Bureaucracy Experience in Japan

Here is a bureaucracy that I experienced when I was working in Japan. This pertains to the bureaucracy concept in Chapter 3. I was working for a large clothing manufacturer at the time, managing a retail shop. This turns out to be a story of "double bureaucracy" as the retain shops were actually small tenant boutiques within larger stores. It would be sort of like having a "company x" boutique inside a Nordstrom or Macy's here in the U.S. The manufactuer's hierarchy was full of managers, directors, vice presidents and so forth. Then, the store itself had its own (similar) hierarchy. Unfortunately, the goals of the two organizations were not always the same and that could cause conflict between the floor manager of the department store vs. the shop (boutique) manager such as myself. These conflicts would arise on a variety of issues; for example, from what hours to work to how to manage our merchandise sales. This experience came to mind when I read the 6 bureaucratic characteristics on p. 77.