The post-bureaucratic parasite: Contrasting narratives of organizational change in local government
研究澳大利亚新南威尔士州一个地方议会中学习、官僚制与后官僚制的关系，对比了后官僚制的文化叙事、管理叙事和员工学习叙事，发现后官僚制像寄生虫一样依赖并干扰官僚制，但未实质性挑战它。
This article investigates the relationship between learning, bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy as manifest in a local government council in the Australian state of New South Wales. Empirically, we compare the culturally dominant narrative of the necessity and desirability of post-bureaucracy in public management, the managerial narrative of this particular organization and its restructure, and the local accounts of learning from employees who were immersed in the changing work environment. Our analysis confirms that post-bureaucracy is not an ideal form that exceeds or surpasses bureaucracy, but acts as another marker for the bureaucracy’s ability to survive and adapt. The article’s contribution lies in its exploration of the character of this adaptation. We contend that post-bureaucracy acts a parasite that both relies on and disturbs the practice of bureaucracy while failing to substantively challenge it. Moreover, like a parasite post-bureaucracy requires the ongoing vitality of its host in order to continue to nourish itself.