Max Weber Bureaucracy

Max Weber was a German sociologist who first described the concept of bureaucracy, an ideal form of organizational structure. He defines bureaucratic administration as the exercise of control on the

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.

(TCO 3, 4, 6) List Weber’s six characteristics of a bureaucracy. Explain a positive and a negative consequence for an organization from each of these characteristics.

As a result, these first two reasons fully reflect the first myth of bureaucracy by Douglas Amy, which seen it as “Immensely Wasteful”.

What is a bureaucracy? Tolbert and Hall (2009) describe in the text, a large formal organization with the characteristics of having, a division of labor, a hierarchy of authority, a set of written rules, resources that are clearly separated from home and the organization, and group of members who are appointed according to qualifications (P. 22). These were the key elements Max Weber, a German scholar described for an ideal type of bureaucracy.

Characteristics of a bureaucracy are, “Stable and officially stated structure of authority, there is a clear “pecking order” or hierarchy, written records, specialized training

The term bureaucracy was coined by a well-known sociologist named Max Weber in 1947. He used this term to describe corporations that held five main characteristics. These characteristics include, hierarchical authority structure, a division of labor, written rules, written communications and records, and impersonality and replaceability. In the modern day world, it is easy to see several bureaucracies in place, however, one bureaucracy that is personally close to all Grand Canyon University students is the institution of Grand Canyon University (GCU). This is a great example of a bureaucracy due to the fact that it embraces all five characteristics of a bureaucracy.

However, despite Max Weber’s theory that bureaucracies are like iron “iron cages” that are a efficient form of administration. Prior to modern government reform patronage, spoils, and bribery were just part of the political environment for Public Administrators. In today’s, modern government Public Administrators are hired based on the merit and technical qualifications that secure the individual can carry out the duties of the office. However, Public Administrators are forced to work in a hierarchical organization

It is said that without bureaucracy the countries would not exist. In the pre-industrial era, management strategy boiled down to centralizng power and reducing the size of the territory. According to the calculations of experts, the authority could then be effectively exercised only within a radius of only 24-30 kilometers from the city center, where the leaders resided. The situation has changed after the first forms of bureaucracy were created. Some tasks were given to field envoys and experts and after that, the states and empires began to exist. Undoubtedly, without specific rules and standards of conduct, no one would be able to manage such a large body. Some critics of bureaucracy focus on the theory that as a system it is too big and complicated, therefore very inefficient. Also, because a single officer bears low responsibility for the decisions taken. And since the authority is not really depending on the citizens, the people who govern pay little attention to what the citizens really need. It causes frustration, shows to people that they bear little importance and are not really able to influence the situation in the country, and also leads to lower satisfaction of life

Some have seriously misinterpreted Weber and have claimed that he liked bureaucracy, that he believed that bureaucracy was an "ideal" organization. Others have pronounced Weber "wrong" because bureaucracies do not live up to his list of "ideals". Others have even claimed that Weber "invented" bureaucratic organization. But Weber described bureaucracy as an “ideal type” in order to more accurately describes their growth in power and scope in the modern world. His studies of bureaucracy still form the core of organizational sociology.

Bureaucracy is linked to structure and hierarchy; there’s different levels of management and specific roles and relationships within that structure. Standardisation techniques were also implemented, with strict control and monitoring of rules, policies and procedures. Keeping records helped maintain control and standardisation across an organisation by allowing surveillance and storage of information such as hours worked and absence records, so that pay would be fair and correctly assigned. Fayol mentioned bureaucracy could achieve an organisations aims most efficiently. He suggested that

Bureaucracy is ahierarchical organization which follows strict rules and regulations in achieving desired goals and which has tendency to gain supremacy over other organizations. Famous German sociologist theorized ideal- type of bureaucracy. Max Weber thought bureaucracy is the highest efficient organization which falls under legal rational authority. Soon after the theory came out, like other theory, ideal-type bureaucracy theory encountered severe criticisms.Alvin Gouldner, Robert Merton, Phillip Selznick, Peter Blau are some of them who criticized the ideal-type of bureaucracy.

The division of labor dictates the degree to which responsibilities are subdivided into separate units. It is communicated through job descriptions, and ensures each employee has specific duties to perform based on their work experience, education, and capability.

Based on this right, the bureaucracy designed by Weber has clear division of labor; thoroughly indicated hierarchical relationship and pointed out impersonal relationship (Crozier, 1964). In the course of history, there have been various more perfect organizational systems, therefore, bureaucratic theory was questioned and criticized by many scholar. However, there are still certain organizations that use bureaucracy theory to design the corporate structure despite many critical views.

Karl Marx believes that division of labour means a way in which workers of an organization were given a job at which they were good at or at which they had their specialty in. Max Weber viewed division of labour as an important element or characteristic of any bureaucratic organization that is functioning in the modern society. Emile Durkheim believed that division of labour was the outcome of a societal procedure that takes place within the structure of the society than the result of choices that have been made by individuals.