BUREAUCRACY

Bureaucracy

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of Bureaucracy in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on Bureaucracy and its effect on the modern era. The research also analyzes many aspects of Bureaucracy and tries to gauge its effect on current affairs.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Leadership in Bureaucratic Organizations6

Anomalies of Bureaucracy7

Postmodern Technology Era9

Future Directions11

Conclusion13

End Notes15

Bureaucracy

Introduction

Most people think of bureaucracy as the opposite of efficiency—that is, red tape, endless paperwork, and incessant, pointless rules. The irony of this image is that Max Weber, a German sociologist, predicated the function of bureaucracy on rational, efficient, and effective organization that corresponded with requirements of the modern industrial era. He regarded the bureaucratic organization as technically superior to any other form of administration, especially compared to honorific, avocational, and collegiate forms. Weber considered honorific arrangements in which wealthy or influential individuals performed administrative work as an avocation too slow, less precise, more costly, and less unified than bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy eliminated personal bias, favoritism, irrationality, and emotional considerations from administration, according to Weber. As a result, he considered the bureaucratic organization a more appropriate structure for public and private sector organizations in the modern era. Weber (2004) contended it is primarily the capitalist market economy which demands that the official business of public administration [and private enterprise] be discharged, precisely, unambiguously, continuously, and with as much speed as possible. He was acutely aware that the speed of communication during his time (the news service of the press) could relay public announcements, economic facts, and political information that required administrative responses to events at equally rapid speeds. Weber believed only bureaucratic organization could respond in a timely and effective manner.

He conceived of the ideal type of bureaucracy as a construct that can be useful in the creation of theories. An ideal type is a conceptual tool which helps us to understand better social phenomena, by analyzing the discrepancy between their ideal form and concrete state. In other words, the bureaucratic construct helps us analyze organizations by comparing the ideal type to actual situations to determine and explain the differences and discover which elements are useful, detrimental, relevant, or inappropriate. This conceptual tool also provides a means to compare administrative apparatuses (e.g., patrimonial, feudal, legal-bureaucratic, etc.) to each other.

Bureaucratic organization focuses on four main features: structure, rules, specialization, and competence. Specially, bureaucracy consists of the following:

A hierarchical, well-defined chain of command

A system of written rules and procedures for dealing with work activities

Division of labor based on specialized training and experience

Recruitment of officials and work assignments based on technical competence

Weber based his ideal type on maximizing efficiency and rationality by preventing personal bias, reducing individual discretion in decision making, avoiding uncertainty by collecting and using all factual information, and avoiding incompetence through the development of highly specialized, technical expertise.

Leadership in Bureaucratic Organizations

Weber viewed a leader as first official of the enterprise—a full-time, paid, highly trained administrator of the bureaucracy, whose total focus was the rational and efficient operation of the ...