Bureaucracies are sheltered institutions, that is institutions whose existence is not threatened by their own poor performance.
Institutions are composed of overlapping [goals / mechanisms / cycles of behavior]. The most universal of these goals is self-perpetuation or continued existence.
Each clear example (firm = profit motivated, politician = vote motivated, animal = food motivated) ties back to a respective input for continued existence. Almost universally, existing entities strive against entropy to continue existing, which makes the inputs required for their existence a useful and widely applicable model of their behavior.
Bureaucracies are sheltered. Their existence continues as long as they clear artificially low expectations. They are often protected by larger more functional entities, such as an internal bureaucracy inside an overall productive company, or a house-cat being fed by a human family.
Some bureaucracies are functional. Especially early in their existence, the overlapping [goals / mechanisms / cycles of behavior] in a bureaucracy will be relevant to the problems and technologies on hand. House-cats are still evolutionarily good at catching mice. But as the environment changes, bureaucracies face insufficient pressure to adapt, and thus tend towards dysfunction.
There is no broad “bureaucracies are X-motivated” statement because bureaucracies have no mandatory self-continuation loop, so they lack a common motivator.
Bureaucracies are sheltered institutions, that is institutions whose existence is not threatened by their own poor performance.
Institutions are composed of overlapping [goals / mechanisms / cycles of behavior]. The most universal of these goals is self-perpetuation or continued existence.
Each clear example (firm = profit motivated, politician = vote motivated, animal = food motivated) ties back to a respective input for continued existence. Almost universally, existing entities strive against entropy to continue existing, which makes the inputs required for their existence a useful and widely applicable model of their behavior.
Bureaucracies are sheltered. Their existence continues as long as they clear artificially low expectations. They are often protected by larger more functional entities, such as an internal bureaucracy inside an overall productive company, or a house-cat being fed by a human family.
Some bureaucracies are functional. Especially early in their existence, the overlapping [goals / mechanisms / cycles of behavior] in a bureaucracy will be relevant to the problems and technologies on hand. House-cats are still evolutionarily good at catching mice. But as the environment changes, bureaucracies face insufficient pressure to adapt, and thus tend towards dysfunction.
There is no broad “bureaucracies are X-motivated” statement because bureaucracies have no mandatory self-continuation loop, so they lack a common motivator.