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” (189b7) 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?

Questions What is the relationship between “class, status, and party” and “bureaucracy”? How is bureaucracy “rational”?

Books You Should Read Perrow, Charles Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay Gouldner, AlvinPatterns of Industrial Bureaucracy