Red Tape

Red tape is the colloquial term for excessive bureaucratic procedure — rules, forms, and approvals that impede action without contributing to the stated goals of the organization. In systems-theoretic terms, red tape is not mere inefficiency but a positive feedback loop of procedural accumulation: each new rule is added to solve a specific problem, but the aggregate set of rules becomes so complex that compliance itself becomes the primary activity, displacing the original purpose. Red tape emerges when a bureaucracy responds to environmental variety not by adapting its rules but by multiplying them, creating a control system that regulates itself more than it regulates the world. The resulting procedural entropy makes the organization less capable over time despite adding more controls.