In: Social Issues
...Bureaucracy Observed (An Experience-Based Analysis) (An Experience-Based Analysis) Joshua A Ward University of Maryland University College Author’s Note This paper was prepared for MGMT 610 9045 Organizational Theory (2615), taught by Professor Matthews. According to German sociologist, political economist, administrative scholar, and historian Max Weber, bureaucracy is “a particular type of administrative structure developed through rational legal authority.” (Swanson, 2013) His six major principles have formed the foundation for understanding bureaucracy since their inception. They include the idea that a bureaucracy must consist of a formal hierarchical structure, i.e., each level controls the level below it and is controlled by the level above. Organization by functional specialty is key, work must be performed by specialists, and those specialists are organized into units based on the type of work they do of the skills they possess. Bureaucracy is purposely impersonal, with the major idea being that all employees and customers must and should be treated equally, with no organizational decision influenced or based on individual differences. Also, employment in a bureaucracy should be based primarily on technical qualifications, with the most consideration given to a potential employee who is most qualified, once again, without any consideration given to personal preference. From personal experience, the United States military is a prime example of......
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...Esmeralda Schuetze PPAM 6301 Goodsell, Charles T., The Case For Bureaucracy A Public Administration Polemic. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2004 September 2008 Curriculum Vitae (summary)/ Authors Facebook The Case for Bureaucracy A Public Administration Polemic Charles Goodwin most recently has served as a professor at Center of Public Administration Policy, College of Architecture and has also served as a professor and director at other institutions. He was born in July, 1932 at Kalamazoo, Michigan and is happily married with two grown daughters and currently resides in Virginia. Under his belt he has many publications and has published several books that link to public administration and civic engagement. Some of those books published include the one noted above and The American Statehouse, Public Administration Illuminated and Inspired by the Arts, The Social Meaning of Civic Space, Planning a council Chamber, The Public and Encounter, and others. The most successful publication has been The Case for Bureaucracy as he makes his case that American Bureaucracy is in fact effective and good. He challenges the perception that public administration is not effective and is just wasteful and out of touch and makes a validated defense against those that think the contrary. His work has inspired hope as this piece is different from the norm. It is a great inspiring book that......
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...Max Weber’s Bureaucracy Written by Dr. Wasim Al-Habil College of Commerce The Islamic University of Gaza Beginning with Max Weber, bureaucracies have been regarded as mechanisms that rationalize authority and decision-making in society. Yet subsequent theorists have questioned the rationality of bureaucracies. Which features of modern-day public bureaucracies are rational? Which are not? Buttress your argument with citations from organization and/or public administration theories. Introduction: Max Weber’s work about bureaucracy, translated into English in 1946, was one of the major contributions that has influenced the literature of public administration. However, Van Riper (1997) argues that the work of Weber on bureaucracy has no influence on American PA until the 1950’s. The word bureaucracy is derived from two words; “bureau” and “Kratos.” While the word “bureau” refers to the office the Greek suffix “kratia or kratos” means power or rule. Thus we use the word “bureaucracy” to refer to the power of the office (Hummel, 1998, 307). “Bureaucracy” is rule conducted from a desk or office, i.e. by the preparation and dispatch of written documents and electronic ones. Bureaucracy is borrowed by the field of public administration (PA) from the field of sociology. It was borrowed by PA in much a similar way that practices of business were borrowed from the field of business administration and economics. Weber (1946) presents bureaucracy as both a......
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...Max Weber’s Bureaucracy Written by Dr. Wasim Al-Habil College of Commerce The Islamic University of Gaza Beginning with Max Weber, bureaucracies have been regarded as mechanisms that rationalize authority and decision-making in society. Yet subsequent theorists have questioned the rationality of bureaucracies. Which features of modern-day public bureaucracies are rational? Which are not? Buttress your argument with citations from organization and/or public administration theories. Introduction: Max Weber’s work about bureaucracy, translated into English in 1946, was one of the major contributions that has influenced the literature of public administration. However, Van Riper (1997) argues that the work of Weber on bureaucracy has no influence on American PA until the 1950’s. The word bureaucracy is derived from two words; “bureau” and “Kratos.” While the word “bureau” refers to the office the Greek suffix “kratia or kratos” means power or rule. Thus we use the word “bureaucracy” to refer to the power of the office (Hummel, 1998, 307). “Bureaucracy” is rule conducted from a desk or office, i.e. by the preparation and dispatch of written documents and electronic ones. Bureaucracy is borrowed by the field of public administration (PA) from the field of sociology. It was borrowed by PA in much a similar way that practices of business were borrowed from the field of business administration and economics. Weber (1946) presents bureaucracy as both a......
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...Max Weber on Bureaucracy I. Merriam Webster’s Definition of Bureaucracy: 1 a : a body of nonelective government officials b : an administrative policy-making group 2 : government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority 3 : a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation II. Background and Description Max Weber was born 1864 and died 1920. Weber asks how is it a leader can give a command and have actions carried out? He answers the question by classifying claims to the "legitimacy" in the exercise of authority. His observations on bureaucracy were heavily influenced by his experiences in the United States. While traveling there, Weber was struck by the role of bureaucracy in a democratic society. The problem, as he saw it, was that modern democracy required bureaucratic structures of all kinds in the administration of government and even in the conduct of professional party politics. Handing over the reins to a class of unelected "experts," however, threatened to undermine the very basis of democracy itself. In particular, Weber stressed two problems: the unaccountability of unelected civil servants and the bureaucratic tendency toward inflexibility in the application of rules. Weber's interest in the nature of power and authority, as well as his pervasive preoccupation with modern trends of rationalization, led him to concern himself with the operation of modern......
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...Capitalism.[2] This translation has recently been questioned by certain sociologists and interpreted instead as the "shell as hard as steel".[2][3] Weber wrote: “ | In Baxter’s view the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the 'saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment.' But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage."[4] | ” | Weber became concerned with social actions and the subjective meaning that humans attach to their actions and interaction within specific social contexts. He also believed in idealism, which is the belief that we only know things because of the meanings that we apply to them. This led to his interest in power and authority in terms of bureaucracy and rationalization. Rationalization and bureaucracy[edit] Weber states, “the course of development involves… the bringing in of calculation into the traditional brotherhood, displacing the old religious relationship.”[5] Modern society was becoming characterized by its shift in the motivation of individual behaviors.[3] Social actions were becoming based on efficiency instead of the old types of social actions, which were based on lineage or kinship. Behavior had become dominated by goal-oriented rationality and less by...
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...The bureaucracy is an agent for the fulfilment of the policies of the government. Rigid neutrality and rigorous impartiality regarding political issues are the basis of official conduct. Democratic objectives would be impossible to attain in modern society without a bureaucratic organisation to implement them. Bureaucratisation usually concentrates power in a few men and curtails the freedom of the individual, which is essential for democracy. Bureaucracy endangers democratic freedom but at the same time it serves important functions in a democratic society, which must not be ignored. Whatever the present state of administration, it seems clear that the art of administration implies democracy, which must be built on understanding of hierarchy as the structure of responsibility. The bureaucracy is an instrument to carryout public will, and this is expressed by parliament in the form of law. The principles of Weberian bureaucracy seem to be in use in the Bangladesh bureaucracy. Our bureaucratic institutions are centralised and hierarchical, they are professional and impersonal, and the staff is chosen on the basis of examinations. These principles might have worked well in Weber's day when the tasks were relatively simple and straightforward. But the world has changed rapidly: the situation is characterised by technological revolution, global economic competition, free markets, educated workforces, demanding customers and severe fiscal constraints. Bureaucracy has become......
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...A bureaucracy is defined as a form of organisation that centres on precision, speed, reliability, and efficiency achieved through the creation of job specialisation, hierarchical structure and detailed rules and regulations. (Visitchaichan, n.d. p.5) Bureaucratic organisations have been around for a very long time. They began as primarily the structure for just a few political and religious organisations (e.g. the US Government and the Roman Catholic Church). But by the second half of the 19th century, businesses were becoming larger and more complicated, and there was a move from small, primarily family run organisations to huge companies with hundreds or even thousands of employees. It became clear that a new form of organisation was required to deal with the increasing administrative problems of these larger companies. (Volti, 2008, p.80) Max Weber created the idea of bureaucratic structure of organisation that he believed would counteract these issues. His theory, however, is permeated by scepticism. He describes the bureaucracy as the most dominant form of modern control, both positively and negatively. Although he describes bureaucracies as the fairest and most efficient method of control, he was alarmed by their rapid spread through state, business and institutions and concerned about the effect that they would have on the people within the bureaucratic structure. He argued that due to their technical superiority, bureaucracies would come to dominate all forms of......
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...Max Weber on Bureaucracy I. Merriam Webster’s Definition of Bureaucracy: 1 a : a body of nonelective government officials b : an administrative policy-making group 2 : government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority 3 : a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation II. Background and Description Max Weber was born 1864 and died 1920. Weber asks how is it a leader can give a command and have actions carried out? He answers the question by classifying claims to the "legitimacy" in the exercise of authority. His observations on bureaucracy were heavily influenced by his experiences in the United States. While traveling there, Weber was struck by the role of bureaucracy in a democratic society. The problem, as he saw it, was that modern democracy required bureaucratic structures of all kinds in the administration of government and even in the conduct of professional party politics. Handing over the reins to a class of unelected "experts," however, threatened to undermine the very basis of democracy itself. In particular, Weber stressed two problems: the unaccountability of unelected civil servants and the bureaucratic tendency toward inflexibility in the application of rules. Weber's interest in the nature of power and authority, as well as his pervasive preoccupation with modern trends of rationalization, led him to concern himself with the operation of modern......
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...“Bureaucratic Structure and Personality”, by Robert Merton, discusses the purpose and structure of bureaucracies and the pros and cons of a bureaucratic approach to management. Merton examines the nature of interpersonal interactions within bureaucracies and looks at how bureaucrats interact with their clients or constituents. Bureaucracies are based on clear-cut divisions of integrated activities which are regarded as duties inherent in specific offices, while the offices are filed by individuals whose technical qualifications best fit the duties. Bureaucracies are set up to serve a specific purpose, such as administering social services. In order to achieve their goals, they operate according to an articulated set of highly detailed rules which regulate interaction through hierarchy and formality. These devices restrain the ability of individual bureaucrats to act impulsively or with personal motivations, contributing to the predictability of the bureaucracy. A level of flexibility can be attained in a bureaucracy through the appointment of executive level leadership by political officials. In this way the democratically expressed will of the people will be manifest within the bureaucracy. Below the appointed executive there are many trained and salaried experts who make decisions that are governed by the general, abstract, and clearly defined rules of the particular bureaucracy. Since these rules are general, the bureaucrat must assess each situation they face and......
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...ABSTRACT Bureaucracy is all about the rules and regulations to manage a particular activity in the organization. This paper is about how bureaucracy used in old organizations and how it affected the processes of new organizations. It explains how bureaucracy is not applicable in today’s business environment because of many facts. As years went through there was a drastic change in the operations of the organisation. The concern moved from organization to customer service, so the bureaucratic organizations changed their strategy from bureaucracy to customer service, this include government organizations also. Different authors thought about issue the issue different and this is explained in a very lucid language in this paper. INTRODUCTION TO BUREACRACY In the 18th century, officials of the French government demoted bureaucracy as desk cloth cover. Bureau means the official body which is engaged in the office which is public. This body uses the required implemental material and files. The term bureaucracy derived from the word bureau. (Reinhard Bendix,1968) According to Blau(1965), bureaucracy is defined as “The type of organization designed to accomplish large scale administrative tasks by systematically coordinating the work of many individuals.” However, Weber(1958) defined bureaucracy in a very scientific and systematic way. This means that technology became an important reason for the growth of organizations where bureaucracy is used. In the strict......
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...2014 BEAURACRACY, A CONTENTIOUS NECESSITY VINOD NANNAWARE TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES M2014HRM062 BUREAUCRACY, A CONTENTIOUS NECESSITY VINOD NANNAWARE, M2014HRM062 Charges of corruption, Policy paralysis like situations and leadership conflicts resulted in historic downfall of grand old party of the country and new era of governance started in India. ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’, one of the massively used and successfully scripted election propaganda did wonders for ‘party with difference’. No one ever imagined it would become an election campaign agenda, but astute Narendra Modi who played all of his cards very smartly in the LS poll 2014, knows the importance of using right words at right time. Many eminent scholars and economist all across globe blamed bureaucratic functioning and policy paralysis of UPA-2 as one of the main reasons of this defeat. Hence this historic victory of Modi led NDA puts number of questions in front of modern day sociologist, especially those who follows and believes in Marx Weber Ideas of Bureaucracy. Looking this phenomenon as only one of its kind or merely just an accident will lead to falsified inference about changing economical and social realities in modern India. After assuming the power the way in which team Modi has been tackling most of the pending issues surprised many of us. In fact governments last 2 months report card shows that our beliefs such as set of rules and regulations are inevitable part of......
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...The ideas of the classical theorists, particularly those of bureaucracy and scientific management, are generally considered as rather old fashion and out of date, and of little relevance to work and organization today. Is this really the case? The classical theory is the earliest form of management that perceived that a set of universal principles would apply to all the organizations in all situations to achieve efficiency and organization's goals. Scientific management and bureaucratic theory were one of the several components of the classical school of organization. Important pioneers among them are Frederick Taylor and Max Weber. The classical theories have been contested of little relevance to work and organization today simply because today’s organizations have moved from industrial revolution to the information age due to the fast-paced change in technology (Toffler, 1984). Although bureaucracy has been synonymous to red tape and has negatives effects such as “rigidity, alienation and low commitment” (Adler, 1999, p.37) and dehumanizing people (Grey, 2009), the characteristics of bureaucracy such as specialization, hierarchy of authority, system of rules and impersonality (Stewart, 1986) as well as evidence of ongoing existence of this management method, bureaucracy is proved to remain noteworthy. This essay will examine the situation presented in organization today, and determine whether bureaucracy and scientific management can be considered as old fashioned,...
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...Introduction Bureaucracy today is an integral part of most modern organizations. Whether public or private, organizations all across the world implement systems and regulations in their daily procedures which are enforced by appointed employees. Although bureaucracy has existed in some form or another for hundreds of years in human society, our point of departure will be the definition presented by Max Weber. In short, Weber defined bureaucracy as an organizational system with a clearly defined chain of command, where employees set aside their own personal opinions in favor of neutrality and impartialness. Rules are clearly defined and followed, to ensure the elimination of nepotism and the employee is required to adhere to the orders of their superiors who in turn have to operate under the structure and rules of the organization (Weber, 1946). When looking at how bureaucracy is used and implemented across the globe, it is clear that there are huge differences in how efficiently organizations and governments are being run, despite the fact that they are all working within a bureaucratic structure. In this paper we will look at public administration and question whether or not the bureaucratic ideal of the impersonal worker is still valid today. Is the strict adherence to regulations and formalities a concept which is no longer needed in our modern society? Traditional bureaucracy To many, bureaucracy is seen as a very stringent and almost soulless system, which......
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...following critique will look at the documentary PaperLand: The Bureaucrat Observed, which was released in 1979 and was written and directed by Donald Brittain. This documentary was by the National Documentary film Board of Canada. This documentary film main purpose is producing an evaluation of bureaucracy in our business society. In the documentary film the creators discussed the terms bureaucrat and bureaucracy but there were not defined which I found concerning since it was the overall premise of the documentary film. The documentary film discussed bureaucracy in places like Canada, Austria, Hungary, the Vatican and the Virgin Islands. From the comparisons of these locations bureaucracy plays an important role in society’s daily functions whether it relates to politics, religion or postal needs. These different examples provided in the documentary film demonstrated that bureaucracy is an important skill that should be properly developed and understood. It does seem like bureaucracy sometimes goes too far in individual’s life. One place this was seen in the documentary film was where politicians were so afraid to speak to producers that they needed to speak in the dark. With bureaucracy comes an important role of using and having civil servants. The documentary film tries to make this topic very understandable and I feel it does this job well. The documentary film was very well organized and structured. The topic presented had an interesting view point on the subject. The......
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