Administrative Delay, Red Tape, and Organizational Performance

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary statistics for the eight organizational activities comprising administrative delay.

Variable	Obs.	M	SD
Hiring full-time employee	903	11.9	18.1
Firing full-time employee	770	12.7	21.5
Buying low-cost equipment	890	10.1	15.6
Buying high-cost equipment	776	23.1	24.0
Reorganizing a department or unit	777	24.6	25.2
Starting a minor project	978	9.2	16.3
Starting a major project	922	20.0	22.9
Contracting out a project	646	27.6	27.5

Note: Of the 1254 survey respondents, 144 marked “Do Not Know” to each organizational task, and 498 respondents provided estimates for each task.

Table 2. Summary statistics.

Variable	Obs.	M	SD	Min	Max
General red tape	1254	5.03	2.83	0.00	10.00
Red tape complaints	1254	4.52	2.92	0.00	10.00
Red tape service ability	1254	4.61	2.89	0.00	10.00
Administrative delay (standardized average)	1110	–0.05	0.73	–0.90	4.07
For-profit business	1254	0.67	0.47	0	1
Faith based nonprofit	1254	0.04	0.19	0	1
Other nonprofit	1254	0.10	0.30	0	1
Federal government	1254	0.03	0.18	0	1
State government	1254	0.09	0.28	0	1
Local government	1254	0.05	0.22	0	1
Org. Size: 1–4	1254	0.03	0.17	0	1
Org. Size: 5–20	1254	0.14	0.34	0	1
Org. Size: 21–100	1254	0.20	0.40	0	1
Org. Size: 101–500	1254	0.20	0.40	0	1
Org. Size: 500+	1254	0.44	0.50	0	1
Job in org. hierarchy: Highest level	1254	0.01	0.09	0	1
Job in org. hierarchy: Lower high	1254	0.05	0.22	0	1
Job in org. hierarchy: High-mid-level	1254	0.13	0.34	0	1
Job in org. hierarchy: Low-mid-level	1254	0.31	0.46	0	1
Job in org. hierarchy: Upper low	1254	0.30	0.46	0	1
Job in org. hierarchy: Lowest level	1254	0.20	0.40	0	1
Age	1254	35.31	10.84	18	82
Female	1254	0.54	0.50	0	1
Part-time employee	1254	0.16	0.36	0	1
Average number of hours worked per week	1254	38.70	9.83	1	81
Job tenure	1254	5.48	5.99	0	42
Job role: Management	1254	0.20	0.40	0	1
Job role: Information technology	1254	0.11	0.31	0	1
Job role: Professional	1254	0.31	0.46	0	1
Job role: Administrative support	1254	0.18	0.39	0	1
Job role: Sales	1254	0.13	0.34	0	1
Job role: Other	1254	0.19	0.39	0	1

Note: Job roles were not mutually exclusive choices for survey respondents, which is why their total does not add up to 100% in addition to rounding errors.

Table 3. Prediction of general red tape.

Variables	(1)	(2)
Administrative delay (standardized average)		0.86***
		(0.11)
Faith based nonprofit	0.69*	0.45
	(0.36)	(0.34)
Other nonprofit	0.86***	0.78***
	(0.26)	(0.27)
Federal government	2.63***	2.10***
	(0.36)	(0.38)
State government	1.34***	1.19***
	(0.26)	(0.26)
Local government	1.70***	1.42***
	(0.34)	(0.37)
Org. Size: 1–4	–2.61***	–2.19***
	(0.41)	(0.42)
Org. Size: 5–20	–1.44***	–1.28***
	(0.25)	(0.26)
Org. Size: 21–100	–0.92***	–0.84***
	(0.21)	(0.21)
Org. Size: 101–500	–0.79***	–0.72***
	(0.20)	(0.22)
Org. hierarchy: Lower high	0.01	0.10
	(0.79)	(0.76)
Org. hierarchy: High-mid-level	0.63	0.77
	(0.77)	(0.75)
Org. hierarchy: Low-mid-level	1.24	1.34*
	(0.76)	(0.74)
Org. hierarchy: Upper low	1.28*	1.55**
	(0.76)	(0.74)
Org. hierarchy: Lowest level	0.86	1.09
	(0.77)	(0.75)
Age	0.01	0.00
	(0.01)	(0.01)
Female	–0.07	0.032
	(0.16)	(0.16)
Average number of hours worked per week	0.02***	0.02***
	(0.01)	(0.01)
Job tenure	0.01	0.01
	(0.02)	(0.02)
Job role controls	Yes	Yes
Constant	2.82***	3.07***
	(0.89)	(0.88)
R2	0.18	0.23
F-Statistic	15.54***	17.30***
Observations	1,254	1,110

Notes: Dependent variable: general red tape scale. Robust standard errors in parentheses. Base cases for group dummy variables: Org. hierarchy–highest level; Org. size–500 or greater; Org. sector–for-profit business.

***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.

Table 4. Predicting red tape–related client complaints.

Variables	(3)	(4)
Administrative delay (standardized average)		0.84***
		(0.12)
Faith based nonprofit	0.20	−0.01
	(0.36)	(0.36)
Other nonprofit	0.48*	0.39
	(0.28)	(0.29)
Federal government	2.16***	1.67***
	(0.41)	(0.41)
State government	1.72***	1.46***
	(0.26)	(0.27)
Local government	1.58***	1.26***
	(0.38)	(0.40)
Org. Size: 1–4	−2.02***	−1.69***
	(0.52)	(0.53)
Org. Size: 5–20	−1.56***	−1.52***
	(0.27)	(0.28)
Org. Size: 21–100	−0.74***	−0.74***
	(0.22)	(0.22)
Org. size: 101–500	−0.60***	−0.59***
	(0.21)	(0.22)
Job in org. hierarchy: Lower high	0.37	0.45
	(0.74)	(0.69)
Job in org. hierarchy: High-mid-level	1.09	1.17*
	(0.71)	(0.66)
Job in org. hierarchy: Low-mid-level	1.29*	1.34**
	(0.70)	(0.66)
Job in org. hierarchy: Upper low	1.51**	1.68**
	(0.70)	(0.66)
Job in org. hierarchy: Lowest level of the organization	0.85	0.95
	(0.72)	(0.68)
Age	−0.00	−0.01
	(0.01)	(0.01)
Female	0.18	0.22
	(0.16)	(0.17)
Average number of hours worked per week	0.01	0.02
	(0.01)	(0.01)
Job tenure	0.00	0.00
	(0.02)	(0.02)
Job role controls	Yes	Yes
Constant	2.68***	3.03***
	(0.85)	(0.84)
R^2	0.14	0.19
F-statistic	10.81***	12.37***
Observations	1,254	1,110

Notes: Dependent variable: Red tape plays part in citizen or client complaints. Robust standard errors in parentheses. Base cases for group dummy variables: Org. hierarchy–highest level; org. size–500 or greater; orgsector–for-profit business.

***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.

Table 5. Predicting red tape–related service ability.

Variables	(5)	(6)
Administrative delay (standardized average)		0.88***
		(0.12)
Faith-based nonprofit	0.61*	0.44
	(0.37)	(0.36)
Other nonprofit	0.79***	0.73***
	(0.27)	(0.27)
Federal government	2.34***	1.87***
	(0.40)	(0.39)
State government	1.44***	1.29***
	(0.26)	(0.27)
Local government	1.78***	1.38***
	(0.36)	(0.38)
Org. size: 1–4	−1.96***	−1.49***
	(0.51)	(0.51)
Org. size: 5–20	−1.21***	−1.09***
	(0.27)	(0.28)
Org. size: 21–100	−0.68***	−0.61***
	(0.21)	(0.22)
Org. size: 101–500	−0.67***	−0.63***
	(0.21)	(0.22)
Org. hierarchy: Lower high	0.64	0.75
	(0.69)	(0.72)
Org. hierarchy: High-mid-level	1.40**	1.55**
	(0.67)	(0.70)
Org. hierarchy: Low-mid-level	1.72***	1.86***
	(0.65)	(0.69)
Org. hierarchy: Upper low	1.69**	1.95***
	(0.66)	(0.70)
Org. hierarchy: Lowest level	1.12*	1.35*
	(0.67)	(0.72)
Age	0.00	−0.01
	(0.01)	(0.01)
Female	0.18	0.25
	(0.16)	(0.17)
Average number of hours worked per week	0.03***	0.02**
	(0.01)	(0.01)
Job tenure	0.00	0.01
	(0.02)	(0.02)
Job role controls	Yes	Yes
Constant	2.09***	2.27***
	(0.82)	(0.87)
R^2	0.14	0.19
F-Statistic	10.76***	13.30***
Observations	1,254	1,110

Notes: Dependent variable: Red tape affects the organization’s ability to serve clients. Robust standard errors in parentheses. Base cases for group dummy variables: Org. hierarchy–Highest level; Org. size–500 or greater; Org. sector–for-profit business.

***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.

Table

Variable	F1	F2
Hiring full-time employee	0.66
Firing full-time employee	0.54
Buying low-cost equipment	0.78
Buying high-cost equipment	0.81
Reorganizing a department or unit	0.70
Starting a minor project	0.70	−0.42
Starting a major project	0.81
Contracting out a project	0.69

Notes: n = 498. Only coefficients of >0.30 are presented.