Weber on Bureaucracy Spring 2006 One Two Three

Weber on Bureaucracy Spring 2006

One, Two, Three • Ideal type • “Why bureaucracy? ” • Superiority

7 Characteristics of Bureaucracy • 1. The business is an ongoing concern • 2. Offices function according to rules • 3. Offices are organized hierarchically • 4. Officials do not own tools & resources • 5. Work and home are strictly separated • 6. Office is not owned by the incumbent. • 7. Business based on written documents

Business is an ongoing concern • vs. organized group activity of the moment • There is an “entity” or “concern” that exists independently of particular task • Members have full-time jobs with the entity • Basis for our thinking about “organizations” as things

Office functions guided by rules • vs. ad hoc divisions of labor or “Three Musketeers” organization (cf. Saturday morning cartoons) • Job descriptions. Jurisdictions. Qualifications. Authority (available means of coercion ) defined. • This is big part of what makes an organization work like a well-oiled machine

Offices Organized Hierarchically • vs. anybody at level 1 can boss people at level 2 • Super and sub-ordination • Monocratic (everybody has only one boss) • Chains of command • Spans of control

Officials do not own tools • Vs. private craftsperson (“must have own tools”) • Emphasizes human capital (you come to do a job using our materials)

Work and home strictly separate • vs. , say, family enterprise (e. g. farm) • Office distinguished from home, household from private correspondence – cf. CNE book Home and Work • Further emphasizes impersonality of job fulfillment

Office not owned by incumbent. • Vs. feudal titles or privs like “tax farming” • Offices cannot be appropriated by their incumbents (inherited, sold, etc. ) • “acceptance of a specific duty of fealty to the purpose of the office” • Salary rather than wages for officials. Career track. Fixed career lines. Grades, ranks, moving up the ladder

Written documents • vs. “informal” organization • Records, paper trails • Memos and staff to process them (clerks, “paper pushers”). Office management as specific skill set

Another Way to Look at Weber • Three groups of characteristics 1. Structure and function of organization 2. Means of rewarding effort 3. Protections for the individuals.

Structure & function of organization • Hierarchy : orders/channels • Jurisdictions • Job descriptions • Written records

Means of rewarding effort • Salary. • Advancement based on tenure, qualifications. • Security.

Protections for the individuals Job security – tenure unless “cause” (vs. serving “at the pleasure of X”) Explicit Definitions of what is “job relevant” Descrimination Sexual harassment

So, “Why bureaucracy? ” • Usual associations • Red tape, inefficient, impersonal, inflexible, slow, meaningless requirements

“…the sins generally attributed to bureaucracy are either not sins at all or are consequences of the failure to bureaucratize sufficiently. ” Charles Perrow

Failures of Bureaucracy • Job descriptions unclear • Jurisdictional overlaps • Skills/credentials not matched to requirements of job • Communication channels unclear or not observed • Exceptions made for friends • Failure to document or inability to find records

Superiority of Bureaucracy • “the means of transforming social action into rationally organized action” (189 b 7) • Instrument of power • Member stuck in apparatus (“cog in the machine”) • Members generally can’t derail the organization • Resistance can’t simply break in • Mechanism can work for anybody/anything • Organization as TOOL

Failures of Bureaucracy • • Nepotism Favoritism in hiring “Hostile environment” Inconsistency Failure to follow own rules Contradictory orders from two “bosses” Confusion over what job has authority to control • Corruption

Failures of Bureaucracy • Overly tall structures (word never gets from top to bottom) • Officials who hide behind office • Use of paper trails to hide rather than document accountability

Other Organizational Pathologies • Over-specialization • Rigidity and inertia reduces innovation • Group think • Catch-22: rules leads to contradictions • Goal ambiguity – allegiance to what?