Max Weber’s theories on bureaucracy, as a form of social organization, contained a number of references to the dysfunctions of this type of social organization. A key idea is that they are iron cages where the ability to act outside the system is stifled, which in turn harms people who depend on an organization’s response to a crisis.

A good example of this “stifling” effect is one that Floridians know well — the government’s response to hurricanes. How many of us have been or know someone who has been impacted by a hurricane, and then further victimized by a government who fails to provide relief to victims, or by endless processes, procedures and red tape that creates barriers to timely relief.

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