Red Tape, Organizational Performance, and Employee Outcomes: A Meta- Analysis

Abstract

Due to the legacy of the Weberian bureaucracy, bureaucratic red tape (BRT) is omnipresent in public organizations. While the procedures underlying BRT might have been stipulated to ensure equal and fair treatment of citizens, too many procedures become counterproductive. Indeed, there is widespread consensus among public administration scholars that BRT carries negative consequences. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research synthesis on the topic. We conduct a meta- analysis of 90 correlations from 26 public administration articles and ask: What is the impact of BRT on organizational performance and employee outcomes, and which conditions moderate this impact? Our meta-analysis finds that BRT has a significant, negative and small- to-medium impact on organizational performance and employee outcomes. Meta-regression shows that BRT is less harmful to organizational performance in E.U. compared to U.S. samples and in public organizations compared to private organizations. Moreover, external BRT is less harmful to organizational performance than internal BRT.