If you haven't read Parkinson's Law you should. Its only just over 4 pages and explains brilliantly how bureaucracies proliferate and become a means in themselves. Once you have read it you will understand the mentality that turns all government cuts (or lack of increased spending which is what we are really seeing) into cuts in front line services instead of cuts in bureaucracies and improvements in efficiencies.
I know that to some extent I'm about to preach to the choir but you never know who also visits this site and its always worth going back to first principles as a reminder of how simple things really are.
In all organisations we have managers and administrators who ensure that whatever service or widget is being delivered money is spent and collected and that the people who deliver the final product get paid and looked after. Like it or not these are crucial roles; but the trick is knowing which ones are crucial and which have evolved into jobs for job's sake. As the old saying goes about advertising, everyone knows that advertising spend is only 50% effective, the problem is we don't know which 50%.
For the ease of writing lets call these managers and administrators manistrators. When we analyse an organisation we can look at the ratio of manistrators to front line workers as a way of measuring our efficiency. if the ratio goes up we are becoming more efficient, conversely if it goes down we are becoming less efficient. Simples. This should be something that is constantly being monitored by good managers and even when I was in the army in the '80s we managed the support services Vs teeth arms ratio.
So lets look at the approach of industry and a government bureaucracy to cuts and take nursing as an example, because this the one that always hits the headlines whenever there is talk about cuts. For the sake of argument lets assume that the ratio of manistrators to nurses is 10:1. I've no idea of the exact number, but it I'll bet that's on the high side.
So, when the nasty ConDems come along and say to the NHS that you will have to cut your budget by £Xm, Parkinson's law shows us how senior manistratos look at the problem with a bureaucrats keen eye. The bureaucrat will conclude that if the cuts mean that, say, 20 manistratos are to be cut that means that 200 nurses need to be cut as well, to maintain the ratio and to grab headlines and make their political point. I suspect the more scurrilous ones will start by cutting nurses and just let the ratio worsen.
In private industry the mindset is different. When the order comes to cut costs because sales are falling and/or profits need to improve the mindset is different. Managers look at ways of improving the ratio of manistrators and other costs to front line services. In good organisations and well run companies this is a constant battle and anyone who doesn't get it right is soon on their way out. Those resources/costs now freed up are invested elsewhere and give us further improvements or goods and services that we want. This we call progress and it is how as a society we get wealthier.
And what drives private industry to constantly improve? Competition. And what is missing in our average government bureaucracy? Yes, competition.
If you think this is simplistic libertarian bullshit then you need to read this. As Tim Worstall points out the Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that:
“Because inputs grew a little faster than output, productivity over the whole period fell, on average by 0.3 per cent.”
He gives real numbers to what this means to us in terms of Parkinson's Law making us poorer and the post is worth a read.
2 comments:
There is a book you know, that the few pages you quote come from. Called 'Parkinsons Law' by C.Northecote Parkinson. A must read for anyone wishing to understand why State bureaucracy always grows larger.
He also wrote another book on similar lines which I think was called 'The Law and the Profits'.
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