Listening to Bureaucrats and Changing Bureaucracy

Turning to the case study which will be used throughout this the last chapter, it is now time to go beyond the fundamental alliance which has structured the relationship between the leaders of bureaucracy on one hand and consultants whom we might call ‘classic’ – those who focus on process, structures, procedures – on the other. The first, most often outstanding, intelligent1 … and sometimes cynical, are panic-stricken in the face of the sheer scale of their task. They do not see how they could succeed where so many others failed, faced as they are with motionless rank and file, fixated on its most recently won privileges and always ready to join in with the unions, which are also constructed around these bureaucracies and are well-adapted to their mode of functioning, their compartmentalization, their occupations.