When you study public administration, the management of government, you learn about the various organizational structures. Here in America (and most other places), we employ an organizational scheme that looks like a pyramid . . . and it's a lousy approach to creating a system that works properly. I don't think anyone sat down with a ruler and pen and devised the thing; it built itself, according to Parkinson's theory. A job is given one person, and in time he feels overburdened with it and wants help. Two more jobs under him are created, and the pyramid begins. So, we've got A at the top, and C and B, under him . . . and sooner or later C and B decide they need help. Under B, two jobs are created, and we can call them D and E. Not to be outdone, C demands help, and F and G are created. The pyramid grows.
This looks like a good approach to management. You've got a boss at the top, underlings below him, and underlings below the underlings . . . and everyone supposedly understands their role. Job specialzation is created to fit the people employed to take care of such matters. But as the pyramid grows, confusion arises. This is understandable because even if I know exactly how I fit into the pyramid, know what I'm supposed to do, I most often don't know what others are doing . . . and I lose sight of the overall goals of the organization. A pyramid creates unhealthy competition. Job specialization makes workers protective of their particular field of expertise, and a pyramid isn't one sided. How can I know, if I'm somewhere down the pyramid at a F or G level, what other people in my organization are doing on the other side of the pyramid. I can look up and down it on my side, but I'm blind to the other sides. And that's just one of the problems with the pyramid.
American government is set up like this, as are state governments, and country and city governments. Experts in the field of public administration, which was my field of study, have been telling us for a long time that our system is flawed, that it needs to be changed. Nobody listens because it's hard to attack the pyramid, even harder to tear it down. Many companies, megabuck businesses, also employ the pyramid, but some of the better ones have gone to something else. And if all this sounds nitpicking and insignificant, think of it this way. Would you want a car or house that requires you to fit it? Why not build the car or the house to fit you? User friendly, I think that's the word we use this day and age, and our government structure is definitely not user friendly. We face enormous obstacles under this system when it comes to change, one reason it's so hard to reform the health care system. It sucks, is bottom rung when it comes to providing health care to the masses, but we can't seem to change it. Education needs a complete overhaul in America, but we can't get it done, and part of the reason is due to the pyramid . . . that damn pyramind.
I'll follow this up with some suggestions on what structures would work better, but there's not much use in doing that until you start to see the need for change. And we haven't seen that, and that's a shame on us thing.
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