a bureaucratic culture and behavior based on ethics, public service, and accountability as well as integrity in carrying out the mission in the realization of national goals and objectives.
In fact, bureaucratic reform is an effort to renew and change the fundamental governmental system, especially regarding to institutional or organizational aspects, business process, and human resources reform.
Bureaucratic reform in Indonesia puts the importance of bureaucracy rationalization which creates efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. It can be measured by the ratio between the volumes of tasks with the amount of resources accompanied by formalistic work and strict supervision.
Good government organization setup is based on the vision, mission, and objectives, lies on the agenda, policies, programs, ...
... middle of paper ...
...ces regarding something formal complied with procedures and there is no favoritism or sentiment, no prejudice, and no strings attached. Partnership or relationship is presented in an easy way and in accordance to the regulation or law.
The characteristics of bureaucracy are:
obey the rules correctly;
officials are working with focus and full capability;
the existence of discipline;
the existence of regulatory requirements to appoint and dismiss officials;
firm separation between private and office affairs;
The execution of bureaucracy tasks are based on two principles:
the principle of legality that means policy made based on legal basis or applicable statutory provisions;
the principle of discretion that means if there are no regulations, officials still have to take a decision based on opinion as long as it does not violate the principle of legality;
Modern Bureaucracy in the United States serves to administer, gather information, conduct investigations, regulate, and license. Once set up, a bureaucracy is inherently conservative. The reason the bureaucracy was initiated may not continue to exist as a need in the future. The need or reason may change with a change in the times and the culture needs. A bureaucracy tends to make decisions that protect it and further it’s own existence, possibly apart from the wishes of the populace. It may not consistently reflect what might be optimal in terms of the needs and wants of the people. Local governments employ most of the United States civil servants. The 14 cabinet departments in the U.S. are run day-to-day by career civil servants, which have a great deal of discretionary authority.
Max Weber, German sociologist, social theorist, and economist, explicated the theory of bureaucracy in which he details the monocratic bureaucracy “as an ideal form that maximized rationality” (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 48). He provided his most complete exposition of theory in his 1922 tome Economy and Society (Casey, 2004). This classic form of bureaucracy is characterized by the following (a) well-defined official functions; (b) specialization of function; (c) clearly defined hierarchy of offices; (d) rules governing performance, which require training to administer; (e) impersonal treatment of clients, in that all are treated equally; (f) merit as the basis of promotion or appointment; (g) compensation based on rank; (h) separation of personal and company assets and interests; (i) discipline and control of daily work; (j) files and record keeping for decisions, acts, and rules (Bolman & Deal, 2008; O’Connor, 2011). There are numerous shorthand versions of Weber’s theory including Harmon and Mayer (1986) in Organization Theory for Public Administration and Heady (2001) in Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective (O’Connor, 2011).
Though the bureaucracy began simply, with George Washington’s creation of the Department of Foreign Affairs, over the last 226 years, its size and power have increased exponentially. From homeland security to the delivery of mail, this “fourth branch of government” possesses a wide scope of responsibilities. However, the necessity for such a structure often comes into question. According to Max Weber, who believed that “the bureaucracy was likely to acquire an ‘overpowering’ power position, the bureaucracy is an “inevitable consequence” of modern day life (“The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, Wilson). A specialized bureaucracy provides valuable expertise, an asset which the Founders did not take for granted, as they had suffered a committee
Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy lends itself to the notion of the managerialism. He claims that as society becomes more integrated and complex, organizational elites come to be more dependent on specialists and experts, or bureaucracies to advise and influence them on decisions. Bureaucracies are groups of individuals doing specialized tasks which blend into a cohesive and efficient unit. Power becomes increasingly centralized within bureaucracies and the elites who control them because as they grow, becoming more powerful, they use that power to gain more control over the masses. Weber saw the historical development of societies as a movement toward rational forms of organization, that is, groups organized not on the basis of the authority of personalities and traditions but on the basis of specific functions to perform or objectives to meet (Marger p. 72). Weber often used the notion of a machine to illustrate what he meant by modern organizations, referring to people as “cogs'; that serve the machine, losing their identity and creativity in the process. Although Weber admitted that both mechanization and bureaucracy together created an extremely efficient and productive economic system, they also worked to bui...
They both provide representative perspectives to the study of bureaucracy. The Case for Bureaucracy, pays more attention to the good parts of bureaucracy. The data and statistics are included in this book to support bureaucracy. Beating the System, focuses on teaching audiences the methods of fighting back the abusive bureaucratic system. True stories and experiences of citizens make this book readable for majority audiences, not only those with academic backgrounds. Understanding different perspectives will be of benefit for the comprehension of the whole picture of bureaucracy. Regardless their flaws in their methodologies and approaches, they provide diverse perspectives on bureaucracy which are worth
Another characteristic of bureaucratic organization that compromises efficiency is the division of specialized labor. When all the tasks are specialized and everyone is trained to do one specific thing, there is no allowance for free riding. If one person, or many people for that matter, decides to slack off (which is simply human nature), what then happens?
This essay will discuss the mainstream and critical perspectives of bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy. It will begin by examining the characteristics of bureaucracy and then compare the mainstream and the critical views. Post-bureaucracy will then be discussed using the same structure.
1.The strict supremacy of statute over judicial decisions and a tradition of literalism in statutory interpretation, 2. Where no legislation exists, the courts are bound by the doctrine of precedent in accordance with a strict hierarchy of judicial authority, 3. In the absence of a relevant precedent, the judges will be guided by legal principle and reasoning by analogy, and 4. There is clear way of distinguishing the ratio of a case…
Principles, when constructed properly and followed, help to ensure equal treatment. It answers questions such as: procedural fairness, legality, due process, and value. However, one must consider where the principles come from to carry out these things. Some of these principles come from external laws and rules that govern how we conduct professional business and carry out our responsibilities. Having a strong set of individual principles matters; they make it easier for people to follow and uphold the laws and rules we are bound by in our professional lives.
Public Administration involves the development, implementation and management of policies for the attainment of set goals and objectives that will be to the benefit of the general public. Since Public Administration involves taking decisions that affect the use of public resources there is often the question of how to utilize public resources for maximum public good. The National Association of Public Administration has identified four pillars of public administration: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and social equity. These pillars are equally important in the practice of public administration and to its success. This paper seeks to explain the role of each of the pillars in the practice of public administration.
Bureaucracy is an organizational design based on the concept of standardization. “It is characterized by highly routine operating tasks achieved through specialization, very formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional departments, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command” (Judge & Robbins, 2007, p.
Even though bureaucratic administration principles were functioning efficiently for many years since its inception, it is claimed that inadequate to meet the current demands of citizens. Therefore, the New Public management (NPM) approach was developed in UK to substitute the traditional model of public administration in 1980s and 1990s as a response to the insufficiency
Bureaucracy is the response to the problem posed by larger and more complex formal organization because an extensive organization will need a form of order of the ranks or chain of command to coordinate the activities of its members. Bureaucracy provides a hierarchical authority structure that is supposed to operate under certain rules and procedures. Understanding bureaucracy is the key to the analysis of formal organizations. The word “bureaucracy” connotes negative images in everyday speech. It usually brings to mind images of, “red tape” or “buck passing” where the organization requires forms in triplicate; files are often lost, incorrect statements of accounts, and the ...
Although there are some differences among bureaucratic and scientific management theories, in actuality, they both share a deliberate and detailed approach towards improving an organization’s efficiency and effectiveness. Dissimilarities seen in these approaches may be due primarily to their points of reference. Where the scientific approach focuses primarily on maximizing the efficiency of work, the bureaucratic approach’s concentration is directed on the structuring of the personnel within the organization. Although there are weaknesses in both management theories time has shown each to be successful models. These two classical approaches to management complement each other and lend well to large organizations. Both theories have been universally adopted and adaptations of each are in practice today.
It aims towards economic principles and to apply these principles in decision making while administration is fixated on the structural principles and policy implementation. Public administration centres on the procedures within an institute and they see everyone as being detached and professional in the workplace. Public administrative theories also emphasise that these organizations have a bureaucratic structure. The separation between public administration and public choice arise in a hypothetical field. Their concepts vary greatly in many features of procedures.