Re: New Standards for Freight Cars Models
David North <davenorth@...>
Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control
activity, usually in large organizations and government. As opposed to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhocracy> adhocracy, it is represented by standardized procedure (rule-following), formal division of powers, hierarchy, and relationships. In practice the interpretation and execution of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy> policy can lead to informal influence. It is a concept in <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology> sociology and <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_science> political science referring to the way that the administrative execution and enforcement of legal rules are socially organized. Four structural concepts are central to any definition of bureaucracy: 1. a well-defined division of administrative labor among persons and offices, 2. a personnel system with consistent patterns of recruitment and stable linear careers, 3. a hierarchy among offices, such that the authority and status are differentially distributed among actors, and 4. formal and informal networks that connect organizational actors to one another through flows of information and patterns of cooperation. Examples of everyday bureaucracies include <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government> governments, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_force> armed forces, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation> corporations, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital> hospitals, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court> courts, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_%28government_department%29> ministries and <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School> schools. Hi Tony Given the above definition of bureaucratic, as a past NMRA board member I thank you for your compliment. And I reckon both you and Richard are older than me (and I wasn't the youngest Director), so that hardening of the arteries chip might be misdirected (VBG) As to "quite political"? Yep, that's true. And you can "do standards yourself". Just might mean that no-one else agrees or adheres to them. Establishing industry standards is a different thing. And then having some way to motivate everyone to comply is another level altogether. Seriously, what do people expect the NMRA to do when a manufacturer doesn't comply? We don't issue a C&I Certificate. Someone recently suggested elsewhere that manufacturer be verbally abused. He needs to get a reality check. This is a business relationship. Most manufacturers see the advantage to them of using the standards a) They don't have to reinvent the wheel - the standard is there to use cost free b) Their products will interchange with others - which should make them more attractive to consumers But no one can MAKE them use the standards. It's their prerogative to build things as they wish. What I believe will provide the best result is for modelers to contact the manufacturer and voice their discomfort. I personally feel there is a pressing need for a coupler/coupler box standard. I recently bought some new Athearn RTR, and found while fitting KDs that the post inside the box was a bigger diameter than the traditional size. So I had to shave down the diameter. Didn't take long, but I really shouldn't have to do it. What leaves me confused is why some designer at Athearn decided to change what Athearn have used for the last 40? years at least. What chance have we as hobbyists got, when a company doesn't comply with ITS OWN standards? Cheers Dave North
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