...Max Weber’s Bureaucracy Written by Dr. Wasim Al-Habil College of Commerce The Islamic University of Gaza Beginning with Max Weber, bureaucracies have been regarded as mechanisms that rationalize authority and decision-making in society. Yet subsequent theorists have questioned the rationality of bureaucracies. Which features of modern-day public bureaucracies are rational? Which are not? Buttress your argument with citations from organization and/or public administration theories. Introduction: Max Weber’s work about bureaucracy, translated into English in 1946, was one of the major contributions that has influenced the literature of public administration. However, Van Riper (1997) argues that the work of Weber on bureaucracy has no influence on American PA until the 1950’s. The word bureaucracy is derived from two words; “bureau” and “Kratos.” While the word “bureau” refers to the office the Greek suffix “kratia or kratos” means power or rule. Thus we use the word “bureaucracy” to refer to the power of the office (Hummel, 1998, 307). “Bureaucracy” is rule conducted from a desk or office, i.e. by the preparation and dispatch of written documents and electronic ones. Bureaucracy is borrowed by the field of public administration (PA) from the field of sociology. It was borrowed by PA in much a similar way that practices of business were borrowed from the field of business administration and economics. Weber (1946) presents bureaucracy as both a scientific...
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...Max Weber’s Bureaucracy Written by Dr. Wasim Al-Habil College of Commerce The Islamic University of Gaza Beginning with Max Weber, bureaucracies have been regarded as mechanisms that rationalize authority and decision-making in society. Yet subsequent theorists have questioned the rationality of bureaucracies. Which features of modern-day public bureaucracies are rational? Which are not? Buttress your argument with citations from organization and/or public administration theories. Introduction: Max Weber’s work about bureaucracy, translated into English in 1946, was one of the major contributions that has influenced the literature of public administration. However, Van Riper (1997) argues that the work of Weber on bureaucracy has no influence on American PA until the 1950’s. The word bureaucracy is derived from two words; “bureau” and “Kratos.” While the word “bureau” refers to the office the Greek suffix “kratia or kratos” means power or rule. Thus we use the word “bureaucracy” to refer to the power of the office (Hummel, 1998, 307). “Bureaucracy” is rule conducted from a desk or office, i.e. by the preparation and dispatch of written documents and electronic ones. Bureaucracy is borrowed by the field of public administration (PA) from the field of sociology. It was borrowed by PA in much a similar way that practices of business were borrowed from the field of business administration and economics. Weber (1946) presents bureaucracy as both a scientific...
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...Max Weber on Bureaucracy I. Merriam Webster’s Definition of Bureaucracy: 1 a : a body of nonelective government officials b : an administrative policy-making group 2 : government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority 3 : a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation II. Background and Description Max Weber was born 1864 and died 1920. Weber asks how is it a leader can give a command and have actions carried out? He answers the question by classifying claims to the "legitimacy" in the exercise of authority. His observations on bureaucracy were heavily influenced by his experiences in the United States. While traveling there, Weber was struck by the role of bureaucracy in a democratic society. The problem, as he saw it, was that modern democracy required bureaucratic structures of all kinds in the administration of government and even in the conduct of professional party politics. Handing over the reins to a class of unelected "experts," however, threatened to undermine the very basis of democracy itself. In particular, Weber stressed two problems: the unaccountability of unelected civil servants and the bureaucratic tendency toward inflexibility in the application of rules. Weber's interest in the nature of power and authority, as well as his pervasive preoccupation with modern trends of rationalization, led him to concern himself with the operation of modern large-scale...
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...Max Weber on Bureaucracy I. Merriam Webster’s Definition of Bureaucracy: 1 a : a body of nonelective government officials b : an administrative policy-making group 2 : government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority 3 : a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation II. Background and Description Max Weber was born 1864 and died 1920. Weber asks how is it a leader can give a command and have actions carried out? He answers the question by classifying claims to the "legitimacy" in the exercise of authority. His observations on bureaucracy were heavily influenced by his experiences in the United States. While traveling there, Weber was struck by the role of bureaucracy in a democratic society. The problem, as he saw it, was that modern democracy required bureaucratic structures of all kinds in the administration of government and even in the conduct of professional party politics. Handing over the reins to a class of unelected "experts," however, threatened to undermine the very basis of democracy itself. In particular, Weber stressed two problems: the unaccountability of unelected civil servants and the bureaucratic tendency toward inflexibility in the application of rules. Weber's interest in the nature of power and authority, as well as his pervasive preoccupation with modern trends of rationalization, led him to concern himself with the operation of modern large-scale...
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...Bureaucracy Observed (An Experience-Based Analysis) (An Experience-Based Analysis) Joshua A Ward University of Maryland University College Author’s Note This paper was prepared for MGMT 610 9045 Organizational Theory (2615), taught by Professor Matthews. According to German sociologist, political economist, administrative scholar, and historian Max Weber, bureaucracy is “a particular type of administrative structure developed through rational legal authority.” (Swanson, 2013) His six major principles have formed the foundation for understanding bureaucracy since their inception. They include the idea that a bureaucracy must consist of a formal hierarchical structure, i.e., each level controls the level below it and is controlled by the level above. Organization by functional specialty is key, work must be performed by specialists, and those specialists are organized into units based on the type of work they do of the skills they possess. Bureaucracy is purposely impersonal, with the major idea being that all employees and customers must and should be treated equally, with no organizational decision influenced or based on individual differences. Also, employment in a bureaucracy should be based primarily on technical qualifications, with the most consideration given to a potential employee who is most qualified, once again, without any consideration given to personal preference. From personal experience, the United States military is a prime example of bureaucracy...
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...practices would be vast .The perspective of our Sociological founding Father Max Weber and his analysis of another change in American Society; his view points on modernity, the rise of capitalism as well as Bureaucracy make tangible points to set the stage for a crisis in America that takes in 2008. Weber predicted that in a crisis Bureaucracy will only fail if there is mismanagement, incompetence and/or abuse of its organizational system. He predicted to fix a system that has went array one would have to balance the effects of Bureaucracy to the peoples needs/desires for capitalistic gain. Karl Emil “Max” Weber was born in Prussia in the mid-1800's. Max Weber, (2006) German sociologist. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2015. During this era, the Industrial revolution was in full swing brushing off the ideals of a traditional economy and embracing the new ideas of Modernity. Weber was not unaffected by these ideas and described the emergence of modernity, through the rise of capitalism. Weber noted that the this new economic system yielded old leadership he described as the charismatic, Authoritative and Traditional leadership. He outlined that Capitalism would bring a prosperity the likes people have never experienced. The positive affects of Capitalism he noted were an increased knowledge of skill-set, a change from reasoning to Rationalization and an efficiency in production. Weber outlined Rationalization in financial terms, as the assessment of benefits and costs...
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... BUREAUCRACY AND RATIONAL-LEGAL AUTHORITY......................... 2 3. CORNERSTONES OF BUREAUCRACY ......................................................... 4 4. DYSFUNCTIONS OF BUREAUCRACY ........................................................... 5 5. RELEVANCE FOR COTEMPORARY ORGANISATIONS .......................... 6 6. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 7 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 9 Executive Summary The label “Bureaucracy” today is not quite what any organization wants to have written on their flags. Everyone has their own experiences and feelings associated with this term and in most cases it has a negative connotation. A quick view through current media will confirm this. However bureaucracy, as conceived by Max Weber originally, was regarded as progress and something that can improve efficiency and stability within an organization. Organizations can draw upon the pioneering work of Max Weber even today. While displaying certain dysfunctions that are directly linked to strict bureaucracies (for example the tendency to displace goals, the discouragement of innovation and adaptability to change, there are certain aspects of it even the most dynamic and innovative organisations cant escape and even profit from. The concept of bureaucracy can be...
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...MAX WEBER By: JD Mojica Life and career Max Weber was born on April 21, 1864, the eldest of seven children, and grew up in a cultured bourgeois household, ruled by a strong authoritarian father. At University in Heidelberg, Weber studied economics, medieval history and philosophy as well as law. A period of military service brought him under the care of his uncle, Hermann Baumgarten, a historian, and his wife. Both uncle and aunt acted as mentors to Weber, the former as a liberal who treated him as an intellectual peer, the latter as a person who impressed him with her deep sense of social responsibility towards her charitable work. Both offered a stark contrast to Weber's father, who treated his son with patronizing authoritarianism. It was probably during this formative period that Weber developed an aversion to the way people then most often gained positions of power and authority through nepotism and accident of birth - factors he considered were lacking in legitimacy. He started to think of ways to free the individual as much as possible from personal judgments or from judgments which were clouded by emotion or self-interest. After periods as a legal scholar at Heidelberg and then at the University of Berlin, Weber became professor of political economy, first at the University of Freiburg in 1894, and then at the University of Heidelberg in 1897. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was first published in 1904, and in 1919, Weber became Professor of Political...
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...consider the relevance of bureaucratic administration to the management of twenty-first century organizations. Max Weber was a German sociologist in the twentieth century; he was famous for his classical management theory. Weber classified three different types of authority, traditional, charismatic and legitimate authority. Traditional authority is based on traditions and customs that the leader has the legitimate right to use authority. Charismatic authority is the belief that the leader whose mission and visions will inspire others. Legitimate authority is based on formal, system of rules. In the 1930s, Weber introduced that the bureaucratic form as being the ideal way of organizing government agencies. This soon became popular in both the private and public sectors. Weber believes that the development of rational forms to be the most important characteristics in the development of Western society and capitalism. He considered the traditional and charismatic forms as irrational. Rationality is based on reasoning, calculation and logic. One of the many types of rationality includes the formal rationality. The notion of formal rationality is important to the emergence of industrial capitalism as capitalism values reason, calculation and precision, science and logic. Formal rationality is a form of rationality that characterizes bureaucratic organizations. Bureaucracy refers to the execution of tasks that are governed by official administrative and formal rules of an organization...
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...In sociology, the iron cage is a term coined by Max Weber for the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The "iron cage" thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as "the polar night of icy darkness".[1] The original German term is stahlhartes Gehäuse; this was translated into "iron cage", an expression made familiar to English language speakers by Talcott Parsons in his 1930 translation of Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.[2] This translation has recently been questioned by certain sociologists and interpreted instead as the "shell as hard as steel".[2][3] Weber wrote: “ | In Baxter’s view the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the 'saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment.' But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage."[4] | ” | Weber became concerned with social actions and the subjective meaning that humans attach to their actions and interaction within specific social contexts. He also believed in idealism, which is the belief that we only know things because of the meanings that we apply to them. This led to his interest in power and authority in terms of bureaucracy and rationalization. Rationalization and bureaucracy[edit] Weber states, “the course of development involves… the bringing in of calculation...
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...MAX WEBER The Emergence of Organization and Administrative Theory • Max Weber (1864-1920) – “Father of Bureaucracy” and the “Father of Organization Theory” • Bureaucracy – Literally means, “management by office or position” • Designed as a logical replacement for feudalistic patriarchal systems which are based on “management by person” • Weber said that of the three types of authority: 1. Traditional 2. Charismatic 3. Rational-legal • Of these, rational-legal has the continuity and competence necessary for bureaucracy • Weber identified seven elements of bureaucracy: Clearly defined division of labor, authority, and responsibility Clearly defined hierarchy of authority All employees selected because of competence determined via testing, background, and education Administrators are appointed, not elected Administrators work for fixed salaries and are career officials Administrators are not owners Administrators and employees are subject to strict formal rules, discipline, and controls uniformly applied In Weber’s eyes in order for a bureaucracy to function ideally it must have rationalization as its central concept. Rationalization is the substitution of rational and calculating motivators for emotional and traditional ones regarding behavior in a bureaucracy. Basically, “one can, in principle, master all things by calculation.” This quest for precision is what many tenets of modern capitalism such as accounting, centralization of production control, and...
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...1. Biography Max Weber, a prominent German sociologist born on 21th April 1864 in Erfurt, was the eldest son among his seven younger siblings. His father, Max Weber Sr is a famous politician and his mother Helene Weber was a devout Calvinist who practiced a more tolerant theology (Radkau 2009). In 1882, Weber’s law studies were interrupted due to his conscription into the military. Thereafter, Weber continued his studies in Berlin and begun his career as a lawyer. Weber married his distant cousin, Marianne Schnitger in 1893, and moved to Freiburg where he was appointed as a professor in the University. Weber resigned and subsequently became an editor. He published his masterpiece “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” which focuses on the relationship between different religious ideas and economics. Weber feels that the modern system stems from rational capitalism and attempted to explain how the process occurred. In Weber’s perception, money is not the main driving force that inspires man to work hard; religious convictions can also influence their thinking (Weber 1904). Weber’s theory of bureaucracy is modeled on the rationalizing of organizations. Some characteristics of bureaucracy are division of labor and managerial hierarchy (Wren & Bedeian 2009). Bureaucracy, being the most efficient way of managing an organization has its disadvantages. Viewed like an “iron cage”, individuals feel trapped with no room for creativity where rules and regulations...
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...According to Weber, authority is power accepted as legitimate by those subjected to it. These three forms of authority are said to appear in a "hierarchical development order". States progress from charismatic authority, to traditional authority, and finally reach the state of rational-legal authority which is characteristic of a modern liberal democracy. However in this paper, we will try to agree with Max Weber’s statement that, legal – rational authority is the most rational type of authority, while giving reasons to our argument. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state (in the form of Members of Parliament, Judges, Police Officers, etc.) or by academic knowledge of an area (someone can be an authority on a subject). The word "Authority" with capital "A”, refers to the governing body upon which such authority (with lower case "a") is vested ( Arendt, 1961: 53). However, authority is often used interchangeably in governments with the term "power". However, their meanings differ. Authority refers to a claim of legitimacy, the justification and right to exercise power (Spencer, 1970: 258). For example, while a mob has the power to punish a criminal, for example by lynching, people who believe in the rule of law consider that only a court of law to have the authority to order capital punishment. Max Weber, in his sociological and philosophical work, identified and distinguished three types of legitimate domination that have sometimes been rendered...
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...UREAUCRACY: WEBER’S THEORY The literal meaning of bureaucracy is “rule by desks or offices, or government with a small desk.” A bureaucracy comprises of a great number of non-elected government officials that are concerned with administrative work and policy-making. Many big organizations and governments depend on bureaucracies to operate; they need consistent rules and procedures. Governmental agencies such as homeland security demonstrate best how bureaucrats function and what they do. (Blau, 1956) During the time of the great German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), organizations were run in a casual manner. Max Weber searched for means to create a more official structure in organizations. According to him, organizations that were run like families were less successful because authority was misplaced. He believed that workers were loyal to their superiors as opposed to organizations. Organizations that are more structured, authoritative, and rigid were Max Weber’s ideal of a fully rational bureaucracy; he imagined them to be that way. His ideal organizations were those that were able to turn regular workers into coherent decision makers that will serve clients with fairness and competence. According to Weber, the following are characteristics of a fully rational bureaucracy: (Weber, 2009) Hierarchy: a clear-cut chain of command characterizes the level of power within organizations. People who occupy positions of authority will oversee and guide those who hold lower...
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...2014 BEAURACRACY, A CONTENTIOUS NECESSITY VINOD NANNAWARE TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES M2014HRM062 BUREAUCRACY, A CONTENTIOUS NECESSITY VINOD NANNAWARE, M2014HRM062 Charges of corruption, Policy paralysis like situations and leadership conflicts resulted in historic downfall of grand old party of the country and new era of governance started in India. ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’, one of the massively used and successfully scripted election propaganda did wonders for ‘party with difference’. No one ever imagined it would become an election campaign agenda, but astute Narendra Modi who played all of his cards very smartly in the LS poll 2014, knows the importance of using right words at right time. Many eminent scholars and economist all across globe blamed bureaucratic functioning and policy paralysis of UPA-2 as one of the main reasons of this defeat. Hence this historic victory of Modi led NDA puts number of questions in front of modern day sociologist, especially those who follows and believes in Marx Weber Ideas of Bureaucracy. Looking this phenomenon as only one of its kind or merely just an accident will lead to falsified inference about changing economical and social realities in modern India. After assuming the power the way in which team Modi has been tackling most of the pending issues surprised many of us. In fact governments last 2 months report card shows that our beliefs such as set of rules and regulations are inevitable part of government...
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