A bureaucracy is an administrative, government, or social system with a hierarchical structure and complex rules and regulations.

Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many jurisdictions and sub-jurisdictions exemplifies bureaucracy, but so does the centralized hierarchical structure of a business firm.

Much misapprehension exists in regard to the true character of bureaucratic system. In broader sense, the term is used “to describe any personnel system where the employees are classified in a system of administration composed of a hierarchy of sections, divisions, bureaus, departments and the like.”