Max weber’s Bureaucratic Theory

Bureaucratic Theory was developed by a German Sociologist and political economist Max Weber (1864-1920). According to him, bureaucracy is the most efficient form of organisation. The organisation has a well-defined line of authority. It has clear rules and regulations which are strictly followed.

Description

At roughly the same time, Max Weber was attempting to do for sociology what Taylor had done for industrial operations. Weber postulated that western civilization was shifting from "wertrational" (or value oriented) thinking, affective action (action derived from emotions), and traditional action (action derived from past precedent to "zweckational" (or technocratic) thinking. He believed that civilization was changing to seek technically optimal results at the expense of emotional or humanistic content.

Viewing the growth of large-scale organizations of all types during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Weber developed a set of principles for an "ideal" bureaucracy. These principles included: fixed and official jurisdictional areas, a firmly ordered hierarchy of super and subordination, management based on written records, thorough and expert training, official activity taking priority over other activities and that management of a given organization follows stable, knowable rules. The bureaucracy was envisioned as a large machine for attaining its goals in the most efficient manner possible.

Weber did not advocate bureaucracy, indeed, his writings show a strong caution for its excesses:

"…the more fully realized, the more bureaucracy "depersonalizes" itself, i.e., the more completely it succeeds in achieving the exclusion of love, hatred, and every purely personal, especially irrational and incalculable, feeling from the execution of official tasks"

or:

"By it the performance of each individual worker is mathematically measured, each man becomes a little cog in the machine and aware of this, his one preoccupation is whether he can become a bigger cog(A subordinate member of an organization who performs necessary but usually minor or routine functions.)"

Environment

Weber, as an economist and social historian, saw his environment transitioning from older emotion and tradition driven values to technological ones. It is unclear if he saw the tremendous growth in government, military and industrial size and complexity as a result of the efficiencies of bureaucracy, or their growth driving those organizations to bureaucracy.

Successes

While Weber was fundamentally an observer rather than a designer, it is clear that his predictions have come true. His principles of an ideal bureaucracy still ring true today and many of the evils of today's bureaucracies come from their deviating from those ideal principles. Unfortunately, Weber was also successful in predicting that bureaucracies would have extreme difficulties dealing with individual cases.

It would have been fascinating to see how Weber would have integrated Mayo's results into his theories. It is probable that he would have seen the "group dynamics" as "noise" in the system, limiting the bureaucracy's potential for both efficiency and inhumanity.

Weber noted six major principles.

1. A formal hierarchical structure

Each level controls the level below and is controlled by the level above. A formal hierarchy is the basis of central planning and centralized decision making.

2. Management by rules

Controlling by rules allows decisions made at high levels to be executed consistently by all lower levels.

3. Organization by functional specialty

Work is to be done by specialists, and people are organized into units based on the type of work they do or skills they have.

4. An "up-focused" or "in-focused" mission

If the mission is described as "up-focused," then the organization's purpose is to serve the stockholders, the board, or whatever agency empowered it. If the mission is to serve the organization itself, and those within it, e.g., to produce high profits, to gain market share, or to produce a cash stream, then the mission is described as "in-focused."

5. Purposely impersonal

The idea is to treat all employees equally and customers equally, and not be influenced by individual differences.

6. Employment based on technical qualifications

(There may also be protection from arbitrary dismissal.)

The bureaucratic form, according to Parkinson, has another attribute.

7. Predisposition to grow in staff "above the line."

Weber failed to notice this, but C. Northcote Parkinson found it so common that he made it the basis of his humorous "Parkinson's law." Parkinson demonstrated that the management and professional staff tends to grow at predictable rates, almost without regard to what the line organization is doing.

Features of Bureaucratic Organisation

The characteristics or features of Bureaucratic Organisation are as follows :-

1. There is a high degree of Division of Labour and Specialisation.2. There is a well defined Hierarchy of Authority.3. It follows the principle of Rationality, Objectively and Consistency.4. There are Formal and Impersonal relations among the member of the organisation.5. Interpersonal relations are based on positions and not on personalities.6. There are well defined Rules and Regulations. There rules cover all the duties and rights

of th employees. These rules must be strictly followed.7. There are well defined Methods for all types of work.8. Selection and Promotion is based on Technical qualifications.9. Only Bureaucratic or legal power is given importance.

Criticism of Bureaucratic Organisation

Bureaucratic organisation is a very rigid type of organisation. It does not give importance to human relations. It is suitable for government organisations. It is also suitable for organisations where change is very slow. It is appropriate for static organisations.

Bureaucratic organisation is criticised because of the following reasons :-

1. Too much emphasis on rules and regulations. The rules and regulations are rigid and inflexible.

2. No importance is given to informal groups. Nowadays, informal groups play an important role in all business organisations.

3. Bureaucracy involves a lot of paper work. This results in lot of wastage of time, effort and money.

4. There will be unnecessary delay in decision-making due to formalities and rules.5. Bureaucratic model may be suitable for government organisations. But it is not suitable

for business organisations because business organisations believe in quick decision making and flexibility in procedures.

6. Too much importance is given to the technical qualifications of the employees for promotion and transfers. Dedication and commitment of the employee is not considered.

7. There is difficulty in coordination and communication. 8. There is limited scope for Human Resource (HR)