Relational Bureaucracy: On the Boundary of Relational and Bureaucratic Organizing

• In Event: Empirical and Conceptual Views of Organizations, Actors, and Practices

Abstract

We conceptualize a hybrid organizational form – relational bureaucracy – distinguished by its ability to achieve the rapid, caring and relatively efficient responses of the relational form while achieving the scalability and replicability of the bureaucratic form. The key to relational bureaucracy is using formalization to embed reciprocal relationships between worker-worker (relational coordination), worker-manager (relational control) and worker-client (relational coproduction) into work roles themselves, by providing participants with cognitive and emotional visibility into how they connect with the whole. This paper argues that relational bureaucracy supports the caring and relational practices that are needed more than ever today in educational settings for young children.

Author

• Anne Douglass, University of Massachusetts - Boston