Bureaucracy is one of those things that people like to bash, but don’t really spend much time considering what it is or what it’s meant for.

“Bureaucracy is when stupid form” is a superficial understanding of an organizational structure intended to:

• mirror the dominant governing structure, so everyone has a shared frame of reference for how decisions get made
• help keep authority is tied to a position/role rather than to an individual to reduce instances of nepotism and favoritism
• standardize oversight structures so there’s a clear accountability chain
• champion expertise so there are people who comprehend important peripheral aspects of a discipline/profession/industry that can cause compounding downstream issues

There are certainly poorly run, poorly organized, and intentionally misused bureaucracies. And we all have nightmare stories of getting bound up in procedural hell. But organizational alternatives for large, complex organizations usually end up being less efficient and more convoluted while also being less effective.