Browsing by Subject "Bureaucracy"

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    Bürokratie in landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben : dargestellt am Beispiel von Milchviehbetrieben
    (2013) Rothfuß, Kathrin; Doluschitz, Reiner
    As in many sectors of the economy, state bureaucracy is regarded as an increasing und costly problem for individual agricultural businesses and for the agricultural sector as a whole. Coping with internal administration as well as the exchange of data as part of quality assurance programmes and based on contractual regulations are also growing in importance. It is no longer justifiable to question which administrative work is too time-consuming or unnecessary but rather how the inevitable bureaucracy can be dealt with as effectively as possible. The goal of this dissertation is therefore firstly to determine the administrative burden that exists for farmers and, secondly, to ascertain the factors that can affect the intensity of this burden or alleviate it. The bureaucratic burden will be ascertained in this dissertation on the basis of a subjective rating by farmers. A definition of the bureaucratic tasks to be evaluated by farmers was also needed in order to be able to define the bureaucratic burden. The criteria for this was that the tasks had to be relevant for dairy cattle farmers with arable farming in Baden-Württemberg. Furthermore, the analysed tasks had to be performed at least once per year and a certain level of work would be required for it. Quantitative and qualitative methods of empirical social research were combined to respond appropriately to the diversity of the aforementioned subject of this analysis. Dairy cattle farmers in Baden-Württemberg were surveyed in a multi-stage process. In the first step, 1,060 surveys were distributed to the participants of the milk recording. 487 farmers (46% return rate) responded to the standardised questions on the structure of their enterprise and their socio-democratic profile and rated the selected 45 bureaucratic tasks. 125 of these farmers agreed to a further interview. From these 125, 40 farmers were then selected for personal interviews based on defined criteria. These interviews were partially evaluated by qualitative methods and also include the questions contained in the subsequent telephone interviews. A further 82 farmers were surveyed by phone about their attitude towards bureaucracy. The factors that led to "very serious" bureaucratic mental burden were determined using a factor analysis and a subsequent binary logistic regression. The empirically recorded dairy cattle farms are above-average in size in terms of the number of dairy cattle and their total area. The burden felt is considerable. Almost half of those surveyed judge the burden caused by bureaucratic ("red tape") as being very significant and on average greater than other work-related challenges. Based on the rating of bureaucratic tasks, the "Gemeinsame Antrag" (application for subsidies) in first place and the recording of information concerning the use of veterinary drugs in second place are identified as being the bureaucracy that causes the most stress. Qualitative analysis of the personal interviews permits a description of ten general problem areas in dealing with bureaucracy to be identified. It becomes apparent, that difficulties arise in the majority of cases if, for example, the use of resources or the division of labour is not planned or the farmers cannot justify their processes. Within the ten tasks perceived as being most stressful, alongside general problem areas there are specific problem areas that generally explain well the volume of bureaucratic stress and burden. A factor analysis enabled this standardised statements about the farmer?s attitude towards bureaucracy to be combined into eight factors. Three of these factors affect the farmer's mental stress with bureaucracy. The factor of "Acceptance of external requests for information and design" reduces the bureaucratic stress felt and the "Lack of time" and "Lack of efficiency of statutory obligations regarding documentation" increase the bureaucratic stress and pressure felt. This dissertation clearly demonstrates which bureaucratic obligations the legislature should change to reduce stress. The procedure selected for this has proved itself. It also demonstrates that farmers should not remain passive when faced with the issue of bureaucracy but should take measures themselves to reduce the burden within their own business. Service providers and advisers are called upon to provide assistance by developing individual strategies. From a scientific point of view, this investigation provides insights into various processes in the organisation of agricultural businesses and the underlying attitude of the farmers themselves.