The following text is my attempt to translate "Das Roeder-Institut oder... eine gute Verwaltung ist alles" by H. Eisenlohr, found on http://storch.0catch.com/verwaltung.htm, published as "Das Roeder Institut, Wiener Journal 6, 1982". I tried to translate the text as closely as possible.
Having held different roles at a few different institutions (e.g. Universität Hamburg, HAW Hamburg, Imperial College London, University of California at Berkeley, University of Bristol), I noticed many similarities across institutions. Some occurrences reminded me of this German short story my father had shown me many, many years ago. This short story offers an interesting, timeless depiction of "a good administration".
Wiener Journal 6, 1982
translated by Dr. Marie Tolkiehn
(Translation dated: February 2019, revision 1.0)
I myself had been a member of the Roeder Institute as a research assistant for a while in the mid-fifties, but went abroad for better job prospects. Back then, members of the Roeder Institute were in demand throughout the civilized world, thanks to its outstanding scientific reputation, and received tempting offers in research and industrial laboratories. Over many years I stayed in touch with some of my former colleagues and bosses. However, slowly but surely, the scientific connection weakened and finally discontinued altogether. Several members of the Roeder Institute had also emigrated, and it seemed to me that for some inexplicable reason their successors were no longer interested in expanding that branch of basic research whose development had earned the world-wide reputation of the institute. That was how I more and more lost sight of the fate and work of my former institute, yet not entirely. Once a year, when the new Yearbook of Scientific Institutions arrived in our library, I searched for the relevant entries of the Roeder Institute and looked up who the scientists working at the institute were and which major papers were published by the institute. As you could plainly see, the once so famous institute had lost its scientific significance. With budgets initially increasing over the years, the number of scientific staff constantly declined, and some major works have not been published. With concern, I expected a time when the Roeder Institute would not be mentioned in the yearbook any longer. This finally happened this year.
The inglorious passing of the Roeder Institute had its reasons, and I wanted to and had to learn them. The right opportunity arose this year in spring. The organizers of a scientific conference which I was required to actively take part in, had chosen the capital of my home country as the venue. I decided to take this opportunity to visit the nearby Roeder Institute.
I looked forward to this visit. For obvious reasons, I had imagined the institute building with partly closed shutters and with a grey, crumbling façade. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised to see not only the old building in new plaster, but next to it a new, modern, about ten-floor institute building, both shining in a busy blue of neon lights. The parking lot, previously sparsely occupied by bicycles and small cars, seemed completely occupied with mostly large, expensive sedans. Also a novelty, the name Roeder-INSTITUTE was written in large, silver letters above the entrance. The entrance itself, previously more watched than guarded by a shirt-sleeved caretaker, was now flanked by two low-rise glass porter’s lodges occupied by uniformed guards. I was given an application form to enter my name, my passport number, date, time and the name of the person to visit. The latter caused me some embarrassment, because the names of some of my former colleagues were unknown to the guard officer. Finally, however, remembering the director of the institute's library spared my blushes. Mr. B. was still in office, so I entered his name on the form. The guardsman stamped the form, signed it and accompanied me to the reception of the institute. I do not want to describe the procedure in detail that took place during the following half hour. Suffice to say that my entries in the registration form were transferred by one of the dozen or so ladies of that office to a computer card of which a good twenty copies were made. Two of them were handed to me with the instructions to hand one over in the vestibule of the senior librarian and to return one to the guard upon leaving the institute. “Dear God”, I thought, “now I understand why the old Roeder Institute was erased from the scientific annals. Apparently, it must have been converted into a research laboratory with secret national defence tasks”, and at that very moment I regretted having come here. But I would soon be proven wrong. A little later, in the familiar surroundings of the Institute's library, Librarian B., who was visibly pleased with my unexpected visit, told me in great detail how it had come to the remarkable change of the institution.
"After the unexpected death of the former head of the institute, Professor W., who had secured the scientific reputation of the institute international fame", B. began his report, "his first assistant, a young, gifted and very ambitious scientist, became the head of the institute. Initially, everything went its usual course. But soon the new director began to feel the burden of a newfound double function as scientific and administrative director of the institute. Less and less time, he complained occasionally, would remain for his actual scientific interests. Two years after assuming office, he appealed to the relevant ministry with a request to add a second director to his administrative duties. His wish was met, the new director came and turned out to be a true organizational genius. He was completely baffled, he said in a meeting of all group leaders called by him a few days after assuming office, that he had no idea how the institute's operations functioned in recent years without the most primitive administrative facilities. To mention a very blatant example, a modern institute enterprise would not be conceivable without the assistance of a central registry for incoming and outgoing correspondence. The time of highly specialized scientists would be far too precious to waste them on ancillary work such as correspondence with companies, procurement of laboratory and office materials, the creation of files, etc., etc. The most modern methods of administration and office technology would be just good enough for our institute, especially with regard to international competition in all areas of science."
"So this was ten years ago", continued B., "and initially some of the administrative innovations did not seem so unreasonable, even though the majority of scientists was rather skeptical of the new director's suggestions. But time was on his side, the state treasury was full, and the research institutes were generously supported. First, for the central registry a computer for personal data processing was set up and various administrative assistants were hired. The new director of the administration was soon joined by competent clerks in finance, purchasing, property management, payroll, and social welfare. But it soon became apparent that one individual case worker could not handle the work load alone. In particular, in the event of illness and holidays, it came to severe stoppages in the operation, for example, if the procurement of an important device or even office supplies were delayed excessively during prolonged absences of the responsible for purchasing officials. It soon proved necessary to double the key posts of the administration. This double occupation, however, meant that at certain times some of these people were not working at full capacity. With the well-meant intention of proving useful to the Institute even at such times, and perhaps a little in an attempt to keep their raison d'être evident, some of them began to draft forms and questionnaires to unify certain internal processes and their obligatory use sanctioned by the administrative director. Soon there was no actual or conceivable internal process that was not initiated by such forms. But once it was formally initiated in this way, i.e. stamped, countersigned by the respective clerk and by his bureau chief, then a reliable, albeit very slow, machinery had been set up which had only one drawback: that any changes in deadlines or device specifications, as they commonly occur in any scientific institution, required such intricate intervention on the detailed bureaucratic process that they should be avoided at all costs. Leaflets have been drafted, approved and reproduced to help applicants to complete these forms correctly.
In order to exclude misdirections in the meanwhile surged internal file traffic and to make office names understandable the house computer, a coordination office was created, whose director chose the name DIRCOO. Following this example, all other understandable but outdated office names were replaced by meaningful, neutral abbreviations from the computer language. For example, the office of the head of the scientific group Oxide Research was renamed HEADOX. DIRCOO, arguably the most important man in the house today, is a highly efficient expert in his field, and his coordination office is now the institute's largest department. Every document produced somewhere in the house comes to the coordination office before it reaches the central registry, where it is photocopied and microfilmed in the required numbers. Then his information content is analysed by a cyberneticist and translated into computer language. The computer then compares this information with all entries stored since the office was established. Contradictory statements are thus quickly and safely discovered and can be easily eliminated.
Resulting from all these measures, the administrative department of the Roeder Institute soon outgrew the size of the scientific groups, resulting in another administrative problem. Whilst the administrators were meticulously adhering to their eight-hour daily working hours, the scientists had scheduled their working hours individually, both in terms of experimental laboratory work and also depending on differing periods of mental activity. Such archaic states could no longer be tolerated in a well-ordered institute. Time clocks were introduced and a number of inspectors were appointed, whose function was to check the time cards of the staff of the institute and forward them to DIRCOO.
At this time, the first scientists, mostly younger, terminated their employment with the Roeder Institute. As a reason for their dismissal, they argue that their work was not only not supported by the administration of the institute, but, on the contrary, that it was impeded to an unbearable extent and that there was no time left to publish their scientific work. The budget funds that became available were used to further expand the administration. The position of deputy administrative director, which since long has become necessary, was applied for and approved by the Ministry. One of his actions was the introduction of monthly reports. Each employee was required to submit a monthly report on his activities. Of this report, for which three days were reserved for, six copies were to be submitted to the Coordination Office and the Central Internal Distribution Registry. A short version had to be completed and submitted in triplicate to the documentation office. Although other scientists soon left the institute, the administrative apparatus continued to expand. After having gained the necessary additional offices by outsourcing the laboratories to the cellars, the construction of a new administration tower had to be considered. It's the modern, ten-story structure", said B., "which you'll probably have seen from the street earlier.
When the general recession became apparent a few years ago, the budget of the Roeder Institute was not unaffected. However, the Institute’s financial officer could absorb the considerable financial cuts well by reducing the posts for scientists and cuts in the scientific work program, that he managed to increase financial staffing — on the background of the growing challenges facing continued recession and rising inflation.
As further budget cuts became necessary, it was already obvious that these had to be absorbed entirely by the scientific groups. It is clear that this development had to lead to a state of tension between the scientists of the institute on the one hand and the administration on the other. Scientists necessarily had to succumb in this cold war of the Institute, if only because the administrations were in charge of paying salaries, and because of this, administrators often make the mistake to see themselves as the employers and the scientists as the troublesome, money-claiming workers, whose monthly output, moreover, eludes measurability according to administrative criteria.
The new skyscraper was completed two years ago. It currently has about 650 employees, while the old institute building now has about 250 administrative officials. A total of 900 employees of the Roeder Institute are currently employed by their own administration. There are no scientists here anymore. The last ones were laid off two years ago by the Administrative Director as a result of further budget cuts. They had long been considered disturbing foreign bodies in the institute anyway. The library is actually the only remnant from the pre-bureaucratic phase of the institute. After all, it requires some administrative effort. We have recently reorganized it. DIRCOO has ordered photocopying each book and magazine in duplicate and arranging the volumes on the shelves in size. I owe this command my appointment as senior librarian and ten new employees. Recently, the Minister visited us with his staff. The gentlemen were deeply impressed by the exemplary administration of the institute and the work of the employees. The Minister assured us of his benevolent intercession at the next promotion and salary negotiations. What does it mean that we no longer appear in the yearbook of scientific institutions?"