Bureaucratic Structures : Power And Authority

If group is deemed a reference group, consider how this group affects or hasaffected your lifepersonally and/or professionally? If you select any organizations for youranalysis, consider Weber’s five characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy and suggest which (if any) of the characteristics are directly applicable to your organization. From personal experience, examine the positive and negative ramifications of operating within a bureaucratic structure.

Specialization, departmentalization, unity of command, and span of control are the principles of the organizational structure. Bureaucracies usually have the characteristics of a set application of rules and a standard way of getting things done. Both however have their positive and negative aspects to it. What we understand about a set way of doing things is that it holds fairness in high regards. If specialization is key though,

Trying to find a job that will make you happy? Guess what? The answer is external again. The happiest jobs are those where you focus on helping, and usually interacting with one-on-one, other people. The least happy? Those where you work by yourself and have hierarchical bureaucracies. Read more about it here and

Miscommunication between bureaucratic agencies and their leaders can lead to problematic outcomes, like in the case of the Argentine intelligence service. The article titled, “Argentinian government moves to dissolve domestic intelligence agency” written for The Guardian by Jonathan Watts describes how President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner believes the agency to be corrupt. She has decided to disband the current system and create a new federal intelligence agency. This problem illustrates issues of delegation and the problem of agency loss. In analyzing the situation, it is important to note that although the presidential system they have now has played a part in the issues surrounding Argentina, changing to a parliamentary system would

Another type of bureaucracy, more common in the modern world, is the administrative system that oversees the operations of a large institution. Bureaucratic organizations are formed for this purpose. These organizations often operate in a hierarchy. By operating in this manner, the roles of the workers become clearly defined while everyone takes definite responsibility for their actions. However, these organizations are usually slow when it comes to adapting to

Political bureaucracy in the United States is shared between several institutions. Each of the corresponding institutions has specific roles that must be met in order to have cohesion between the bureaucracy and the different branches of the government. It has often been stated that the political bureaucracy is equal to that of the fourth branch of government. These contributing roles are designed on a system of a hierarchical structure. The obvious top leader in the chain of command has ultimate control and the authority from there is dispersed from the top. Within each of the levels, each group or individual has a specific individualized job that must be carried out. There is a clear and well written established set of rules for all to follow and equally as

In bureaucracy, there also is a clear and distinct division of labor that is noticeable to almost anyone. At party city I was in charge of the cash register during my shift and stocking the solids, and making balloon orders over the phone. This was just one of the many jobs. There were back dock workers that would unpack from the shipments, there were costume organizers, and party staff. Every employee had a specific team and each team had a team leader and the team leaders had a manager. This points to the fact that the work is divided into the structures of authority. The division of labor is intertwined with the hierarchical structure of authority. With this simple division of the tasks and labor required to make the company run, the workers are

The productivity under Taylor’s method dramatically increased and costs of the manufactured goods were reduced by 1/10 to 1/20 of the previous manufactured cost. These changes allowed more people to purchase the goods [6]. It looks like the scientific management theory was the perfect solutions to the problems in organizations in the 20th century. But is scientific management appropriate in a modern world? The next section will look at pros and cons of this theory and the use of scientific management in today’s organizations.

A bureaucratic structure is hierarchical and where the level below answers to the level above it. Hierarchy is defined as a classification of people according to their relative authority and rank (Jones, 2013, p. 97). Bureaucracy can be described as the individuals within a firm are regulated by the firm’s objectives, procedures, and processes in ascertaining organizational protocol. Managers have authority within their bureaucratic level to establish procedures and regulations based upon the organization’s objectives. A manager’s authority is restricted to the level of authority bestowed on their title. A firm’s hierarchy establishes a chain of command that is easily recognizable throughout the organization, so that the employees are able to easily identify who they are responsible to. For instance if a packaging supervisor approached a production employee to ship a product to a customer the employee would know that the packaging supervisor is out of their jurisdiction and to approach their supervisor for

The year 1911 saw Frederick Winslow Taylor publish a book titled ‘The principles of scientific management’ in which he aimed to prove that the scientific method could be used in producing profits for an organization through the improvement of an employee’s efficiency. During that decade, management practice was focused on initiative and incentives which gave autonomy to the workman. He thus argued that one half of the problem was up to management, and both the worker and manager needed to cooperate in order to produce the greatest prosperity.

Bureaucracy is a term that has been coined by a French economist Vincent de tourney in 1745. In French bureau connotes desk. It is the systematic and organised body which makes it accountable for proper functioning. Its complexity and elaborate nature makes it reliable and error free. While the former can be a drawback, taking in to consideration the amount of time it takes and the large body of people involve, the latter is proving to make up for it. It can also be defined as a large scale. administrative, systematic and a well coordinated manner of carrying out organisational tasks and day to day activities. There are three types of power in organisations: Traditional, Charismatic and

One of the characteristics in bureaucratic organization is the division of labor as stated by Martin, J., Knopoff, K. and Beckman, C., (1998). The division of labor focuses on the practice of specialization where every individual will be assigned with different roles and smaller sets of tasks based on one’s abilities. This has proven to improve efficiency as each individuals will be performing tasks which they are most qualified for. As times goes, the individuals will eventually become more professional in performing complex tasks as they are well specialized in their roles. Moreover, one of the essentials when it comes to managing a bureaucratic organization is the establishment of formal rules. All employees from all levels of organization are expected to obey the rules at all times with no consideration of employee’s rank or status. In accordance to Bozeman, B. and Rainey, H. G. (1998), there are still managers who claims to need more rules in order to keep the organization running effectively. With the presence of these formal rules, employees tend to be more consistent in applying the rules while performing their duties. Furthermore, it is also believed that, better control in an organization gains greater efficiency as discussed by Weber cited in Button, G., Martin, D., O’Niell, J., Colombina, T., (2012). In order for an organization to function efficiently, Weber believes that the employees should be career professional as this ensures the assigned duties to be performed well regardless of the side pressures while handling the tasks and also to ensure the operation of the organization will be run smoothly. With that being said, one can conclude that bureaucratic organization does bring uncountable benefits to the

Because of the growth of economic markets, developments in the legal system and transformations in the nature of authority, organizational analysis arose. Weber views organizational efficiency as product of the mix of two structures namely: first, a scheme of clear specific and categorical rules and policies implemented by a specific detail organizational structure and documentations and second, a unique division of labor. Authority departs from once known as succession to a now bureaucratic one that drives those from lower levels of the structure to obey managers. Organizational analysis finds ways in which organizational goals affect organizational structures. Another model of organizational analysis that arose was that of Simon and Marsh that states that organizational decision makers base decision makers on uncertainty of situations confronting the organizations (Hannah,

Weber’s bureaucratic approach focuses on the importance of hierarchy by putting great emphasis on the use of rules, procedures and making impartial personnel decisions when managing. He put great emphasis on the jurisdiction, explaining that work should be “divided according to type and purpose” staying within the correct working unit just as the organization’s rules and laws would state (Milakovich, et. al., 2013, p. 146). A hierarchy would be established with a chain of command clearly identifying a system of super- and

“Administration is ordinarily discussed as the art of “Getting things done,” (Simon, 2013). This quote is important to help understand the goals of the four theoretical contributions and the importance of these theories from a historical and managerial perspective. The theoretical contributions to focus on consist of Scientific Management, Administrative Theory, Bureaucracy and Organizational Structure, and Administrative Behavior. Ideally, all of these concepts have the same simple objective, to get things done and to make organizations as efficient and functional as possible. With this in mind, each theory will show how it’s different structure, concepts, and views of its organization can affect an individual worker, an employer, and the organization as a whole and how these theories are adapted over time.