The failure of participatory management

Abstract

Bureaucracy has reached its limits. The simplicity and power of top‐down, rule‐based administration created competitive advantage in the past, but blocks the responsiveness and continuous innovation that are the keys today. That is why “teamwork” and “empowerment” are seen almost everywhere as the road to success. But middle managers increasingly report that these changes increase bureaucracy and organizational politics. Their experience is that the organizations they work in have become more rule‐bound and narrowly focused rather than less, and less entrepreneurial rather than more. What has gone wrong?

Citation

(1997), "The failure of participatory management", Management Development Review, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 148-150. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000004413