Industrial Administration in Communist East Europe

The author discusses three administrative problems which appear endemic to Communist industrial organizations: (a) externally imposed overbureaucratization, (b) conflict between the managerial responsibilities of the plant manager and the politically supported authority of works councils and plant committees, and (c) informal managerial practices which circumvent the rationale of economic planning but are indispensable to operational flexibility. Taking the coal industry of Communist Czechoslovakia as a specific example, the author analyzes these problems on the basis of public criticisms and industrial performance records published in Czechoslovakia. Gerhard W. Ditz is a research analyst in The Prudential Insurance Company of America and lecturer in sociology at Hunter College, New York.