1. Formal Organizations
Chapter 4, Section 5

2. What is it?
A formal organization is a large, secondary group that has been established to achieve specific goals.
Examples: schools, businesses, gov. agencies, labor unions, etc.
Bureaucracy= ranked authority structure that operates according to specific rules and procedures.
Industrialization contributed to the rise of bureaucracies.
Rationality= calculation, measurement and control.

3. Weber’s Model of Bureaucracies
Five characteristics (Max Weber)
Division of labor;
Ranking of authority;
Employment based on formal qualifications;
Rules and regulations;
Specific lines of promotion and advancement

5. Less formal organization = ???
Weber’s model is an ideal type– it represents essential characteristics. A bureaucracy can include other characteristics, but no less.
Voluntary association= less bureaucratic; non-profit organization to pursue a common interest.

6. Effectiveness? Pros: Cons: Create order by clearly defining tasks;
Coordinate large-scale numbers for a single goal;
Provide stability
Cons:
Lose sight of original goals;
Development of a ‘bureaucratic personality’– desire to follow rules and regulation
“red tape”

7. Iron law of oligarchy
An oligarchy exists when the few people rule the many.
Robert Michels described the tendency for small groups to form within an organization the iron law of oligarchy.

8. Other takes on problems
Peter Principle each employee will rise to their level of incompetence in a bureaucracy.

9. Other takes on bureaucracies
Parkinson’s Law “work expands to fill the time needed for its completion”