MOVING FROM BUREAUCRACY TO ADHOCRACY: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TOWARDS TORWARDS AN IMPROVED OPERATIONS STRATEGY

Abstract

This review paper seeks to analyse and elucidate on the depth and extent of public sector managers’ involvement in creating, inculcating and sustaining an innovative culture in their public spheres thus shifting from bureaucracy and adopting an adhocratic organisational culture. This process involved a systematic review, synthesis and analysis of several articles, journals and books as a n exhaustive review of literature. A selection of articles and journals articulating the concepts of bureaucracy, adhocracy and public sector innovation were analysed. This analysis revealed that there is a paradigm shift in the organisational culture, design and strategy of some public sector organisations and institutions as they seemingly incorporate bureaucracy, adhocracy and innovation as an endeavour to adapt to the dynamic nature of the public service and as a mechanism to enhance organisational functionality and capability of the state to deliver services. This paper further establishes a glaring and inherent relationship between adhocracy culture and strategy implementation as outlined and described in Quin’s theory of Competing Values Framework (CVF) supported by McKinsey 7S Framework. This paper analyses the current highly bureaucratised public sector can implement and infuse in their organisational structure, operations and culture adhocracies towards the realisation of the public sector innovation concept. The analysed articles are relevant and befitting to the topic as they link bureaucracy and adhocracy and how a possible shift can bring about an innovative and creative public service. A qualitative research approach was used where existing literature collected as research empiricism and the empirical findings of the articles were documented. This review paper is novel because it seeks to contribute to the current debate in the literature of public sector innovation through the use adhocracy and bureaucracy. This paper concludes that there is a symbiotic relationship between adhocracy, strategy implementation and innovation It recommends that the leadership and management of public sector organisations should work towards a structure of establishing a structure that accommodates adhocracy within their organisation as a recipe for effective strategy implementation and innovation. Both operational and strategic levels of leadership and management should be structured such an adhocratic culture within the organisation prevails in order to drive innovation through a paradigm shift from a bureaucratic approach to an innovative culture through adhocracy. Implications of this paper include a revision of the Department of Public Service Administration’s Operations Management Framework operations strategy to entail adhocracy as a central tenet in formulating the Service Delivery Model, Service Delivery Improvement Plan and Organisational structure design. This paper further recommends a similar survey to be undertaken in individual government departments and further pursuit of adhocracy culture in other semi government organisations to test appositeness.