Essay about OB Notes 2014 Mcgill

Bureaucracy exists to organize states and keep them working as efficiently as possible. Max Weber claims that bureaucracies are the most efficient form of organization due to control, hierarchy, and predictability. Bureaucracies are created to give authority and power over others, specialize in certain tasks, and restrict individuals through regulations and laws. However, as Kettl makes it clear that this organization is not easy to maintain. According to Kettl, it is important to for citizens and the government to have a relationship with each other (2017, 3). In bureaucracies, there is not much room for a healthy relationship between citizens and the government because the two can be constantly in disagreement about issues – there may

Make an argument in favor of bureaucracy, what do we mean by the statement that bureaucrats are the “worker bees” of government? Use specific examples in your answer.

Bureaucracies are meant to be efficient and get the job done, but their process of going about it isn’t always right. The way they are ran can result in the dehumanization of their workers, and can make them feel as if they’re parts of a machine rather than actual human beings. They are stuck in, as Weber called it, an iron cage because their lives are dictated by multiple rules and guidelines that they have to follow. This layout which is meant to be efficient, can end up being the exact opposite of that. Regardless whether or not bureaucracies are successfully completing their task, there’s a high chance that on the inside there is dissatisfied, improperly trained workers unable to act like anything but robots.

It is the basically replacing accustomed and emotional thought with reasoning. Weber believes that rationalization of society has increased of everyones daily lives. Both Max Weber and McDonald use the metaphor of over-rationalization of society. He uses the example of restaurants because traditional home cooked meals have been overlooked in our society by the fast food joints. This is because these home cooked meals are getting replaced because of the connivence and practically of these fast food

The term is used by a sociologist and professor at the University of Maryland, George Ritzer in his book ‘The McDonaldization of Society’ in 1933. George Ritzer uses the principles of McDonald’s restaurants to define the cultural changes in the world. “It becomes manifest when a society adopts the characteristics of a fast food restaurant”. (Ritzer 1996:291) Max Weber’s theory of rationalization is influenced to the ‘Mcdonalization thesis’. “In this theory, Weber tended to see the process as inexorable, leading in the end, to the iron cage of rationalization from which there was less and less possible to escape.” (Ritzer 1996:291) G. Ritzer argues with the increasing of McDonaldization process, we have moved to an even greater to the level of rationality. The main point in Weberian theory of rationalization is to argue the paradigm of the process. The praradigm of situation is already not the bureaucracy, but it is rather the fast-food restaurant. “McDonaldization is the process by which principle of fast food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society for the rest of the world” (Ritzer 1996:292)

“Once fully established, bureaucracy is among those social structures which are hardest to destroy. Bureaucracy is the means of transforming social action into rationally organized action. Therefore, as an instrument of rationally organizing authority relations, bureaucracy was and is a powerful instrument of the first order for one who controls the bureaucratic apparatus. Under otherwise equal conditions, rationally and directed action (Gesellschaftshandeln) is superior to every kind of collective behavior (Massenhandeln) and also social action (Gemeinschaftshandeln) opposing it. Where administration has been completely bureaucratized, the resulting system of domination is practically indestructible,” (Weber, 1922, p.336-337).

The word “bureaucracy” has a negative connotation to many people. The fact is that our current system of government would not be able to survive without bureaucracies. The bureaucracy has become the “fourth branch” of the government, it has quasi-legislative and judicial powers and in it’s own field its authority is rarely challenged. The presence of these large, inefficient structures is necessary if the American people want to continue receiving the benefits that they expect.

This culture of professionalism will prevent bureaucrats from becoming lazy or malicious in their intents; the other bureaucrats won’t allow such behavior to be tolerated. This culture will act as in inner check against any potential wrongdoing by the bureaucracy. Thus, checks by the other government branches is completely unnecessary. When combined with the other branches inability to be experts in all of the bureaucracy’s activities, it is also only risks the other branches decreasing the efficiency of the bureaucracy. On the other hand, Finer argued that those checks by the other branches is what prevented the bureaucrats from giving into their poor human nature. Additionally, these checks act to give some democratic control over an otherwise completely undemocratic branch of government. In a democracy, that is completely unacceptable; the judicial branch’s final say in how laws are interpreted, congress’ ability to appropriate agencies’ budgets and approve nominees, and the president’s ability to nominate those nominees is necessary for the bureaucracy to maintain legitimacy with the American public.

Iron Cage is a sociological concept introduced by Max Weber as a system, which traps individual in a cage of calculated efficiency and rational calculations and control. Fast Food restaurants are a model of the process of rationalization rather than bureaucracy, because they have combined bureaucracy with other examples of rationalization such as assembly lines in order to reduce inefficiencies. Weber fears that this system of rationalization would grow beyond fast food restaurants and into the lives of everyday people “from rationalized educational institutions to rationalized workplaces from rationalized recreational setting to rationalized homes.” To Weber, society would be nothing but a dehumanized society living rationalized and “embodying

Weber states that organizations regulations are formed by few people and this people are the boss, administration employee who tends to have representation powers (Roth and Wittich, 1968). Weber states that the state tends to use bureaucracy on its people in order to establish authority. Bureaucracy is present in various areas in the environment and once bureaucracy is produced then it becomes difficult to

In this essay, I will discuss the variables that shape people’s minds about the role of bureaucracy. In the first section of this paper I will define bureaucracy with special emphasis on the United States (U.S.) government. Then, in the second section of this paper, I will list and analyze the factors that people perceive as negative in the development of bureaucracy. Lastly, in the last section of this paper, I will mention a few elements that the correct exercise of bureaucracy does right.

“in practice, bureaucratic procedure invariably means ignoring all the subtleties of real social existence and reducing everything to preconceived mechanical or statistical formulae.”4

Rationalization was what Weber saw as “the process of making life more efficient and predictable by wringing out individuality and spontaneity in life” (Adams and Sydie, 173). In the modern capitalist society, exercising control on the basis of knowledge or rational thought is how organizations could get the maximum out of its workers. Bureaucracies were developed as a means of controlling people and regulating work routines based on formal rules and regulations. Rational capitalism, according to Weber, produced “specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart” (173).

Max Weber's theory of rationalization is an extensively studied theory within sociology. Weber’s theory uses the model of bureaucracy to symbolize the constant shifting ways of our society. Rationalization is the process of replacing rationally consistent rules for conventional or rather illogical rules within society. According to Weber, bureaucracy is the fundamental model of rational rule. They are extremely predictable, in both the job process but also labor production. Bureaucracies are more worried with the amount of production than the value of the product itself. Weber viewed this structure as ineffective and completely flawed.

Therefore, when we look at a broader sense, bureaucracy goes beyond division of labor, although it is very important and necessary for the existence of the bureaucratic system. It involves accurate and detailed definitions of the duties and responsibilities of each person or office. Administrative regulations help in determining the areas of responsibility and control the overall allocation of resources that are distributed according to the need and requirement of different departments of an