h, this is a moral issue because he sees bureaucratic behavior as an evil, one most clearly illustrated in the defunct Soviet system, though it was active when Weyrich wrote about the subject:
While the Soviet bureaucracy is the world's worst, many of these things--the rigid plan, the numbing effect on individuals of stupid orders that must be obeyed, the directors' interest in nothing but their own personal well-being--are common to all bureaucracies, including many of the ones here (Weyrich, 1984, 191).
However, it is not clear that the mode of thinking being criticized by Weyrich is as pervasive as he makes out or as prone to replace a more traditional emphasis on the product, and indeed there is evidence that he is wrong at least in terms of the private sector. Certainly there are bureaucrats in all areas who can be considered courtiers, but the success of a few such people does not mean the trend is all negative and that people with a different style are not valued and successful. Indeed, since 1984 when Weyrich wrote those words, there has been considerable effort to shift to a different bureaucratic structure in business in part because of the perception that the japanese were succeeding were we were not and that bureaucratic style might have something to do with that fact.
Japanese firms in the United States have introduced the team concept and work teams similar to what are found in Japan. Such firms are primarily producing automobiles and electronics, and they have been successful in creating a different conception of the work environment to a great extent. Some critics find these firms as marginal, and even when effective, their system is not easily translatable to American enterprises. Others find these new firms to be less effective than claimed and to have employee problems of their own. The change from the traditional management structure to the team concept in these Japanese-owned American firms involve...