INTRODUCTION TO

ADMINISTRATION

THEORY OF BUREAUCRACY
 STRUCTURALIST APPROACH
• IT BEGINS WITH MAX WEBER, GERMAN
SOCIOLOGIST, AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
20TH CENTURY.
• HE CONSIDERED THE 20TH CENTURY AS
THE CENTURY OF “BUREAUCRACIES”. system of written
rules and standard
operating

• IT EMERGES JOINTLY WITH CAPITALISM, ON procedures that

specify how
employees should

THE BASIS OF: behave.

clearly
– Monetary Economy, – Labor Force
damage
system of specified
labor relations hierarchy of

Market,
and authority
accountability

– The State - Centralist Nation and

system of
selection and
evaluation that
relists the

– Dissemination of the Protestant Ethic. employed fairly

and equitably
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb3YdOeHlc0&feature=related
STRUCTURALIST APPROACH
BUREAUCRATIC
THEORY
 CHARACTERISTICS DYSFUNCTIONS

1. Legal nature of norms.

2. Formal character of the communications.

3. Rational and division of labor.

4. Impersonality.

5. hierarchy.

6. Standardized routines and procedures.

7. Competencies.

8. Administration specialization.

9. Participant professionalization.
 ORIGIN OF BUREAUCRATIC
THEORY
• IT STARTED AROUND 1940.
• Fragility and partiality of Classical and Human Relations
theories, to present a global and integrated approach to the
organization.
• The need to find a rational organization model that
manages to integrate all the variables involved, including
the human being.
• The complexity and size of companies, which required
better defined organizational models.
• The resurgence of sociology, based on the discovery of
Weber's works.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
BUREAUCRACY
Legal nature of rules and regulations
Formal character of the communications
Division of labour
Impersonality of relationships
Hierarchy of authority
Standardized routines and procedures
Professionalization
Complete operation forecast
 TYPES OF COMPANY

Types
society
Traditional conservative hereditary Clan, tribe, family,
patriarchal medieval society

Revolutionary groups
Revolutionary mystical
Charismatic rivers, political parties
personalist
Ticos, nations in revolution

Legal or Rationality of means Modern states, big

bureaucratic and objectives companies, armies
Ex
Charact
a
eristics
m
pl
es
 TYPES OF
AUTHORITY
• Each type of Company corresponds to a
type of AUTHORITY.
• AUTHORITY means, according to Weber,
the probability that a specific order will be
obeyed.
• AUTHORITY = officialized and
institutionalized POWER.
• It also means the potential to influence
other people.
• CAN; Probability of imposing one's
will within a social relationship, even against any
 TYPES OF
form of resistance and whatever its basis.
AUTHORITY
• AUTHORITY provides POWER; Therefore
normally, “Having Authority is having Power”,
however not always “Having Power means having
Authority”.
• According to Weber, there are three (3) types of
Legitimate Authority:
• TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY ; which is based on
the concept that orders are justified, because that
is how they have always been made.
– It is not rational
 TYPES OF
– It is transmitted by inheritance
AUTHORITY
– He is very conservative.
• Forms: HEREDITARY and FEUDAL
 TYPES OF
CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY ; that I know in
AUTHORITY
Subordinates accept that orderswhich
are justified, due to the
influence of the personality and leadership of the superior
with whom they identify.
– It is not rational
– It is unstable
– Easily acquire Revolutionary characteristics.
– It cannot be delegated or inherited.
• BUREAUCRATIC, LEGAL AUTHORITY or
RATIONAL ; When subordinates accept that orders from
superiors are justified, because they agree with a set of
precepts or norms that they consider legitimate. – It is the
 TYPES OF
Technical, Meritocratic
AUTHORITYand Administrative authority. – It is
rational and is based on rationally defined legal norms.
WEBER'S BUREAUCRATIC MODEL
BUREAUCRATIC RATIONALITY

• It is the adaptation of the

means to the ends; In
bureaucratic language this
means efficiency.

• A company is rational if it uses

the most efficient means to
achieve its goals.
 Force pressures
external for
force the
bureaucrat to follow
different rules

DILEMMAS
OF

Commitment of the
subordinates with
bureaucratic rules
 BUREAUCRACY DYSFUNCTIONS

Internalization of rules Formalism

and excessive paperwork
Resistance to change
Depersonalization of relationships
Hierarchy of relationships Display of
symbols of authority
Extreme compliance with routines and
procedures
 • Difficulties in customer service, conflict with the
public.
INTERACTION OF THE BUREAUCRACY WITH
THE
ATMOSPHERE

• Weber did not foresee the flexibility of bureaucracy

in two circumstances:
• The adaptation of bureaucracy to the external
demands of clients.
• The adaptation of bureaucracy to and

the internal demands of the

 participants.
• For this reason, Selznick carried out a study at the
TVA agency. where he sought to demonstrate the
flexibility of the bureaucracy in the aforementioned
circumstances.
INTERACTION OF THE BUREAUCRACY WITH
THE
ENVIRONMENT cont..

• Selznick concluded that the bureaucratic

organization is an adaptive social structure
subject to environmental pressures, which is why
 it must continually modify its objectives.
• Selznick verified the interaction between
bureaucracy and its environment, characterizing
bureaucracy as a system of environmental
transactions.
 DEGREES OF
BUREAUCRATIZATION
Lack of Bureaucratization Formalization of
., Excess Bureaucratization
the comunications
Lack of Division of
specialization Impersonality
Job
Selection and promotion
Lack of Hierarchy
authority of personal
Rules and
Excessive
Regulations
freedom * Superspecial
Absence of ization
documents
Emphasis Authoritariani
on people sm and
imposition
Favoritism Order
and
Disciplin
Excess of
Disorder 4 e ■* paperwork
 , Emphasis on
DEGREES OF
BUREAUCRATIZATION
 CRITICAL EVALUATION

• Excessive rationalism of bureaucracy.

• Mechanisms and limitations of machine
theory.
• Protestant ethics.
• Conservatism of bureaucracy.
• Closed system approach.
• Explanatory and descriptive
approach.