ABSTRACT
Modem bureaucracy has been viewed by many observers as an efficient method of structuring large organizations that perform routine and complex tasks. Modern bureaucracy has its critics in organization theory, as well as among the general public. Their criticisms range from the witty to the sophisticated. Several simple "laws" of bureaucracy draw attention to "dysfunctional", even "pathological", administrative behaviors, that is, behaviors that are considered pathological because they do not enable the organization to accomplish its goals. More serious criticisms of bureaucracy were written in the mid-to-late twentieth century by organization theorists who believed that seemingly desirable characteristics of bureaucracy can become dysfunctional or pathological for the organization. More recent critics of bureaucracy have suggested that public agencies are inherently inefficient because they tend to maximize their own self-interest in a fashion that may be rational for managers and the agency, but pathological for the government and for the public interest.
