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BUREAUCRACY AND EFFICIENCY IN NIGERIA PUBLIC ENTERPRISES (A CASE STUDY OF POWER HOLDING COMPANY OF NIGERIA (PHCN)

Dept: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION File: Word(doc) Chapters: 1-5 Views: 9

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the compact of bureaucracy towards achieving organizational goals and objectives. The survey method of descriptive research was used for the study. The main instrument used in data collection for the study was a questionnaire the responses were tached in frequency tables and percentages were used to analyze the data. The result of the analysis and interpretation revealed that bureaucracy has too much innovation and not rigidity, it sees human feelings and not regarding human feelings and not regarding humans as programmed like machines and appropriately manipulated to produce standard outcome in the organizations. It was also discovered that rules and regulation encourage the operation of Power Holdings in Anambra State. Impersonal orientation help the actualization of the organizations objectives. Close supervision and control also help bureaucrates in the process of carrying out assigned duties. It was recommended from the study that t

INTRODUCTION

1. 0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Bureaucracy is a distinctive arrangement used by human beings to organize their activities. The

invention of Western bureaucracy several centuries ago helped solve the problem for leaders of governing human systems that grew larger and more complicated with each passing year. The great virtue and probably defining  characteristic of bureaucracy, according to the one of the founders of sociology, German Max Weber   (1864- 1920), is as “an institutional method for applying general rules to specific cases, thereby making the actions of government fair and predictable”. Weber contributed much to the understanding of bureaucracy as a social phenomenon. His ideal bureaucracy legitimately, efficiently, and rationally organized people and work to get things done by the elected leader in a democracy. Bureaucracy, he noted, provides for the role of the “functionary” (an interesting word), who is the person interspersed between leader and electorate within a democratic system. Ten features of the Weberian bureaucracy archetype follow:

1. The bureaucrats must be personally free and subject to authority only with respect to the impersonal duties of their offices.
2. The bureaucrats are arranged in a clearly defined hierarchy of offices.
3. The functions of each office are clearly specified.
4. The bureaucrats accept and maintain their appointments freely-without duress.
5. Appointments to office are made on the basis of technical qualifications, which ideally are substantiated by examinations administered by the appointing authority, a university, or both.
6. The bureaucrats receive money salaries and pension rights, which reflect the varying levels of the hierarchy. While the bureaucrats are free to leave the organization, they can be removed from their offices only under previously stated, specific circumstances.
7. The office must be the bureaucrat’s sole or at least major occupation.
8. A career system is essential; while promotion may be the result of either seniority or merit, it must be premised on the judgment of hierarchical superiors.
9. The bureaucrats do not have property rights to their office or any personal claim to the resources that go with it. The bureaucrat’s conduct must be subject to systematic control and strict discipline.

Bureaucracy has been called a concept with a career. Today it has at least four separate meanings:

1. The totality of government offices or bureaus that constitute the permanent government of a state; that is, those people and functions that continues irrespective of changes in political leadership.
2. All of the public officials of a government.
3. A general invective to refer to any inefficient organization encumbered by red tape.
4. A specific set of structural arrangements.
5. Bureaucracy is sometimes called the “fourth branch of government…While technically under control of the executive branch, it sometimes seems to function as if it had a will, power, and legal authority all its own.” (5)
   The Two Main Problems of Bureaucracy

Most people at some time or another complain about two main problems with bureaucracy: inefficiency and arbitrariness, according to political scientist and author James Q. Wilson. Wilson received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1959 and later taught at Harvard and UCLA. (He is well known for his influential

“broken windows” theory of crime (1982), that is, if police and the community ignore public disorder (symbolized by broken windows), then law-abiding people will be intimidated and criminals will get the message that “anything goes.” Many police departments adopted this theory as part of “community policing.” Without good statistics on crime rates, nobody would know what worked in fighting crime.)

Weber was a German sociologist and formulated ideas on the ideal management approach for large organizations. Unlike Taylor and Fayol who tried to solve practical problems related to the activity of managing, Weber was more concerned with the basic issue of structuring the enterprise. He developed a set of ideas about the structure of an organization that define what we know as “bureaucracy.”

The characteristics of an ideal formalized organization or bureaucracy as described by Weber consist of the following set of typical characteristics:

• Division of labor: authority and responsibility are defined very clearly and set out as official duties;
• Hierarchy of authority: office positions are organized in a hierarchy of authority resulting in a chain of command or what is known as “the scalar principle”;
• Formal selection: employees are selected on the basis of technical qualifications (merits) through formal examinations, education or training;
• Career managers: managers are not owners of the units they administer, but professionals who work for fixed salaries and pursue “careers” within their respective fields;
• Formal rules: administrators must function according to strict formal rules and other controls regarding the conduct of their official duties. These rules and controls would be impersonal and uniformly applied.

Because of the emphasis on efficiency that had developed around the turn of the 20th century, many management scholars and practitioners interpreted Weber’s writings on bureaucracy as a prescription for organizing. However, Weber was more interested in developing his bureaucratic type as a method for comparing organizational forms across societies. He believed firmly that not one single organization would conform to the dimensions of his bureaucratic model. He only believed that some organizations would have a close resemblance to his ideal type of bureaucracy. Weber was merely testing his thesis of the modernization of society characterized by rationalization. The more modern societies become, the more rational the citizens will become and the greater the need to create bureaucratic organizations. It was Weber’s interest in the rationality of social life that directed his attention to the study of organizations. On the topic of bureaucracy and efficiency, Wilson wrote: “Efficiency is a ratio of valued resources used to valued outputs produced … The smaller that ratio, the more efficient the production. If the valued output is a rebuilt skating rink, [for example,] then whatever process uses the fewest dollars or the least time to produce a satisfactory rink is the most efficient process.” But, Wilson notes, the valued output may not be only a rebuilt skating rink! Government has many valued outputs, including “a reputation for integrity, the confidence of the people, and the support of important interest groups. When we complain about skating rinks not being built on time we speak as if all we cared about were skating rinks. But when we complain that contracts were awarded without competitive bidding or in a way that allowed bureaucrats to line their pockets we acknowledge that we care about many things besides skating rinks; we care about the on strain that we want government to observe. But is honest and accountable in its actions and properly responsive to worthy constituencies may be a very efficient government, if we measure efficiency by taking into account all of the valued outputs.” Wilson concludes: “A perfectly efficient agency could be a monstrous one, swiftly denying us our liberties, economically inflicting injustices, and competently expropriating our wealth.” Arbitrariness refers to “officials acting without legal authority, or with that authority in a way that offends our sense of justice. Justice means, first, that we require the government to treat people equally on the basis of clear rules known in advance: If Becky and Bob both are driving sixty miles per hour in a thirty-mile-per- hour zone and the police give a ticket to Bob, we believe they also should give a ticket to Becky. Second we believe that justice obliges the government to take into account the special needs and circumstances of individuals: If Becky is speeding because she is on her way to the hospital to give birth to a child and Bob is speeding for the fun of it, we may feel that the police should ticket Bob but not Becky. Justice in the first sense means fairness, in the second it means responsiveness. Obviously, fairness and responsiveness often are in conflict.”  Wilson says “the checks and balances of the American constitutional system reflect our desire to reduce the arbitrariness of official nile. That desire is based squarely on the premise that inefficiency is a small price to pay for freedom and responsiveness. Congressional oversight, judicial review, interest-group participation, media investigations, and formalized procedures all are intended to check administrative discretion.” Constraints such as these reduce the efficiency of an agency but also its arbitrariness. “We want the government to be both fair and responsive, but the more rules impose to insure fairness (that is, to treat all people alike [like Becky and Bob above]), the harder we make it for the government to be responsive (that is, to take into account the special needs and circumstances of a particular case.)”. Americans fear bureaucracy’s use of discretion to guide decisions and actions, and insist on rules, for example, particularly “at the hands of street-level bureaucracies that deal with us as individuals rather than as organized groups and that touch the more intimate aspects of our lives [e.g., police, schools, medical institutions, prisons]. That worry is natural; in these settings we feel helpless and The State seems omnipotent. We want these bureaucracies to treat us fairly but we also want them to be responsive to our particular needs .Did you know that European bureaucracies are less rule-bound than American bureaucracies? This is true, according to Wilson. “The United States relies on rules to control the exercise of official judgment to a greater extent than any other industrialized democracy. The reason … has little to do with the kinds of bureaucrats we have and everything to do with the political environment in which those bureaucrats must work.”

How then does a society strike a reasonable balance between governance by rules and governance by discretion? First, Wilson suggests, we must “sensitize ourselves to the gains and losses associated with  governance by rule rather than by discretion.” We need to be aware that in America rules induce agencies to

1. Produces certain observable outcomes,
2. Create offices, procedures, and claims inside an organization that can protect precarious values, and
3. Specify minimum standards that must be met.

Talented, strongly motivated people usually will find ways of making even rule-ridden systems work to get the job done, says Wilson. Second, if we wish to complain about how rule-ridden our government agencies seem to be, we should direct those complaints not to the agencies but to the Congress, the courts, and the organized interests that make effective use of Congress and the courts.”

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

The Power holding was known in the eighties and nineties for early dispatch of services, result oriented performance and high productivity. It is pathetic to note that these qualities that endeared students and the Nigeria, Anambra state are now extinct today with the following research questions:

• Does bureaucratic structure and control encourage and organization to achieve its objective?
• Does bureaucratic improve decision making?
• Does bureaucratic improve productivity?
• Does bureaucratic improve efficiency in an organization or bureaucratic structure like Power holding
  • OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

The study is aimed at:

1. To know how bureaucracy structure and control encourage an organization to achieve its objectives.
2. To find out how bureaucracy improve decision making.

• To ascertain how bureaucracy improve productivity

1. To determine how bureaucracy improve efficiency I an organization.

1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF STUDY

Since in large organization bureaucracy is eminent and inevitable for the success of such organization, the study shall focus on the Power holding and due to its structural largeness the study shall be narrowed down to the administrative sections:

In the study the researcher encouraged certain constraints that impede the academic work. These are:

1. Time constraints
2. Unwillingness of staff to give out information

• FUNDING other

1. Academic Workload

Time Contract: This posed as a limitation to the study as the time framework constructed by the department forthe kick off of the study was incompatible with our academic work and session bread

Unwillingness the researcher could not gather as much information and facts due to non compliance

and non challant attitude of respondents that workers against the study.

Funding; this is another area of constraint the researcher faced. Finance was not available for mobilization of the work.

Other Academic Workload: The researchers department semester course load was numerous

and cumbersome and thus acted as a limitation factor of the study.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1. The findings in t his study shall be of immense help to administrators and managers in correcting animates coherent in a bureaucracy set up.
2. It will aid the government and organizations to avoid bureaucracy bottle neck red tapism and I do not care attitude portrayed by work.
3. It will also help organization in boosting productivity.
4. Corporate bodies and entrepreneurs that mish to share their own business organization would find this study invaluable in t heir endeavors.
5. Academically, it will help other researchers in further research.

1.6 PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Right from the unset of this world, man has co-operatively organized as a group to work towards a directed goal in a directive manner indeed the prevalence of complex bureaucracies is believed to be the structural frame work in our recent organizations. Against this bed the emergencies of these bureaucracy Organization is so unprecedented and epitomizing of the contemporary era that it is often believed that we are living in the organizational society where people are manned by organization (Proctitis 1962) No less important to mention is the fact these complex organizations are established not only to find solution to given human problems but to do efficiently it is not surprising therefore that in the new turn era, the central concern of several classical social analysis was the issue of how man is going to organize human society in general and more specifically his productive. Activities in the most efficient way to achieve maximum benefits. Adam Smith (1723-1790) advocated that Economic on industrial matters should be left in the hands of economics or industrial elites and agents i.e. (those wast in economic affairs) He was concerned with the problem of organizational productivity. Above all, for max weber (1864-1920) the essence of bureaucratic organization is efficiency. In other words, the peculiar characteristic of bureaucracy enables men to effectively and efficiency deal with and transform the socio-physical environment. It is at this basic that bureaucratic organizations are guided and pirated in man’s bid to perfect and actualize himself through socio-economic development that any impediment to their efficient operations should be vicised seriously. Indeed, the fact that Nigerians fought a civil war six years after independence, followed immediately by another six years of unprecedented oil boom in which extreme materialism took over control of Nigeria’s min’ and total soul, led to the enthronement of indiscipline, corruption and a lot contempt for order honours and excellence within the whole society including the bureaucrat public.

1.7 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

Bureaucracy could be facilitated by the use of theories and models which regarded as conceptual lines. Due to this study the theory to be applied or use to is the system theory: They are numerous scholars system theory but notable among them is David Easton who believes that the system is made up of various

components or units, and of one component or unit is affected it will bed to inefficiency and effectiveness of the other components or units.However, using Power holding as a case study, the polytechnic is representing the system which is made

up of various components or units like the Academic boards, Non Academic units student union, security, internal Audit, public reformations etc. according to system theory of David Easton, if one of the above mentioned components or units is affected, it will lead to inefficiency and effectiveness of the other components or units  because they work collaboratively and that is what bureaucracy is all about.

Furthermore the organization the day to day activities or duties of the Power holding, Anambra state

because that is what bureaucracy structured  organization is all about by David Easton system theory. Lastly, as regards to or research topic, if there is any affected components of the system, it will lead to

inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the other components, which will becomes the impact of bureaucracy in any bureaucratic structured organization like Power holding Anambra state.

1.8 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS

Ho:There is significant relationship between  Bureaucracies and the achievement of Organization; objectives.

Hi: There is no significant relationship between

bureaucracy and the achievement of organizational

objectives.

• DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. An Organization: a group of people who form a business together I other to achieve a goal.
2. b. Bureaucracy: is the official rules and ways of doing things that a government or an organization has
   with positions an authority will defined hierarchically so as to facilitate the attainment of organization goals.
3. c. Administration; a systematic ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources. Aimed at making
   those things which we went to happen (F.M. mac 1984:4)
4. Objectives: something that one tries to achieve, it is also the aim 0 goals an organization or government seek to achieve for clarity sake most of the key concepts used in this research, need the definition.
5. Bureaucracy: consists of a form functions of the government the bureaucratic organization are concerned with administrative functions the execution of policies, and recording of goods and services. Those who work in this organization are referred to as civil servants, expect in military bureaucratic organization where they are referred as to” Soldiers, or military personnel. (source from element of government by Dr. Mrs. Chinelo G.O Nzellbe.
6. e. Public Administration: The intern encyclopedia defined public administration as ” continuously active business part of government concerned with carrying out laws as made by legislative bodies (or other authoritative agents and interpreted by counts through the process of organization and management” Wooddow Wilson defined if as means of detailing and executing public laws systematically.
7. f. Administration: For Bahogun (1983 -84) the term” administration” covers almost every spare of acting as can be taken to mean anything ranging from the direction of affairs of an enterprise to the simple act of paying monthly pension or salaries.
8. Inefficiency: It could be obstacles, anything that impedes or obstructs the proper functioning of bureaucracy. It also a narrow stretch of road which causes traffic to slow down or stop anything that slow down production in a manufacturing process (definition from oxford learning dictionary).
9. h. Red Tapism: Excessive use of formalities in public business; too much attention to rules and regulations.
10. i. Corruption: Demotes immoral, deprecated dishonest (of persons or their action) especially through taking of pre payments (bribes). It means impure or something debased by errors or alterations.
11. Efficient: Capable, able to perform duties well, producing a desired or productive or satisfactory result.
12. k. Effective: Having an effect: able to bring about the result intended, making a stinking impression.
13. L. Preview of the Study: This research work is specially written as one of the repletion of my first diploma programme in the management studies unit of institute of management and technology Enugu (IMT) but it could also serve as a useful research material for other students of public administration in Nigeria or any part of the world. This research work is divided into five chapters. However chapter one deals with the problem and its setting including an introduction. Then an over view of the historical background. Chapter two of this project deals with the review of related literature. In the chapter three, the research deals with presentation analysis and interpretation of data. Chapter four is embodied with the summary of the findings which investigated into Raynaud causes of effects and identifications of variables that ministry against smooth and efficient operation of public administration in Nigeria. Chapter five also contains the recommendation made by the research and
    conclusion drawn. The prominent postulation of the researcher on the study is that bureaucratic decay is a hallmark of a developing economy Buoyant economy is a pre condition for avenile and an enduring bureaucracy and vice versa.

REFERENCES