Shaking up the Bureaucracies

Abstract

In this chapter, we assess the degree of organisational change achieved in Islington and Tower Hamlets and, where possible, the impact of this upon service delivery. Do the new arrangements constitute a radical departure from the traditional bureaucratic forms that Weber (1948) outlined? In classical terms, bureaucracies have been perceived as ordered hierarchies of centralised command, relying heavily upon specialisation and formal procedures. In the context of governmental institutions the bureaucratic form has influenced the development of a particular kind of social relation between these institutions on the one hand and individuals and communities on the other — one characterised by the remoteness and impermeability of the organisation.