Max Weber & Bureaucracy Flashcards
1
Q
Bureau (definition)
Cracy (definition)
Bureaucracy (definition)
A
Bureau:
- An office or department for transacting particular business
Cracy:
- Denoting a particular form of government, rule or influence
Bureaucracy :
- A system of government in which most of the most important decisions taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives
or
- excessively complicated administrative procedure
2
Q
Max Weber
A
- The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Huge influence om thinking on management & organisation
- Both direct and indirect: content and method
Understanding organizations
- Distinction between power and authority
- Identified three types of authority:
- Charismatic
- Traditional
- Rational-legal (bureaucracy)
3
Q
Common idea of bureaucracy: red tape
A
- Bureaucracy often used in pejorative sense (not very nice)
- Excessive and unnecessary regulation
- Constraining and frustrating
- “red tape” used to express this (historically legal and official documents were bound with red tape and now it used to describe people feeling stuck)
4
Q
Bureaucracy in the (social) scientific sense
A
- can see why common/popular idea has emerged
0 but “bureaucracy used differently in social sciences - can have positive as well as negative implications
- based on a certain type of authority
5
Q
Types of authority
A
Charismatic
- qualities of the leader
- Evident in industry
- Have followers
- Vulnerable to change
- Negative associations
- Current focus on leadership
- Question of succession
Traditional
- Precedent and usage
- Power is legitimised by long-standing custom
- Authority of inherited status
- Also evident in industry
- Can emerge out of charisma
- Kinship rather than expertise
Rational-legal
- Rational: based on achievement of goals
- Legal: authority exercised by rules and procedures
- The position rather than the person: bureaucracy
- Dominant in modern society
- Means to achieve specific goals
- Maximise performance
- Authority is legal because of rules in exercise while in office
- Technically the most efficient form of organisation
- Strictly bureaucratic administration
- Machine like efficiency
- Depersonalisation
6
Q
Core features of bureaucracy
A
- Workflow formalization
- Specialisation of function
- Hierarchy of authority
7
Q
McDonaldization of society
Four central dimensions of the McDonalds approach
A
- Efficiency
- Calculability
- Predictability
- Control
8
Q
The advantages of the bureaucratic organisation
A
- A pure or ideal-type bureaucracy would not exist
- but bureaucracy the dominant organizational form
- organization and bureaucracy almost the same thing
- suggests that is the organizational form of choice
But why?
- advantages of bureaucracy in terms of efficiency
- will drive out less efficient organizational form
9
Q
The “iron cage” of bureaucracy
A
- Weber interpreted as advocate of bureaucracy
- But pessimistic about implications
- Humanity trapped in cage of its own making
10
Q
Working in a bureaucracy
Could be: (3)
Could become: (2)
A
Could be:
- sense of purpose
- clear expectations
- clear promotion path
Could become:
- a cog in the machine
- repetitive work tasks
11
Q
The dysfunctions of bureaucracy
A
- The downside or dysfunctions increasingly emphasised
- The rules in principle served a purpose
- But following rules could become an end in itself
- Or could be used in sectional or departmental interest
12
Q
How rational are bureaucratic rules?
A
- Trust the experts that created
- Cannot cover for all contingencies
- Cannot be rational at all times
- Too many rules create paralysis
- Impersonality cushions officials from blames
- Officials dependent on rules to justify actions and decision to bolster authority
- Players of roles rather than being treated as human beings
- Emotional control through performing emotional labour
- Bending the rules appears more rational but violates consistency
- Rules being interpreted different to one’s advantages
13
Q
A
