Evidence for Practice

Toward a More General Perspective on Organization Structure and Red Tape

Methods

Results

Conclusion

References

Abstract:

Most research has conceptualized red tape as being a pathological subset of organizational formalization. This article argues that focusing on a single dimension of organizational structure as a red tape driver is unrealistically narrow. Specifically, the article advances hypotheses as to how organizational centralization and hierarchy affect perceived red tape, in addition to formalization. This reasoning is tested using survey data from employees of three local government organizations in the southeastern United States. All three hypotheses are supported: higher levels of organizational formalization, centralization, and hierarchy are associated with more red tape. Open-ended comments also indicate that red tape is not solely perceived as related to formalization. The findings imply that red tape is a multifaceted perception of organizational structure rather than perceived pathological formalization.

Toward a More General Perspective on Organization Structure and Red Tape

Red tape research has historically focused on formalization as the primary influence on red tape (Bozeman and Feeney 2011). This is partly due to the way red tape has mostly been operationalized, as “rules, regulations, and procedures that remain in force and entail a compliance burden for the organization but have no efficacy for the rules’ functional object” (Bozeman 1993, 283). In a departure from red tape research, this article conceptualizes red tape as a function of organizational structure generally and of formalization, centralization, and hierarchy specifically. Centralization and hierarchy are constructed as distinct aspects of organizational structure, based on early theory and evidence delineating the two concepts (Aiken and Hage 1966; Pugh et al. 1968; Hall 1963; Rainey 2014).