ABSTRACT
New organizational forms often arise out of the recasting of roles, relationships and tasks within organizations at the expense of traditional bureaucratic modes of control, yet there continues to be conflicting evidence about its overall success. In this chapter, we explore the implications of developments for the practice of HRM by seeking to understand the key characteristics of the bureaucratic form and the various conditions perceived as necessary for its successful implementation. Through this we evaluate the pressures faced by contemporary work organizations, which are often seen to be undermining the viability of the bureaucratic form and ostensibly encouraging the evolution of post-bureaucratic systems. The nature of post-bureaucratic forms of organization is reviewed within the lens of implications for HRM praxis while considering alternative views of contemporary organizational change which cast some doubt upon the claims of this post-bureaucratic thesis.
