Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bureaucratic Approach - Summary of Max Weber's Bureaucray
Bureaucratic Approach - Summary of Max Weber's Bureaucray
Introduction 2
What Is Bureaucracy? 3
Type of Authority 5
Bureaucratic Management Theory 8
Demerits of Bureaucracy 13
Limitations of Bureaucratic Theory 14
1
Introduction
Weber sought to replace authority based on tradition and charisma with legal
authority and to prescribe an impersonal and merit basis for selecting, hiring,
and promoting employees. Both Weber and Fayol had history’s misfortune of
being overshadowed by others and having to wait until after their deaths to
receive proper credit for their roles in the ongoing evolution of management
thought. Max Weber (1864-1920), is said to be the 'father of bureaucratic
management theory.'
Weber saw that organizing large groups of people like this presented new
challenges, especially when it came to authority. At this time, most
organizations were running based on traditional authority, where how well you
did was based on who you knew rather than what you knew. Today we call this
favoritism, but Weber called it particularism, where a particular group of
people had disproportionate sway over the organization. Weber saw that it
was unlikely that this was the best way to run an organization.
2
What Is Bureaucracy?
The term ‘bureaucracy’ has been widely used with invidious connotations
directed at government and business. Bureaucracy is an administrative system
designed to accomplish large-scale administrative tasks by systematically
coordinating the work of many individuals. Weber has observed three types of
power in organisations: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal or
bureaucratic. He has emphasized that bureaucratic type of power is the ideal
one.
3
Bureaucrats: is someone working for the government, an official in
government department in particular one perceived as being concerned with
procedural correctness at the expense of people’s needs. A person who is one
of the people who run a government or big company and who does everything
according to the rules of that government or company : a person who is part of
a bureaucracy
Bureaucrats are people with official positions in government with a power who
are concerned with policy and they stick so close to rules. Bureaucrats do
almost all the day-to-day work that keeps a government running. The idea of a
bureaucracy is to split up the complicated task of governing a large country
into smaller jobs that can be handled by specialists. Bureaucratic government
is nothing new; the Roman empire had an enormous and complex
bureaucracy, with the bureaucrats at lower levels reporting to bureaucrats
above them, and so on up to the emperor himself.
Synonyms of bureaucrats are: civil servants, Public servants, administrators,
government officials and policy makers, chairman and CEOs etc.
4
Type of Authority
According to the bureaucratic theory of Max Weber, three types of power can
be found in organizations; traditional power, charismatic power and legal
power. He refers in his bureaucratic theory to the latter as a bureaucracy. All
aspects of a democracy are organised on the basis of rules and laws, making
the principle of established jurisdiction prevail.
The following three elements support bureaucratic management:
● All regular activities within a bureaucracy can be regarded as official
duties;
● Management has the authority to impose rules;
● Rules can easily be respected on the basis of established methods.
1. Traditional Authority:
➢ Is the type of power that has been around longer, it is the type of
power that is traditionally rooted in beliefs and the practices of
society. This authority is liked by many individuals because of two
main reasons: the inheritance of past generations and
religiousness that the societies have
➢ Traditional authority is based on a tradition or custom that is
followed by the traditional leaders. In traditional authority, status
is a key concept. There are no requirements to serving a
traditional leader but there are no salaries. The consequences to
traditional authority are discouragement of education and rational
calculation.
➢ Traditional authority consists of a dominant profile, one who
embodies tradition and rule. This type of leadership exemplifies
the power to construct order.
5
the right of leaders to undertake the decisions and set the policy.
Rational-legal authority is the basis of modern democracies.
Examples of this type of authority: officials elected by voters, rules
that are in the constitution, or policies that are written in a formal
document.
➢ Rational-legal authority is built on a structure of bureaucracy. In a
rational-legal authority one ascends in their career paths through
promotion and they eventually retire. Some of the benefits of
rational-legal authority are transportation, large-scale industry,
mass communication and an income economy. Other outcomes of
rational-legal authority are tendencies towards equal opportunity
and a promotion of education.
➢ Rational-legal authority requires a logical and systematic approach
to leadership. Weber's rational leadership prevails in decision
making.
3. Charismatic Authority:
➢ Comes from individuals and their personal qualities that they have
to offer. Certain individuals are influential to others with their
unique qualities which help them gain followers. The
"charismatic" individuals exercise power and authority over a
whole society or even a specific group of within a bigger society.
The exercise of their power of these individuals are either for good
or bad. Examples of these charismatic leaders can range from:
Joan of Arc to Adolf Hitler or Martin Luther king Jr to Jesus Christ.
➢ Charismatic authority has no clear structure. It is based one's
individual influence. One is chosen to be staff by their charismatic
characteristics. Someone under a charismatic authority lives under
gifts not salary. As long as someone has influence they will be a
legitimate power.
➢ In charismatic authority, confidence is the driving force for
leadership. With charismatic authority leadership has the ability to
connect distinct groups and lead them to the finish line.
6
Bureaucratic Management Theory
is the power to hold people accountable for their actions and to make
decisions concerning the use of organizational resources Bureaucratic
organizations generally have administrative class responsible for
maintaining coordinative activities of the members. Main features of this
class are as follows:
a. People are paid and are whole time employees,
b. They receive salary and other perquisites normally based on their
positions,
c. Their tenure in the organization is determined by the rules and
regulations of the organization,
d. They do not have any proprietary interest in the organization,
e. They are selected for the purpose of employment based on their
competence.
7
there is hierarchy of positions in the organization. Hierarchy is a system
of ranking various positions in descending scale from top to bottom of
the organization. In bureaucratic organization, offices also follow the
principle of hierarchy that is each lower office is subject to control and
supervision by higher office.
This involves:
8
c. The necessary means of compulsion are clearly defined and their
use is subject to definite conditions.
4. Division of Labor
Division of labor means that tasks are divided between the employees of
the organization. Each employee will be responsible for specific tasks
and each department will be responsible for specific functional areas.
As an example of this think about how your salary is set and paid within
a large organization. Your salary will be set by your line manager, but you
will be paid by the Payroll department, rather than the money being paid
to your boss who would then give it to you. There are advantages to
breaking things up in this way. First, your manager is the person in the
best position to set your salary as they observe your performance much
more closely than the payroll department. Second, the payroll
department are specialists in payroll and ensure you get paid on the
same day each month.
9
10
When there is no rule on any aspect of organizational operation, the
matter is referred upward for decision which subsequently becomes
precedent for future decision on the similar matter. Rules provide the
benefits of stability, continuity, and predictability and each official knows
precisely the outcome of his behaviour in a particular matter.
7. Managerial Hierarchy
11
8. Formal Selection
9. Impersonal:
12
Demerits of Bureaucracy:
These include:
a. Rules and other controls may take on significance of their own and, as
consequence, become ends in themselves. Employees, for example, may
accuse budget personnel of being more interested in applying rules and
regulations than achieving a firm’s primary goals
b. Extreme devotion to rules and other controls may lead to situations in
which past decisions are blindly repeated without appreciation or
concern for changed conditions. Such “bureaucratic rigidity” results in
managers being compensated for doing what they are told and not for
thinking. The result is “rule by rules” rather than common sense.
c. Whereas delegation of authority to lower levels may increase
operational effectiveness, it may also encourage an emphasis on subunit
rather than overall goals, thereby prompting subunit conflict and
decreasing effectiveness. A typical example can be found in many
universities where conflicts over which department is going to offer
what courses often result in unnecessary duplication of subject
offerings, as well as the unnecessary expenditure of resources.
d. . Although rules and other controls are intended to counter worker
apathy, they may actually contribute to it by defining unacceptable
behavior and, thus, specifying a minimum level of acceptable
performance. That is, it is possible, once rules have been defined, for
employees to remain apathetic, for they now know just how little they
can do and still remain secure. This is commonly known as “working to
the rules,” because what is not covered by rules is by definition not an
employee’s responsibility. Within an educational setting, statements
such as “all students must attend at least 50 percent of the classes
during a term to pass” or “the minimum requirement for graduation is a
13
C average on all course work undertaken” are in frustrations of this
phenomenon in that they clearly define minimum levels of acceptable
behavior. Unfortunately, a typical administrative response in such
circumstances is to enact additional bureaucratic rules (such as
mandatory class attendance) and, in turn, further aggravate an already
poor situation. Unless care is taken, however, such a situation may result
in a “vicious circle of bureaucracy,” because once employees discover
the appeasing effect of rules, they may push for even more controls to
further restrict management’s power. Therefore rules may be functional
in one sense, but in another (unintended) sense, they permit employee
involvement without requiring emotional commitment.
1. Inflexibility
While the hierarchy and rules are there to encourage efficiency they can
be very slow to adapt to new situations or information.
2. Empire Building
It is not uncommon for people climbing through the hierarchy to try and
maximize their power by having the biggest team possible for purposes
of self-promotion or appearing powerful and important.
3. Red Tape
Bureaucracies are often associated with excessive red tape, whereby
excessive structure, rules, and processes slow tasks down and lead to
frustration for the people trying to get things done to the best of their
ability
14