Written Coursework
Leadership and Organisational Behaviour
Beunza
In a recently published research by Market Research Future (2018), it is projected that data analytics will be the booming market of this generation with a CAGR of 30.1% in the next five years and the market value will surpass USD 77.64 billion. In the UK, the industry is expected to generate GBP 241 billion for the economy by 2020. Also, in a big data executive report, 85% surveyed companies reported that their firms have started programs to create data-driven culture (NewVantage Partners, 2017). That is right, the large majority of companies in the world no matter their sizes and industries are taking effort to adapt with this change. Some companies grow organically a team of data scientists while some acquires other data analytics companies to gain the expertise drastically. Both ways of forming a data analytics organisation require the right management strategy. However, the problem is managers of those data analytics organisation cannot rely solely on the traditional leadership and organisational behaviour theories, but rather need to make amendments. The main reason is that there are characteristics of data analytics field certainly differently to traditional workplace as in the theories. One classical organisational behaviour theory that is Max Weber’s Bureaucracy has been used to design many organisational workplaces to increase efficiency and achieve manufacturing target, in particular, after the industrialisation revolution time. However, the Weber’s theory on Bureaucracy is not be totally relevant to later industries such as data analytics, a highlight of industry 4.0. In this essay, it will first briefly mention Weber’s Bureaucracy theory, followed by Bureaucracy theory and discuss the irrelevant points of the theory in data analytics field.
Max Weber (1947) proposed his bureaucratic theory around the structure and administrative process of the organisation with the purpose of reducing the complexity in organisation’s functioning. He defined that the bureaucratic organisational form is characterized by three main features: 1) Specialization and Division of Labour; 2) Hierarchical Authority Structures; 3) Rules and Regulations.
According to Perrow (1986) in his book Complex Organisation, where organisation strive towards efficiency and tasks are stable and routine-based such as in industrial societies, Weber’s rational bureaucracy theory is the most relevant approach of administration. However, the nature of data analytics is totally opposite to stable and routine and neither striving for efficiency is the priority for most companies in data analytics field today but perhaps diversity and creativity are. Burns and Stalker (1961) also criticize the “ever greater administrative complexity has brought a wide range of bureaucratic positions and career into being” to firms and as a result, affecting the production of innovations. IBM (2018) states very clear that their va...
