Lecture 5: Weber and Bureaucracy

Weber: 3 Types of Authority

Charismatic Authority

Those in authority possess charisma

No fixed hierarchy of officials

No legal rules governing organization

Short-lived: dependent upon personality of leader.

Examples:

Jesuss disciples
Religious cults

After leaders death the movement must become routinized or

collapse

traditional or bureaucratic control/authority.

Traditional Authority

Two forms
a) Household relatives, favourites and servants (e.g. Biraderi in
Pakistan. Family in Sicily).
b) Vassals feudal lords who swear loyalty to monarch and hold land
in exchange for military service.
In both cases social actions are based upon custom/ingrained habit.

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Bureaucratic Authority

Weber constructed an ideal type of bureaucratic organization. He

argued that bureaucracies were increasingly moving towards this pure
type.

The ideal type of bureaucracy contains these elements

Specialization: Each administrative official has a clearly

defined area of responsibility and competence:
The regular activities required for the purposes of the
organization are distributed in a fixed way of official duties.

Sub-division: Complex tasks are broken down into

manageable parts: state administration divided into various
departments social security, defence, finance etc.

Hierarchy: A chain of command and responsibility is

established whereby officials are accountable to their immediate
superior for their conduct and for those below them.

The organization of offices follows the principle of hierarchy

Rules and Regulations: The functioning of a bureaucracy is

governed by a consistent system of abstract rules which are
applied to specific cases.
o Such rules clearly define the limits of the authority held by
officials in the hierarchy.

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o Rules lay down procedures for the performance of tasks.

o Rules improve strict discipline and control, leaving little
scope for personal initiative or discretion.
o Obedience to superiors stems from a belief in the
correctness of the rules.

Impersonality:

The ideal bureaucrat performs duties in a spirit of formalistic impersonality . . .

. without hatred or passion. Activities are undertaken according to calculable
rules and without regard for persons.

Technical Competence:

Officials are appointed on the basis of technical knowledge and expertise.

Bureaucratic administration involves The exercise of control on the basis of
knowledge. This is the feature that makes it specifically rational.

Officials selected on the basis of their knowledge and skills

Officials are full-time paid employees with a career.

Promotion based upon seniority or achievement or a

combination of the two.

Separation Public and Private:

Bureaucratic administration involves a strict separation of public duties and

private activities. Officials do not own the organization nor can they use their
position for private gain.

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Weber argued that bureaucratic organization was technically superior to

traditional authority or charismatic forms of organisation. It became part of the
iron cage of modern life, akin to a treadmill.
[NB. Weber argued that such impersonal, rationalization was inevitable [not
necessarily desirable]. He strongly opposed Marxist ideas that bureaucratic
organisation was contingent upon industrial capitalism: rather be foresaw that
state socialism would be inherently similar in its basic organizational
parameters.

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Problems of Bureaucracy

Bureaucratic Alienation

Dehumanization. Lack of Creativity. Inhumanity.

Bauman (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust argued that we

live in a type of society that made the Holocaust possible [p.88]

People could exterminate large numbers of people

because they were cogs in an impersonal, mechanized
chain. They followed orders and abrogated their
personal responsibility for their actions.

Jews were categorized, labelled, monitored, controlled

and ultimately rounded up and taken in trains to death
camps where they were gassed to death.

Bureaucratic Inefficiency
Failure of bureaucracies to carry out work

they were created to perform.

Red tape tedious preoccupation with

organizational principles and procedures.

Bureaucratic ritualism [Merton, 1968]: an

over-preoccupation with rules and regulations [see Kafkas The

Castle].

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Bureaucratic Inertia

Tendency of bureaucratic

organisations to perpetuate themselves.

E.g. US National Association for Infantile Paralysis fundraisers for
cure for polio. This was achieved in 1950s but the organization
continued and redirected its efforts into other areas.

Bureaucratic Oligarchy

Michels Political Parties. The iron law of oligarchy the

pyramid-like structure of bureaucracy places a few leaders in
charge of large organizations.

Hierarchy

Bureaucracy often insulates officials from public accountability.

concentration of power and threatens democracy.

Total Institutions

E. Goffman (1961) analysed total institutions as both a specific

and extreme version of bureaucratic control. Examples include
prisons and mental hospitals. (cf. One Flew Over the Cuckoos
Nest).

Staff supervise all aspects of daily life, including where

inmates eat, sleep and work.

Rigid provision of standardised food, sleeping quarters

and activities.

Formal rules and daily schedules fix when, how and

where inmates perform their daily routines.

Regimentation and Depersonalization

Radical
Resocialization of Inmatess Personality and Behaviour.

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Parkinsons Law
Northcote Parkinson (1957). Work expands to fill

the time available for its completion.

Bureaucrats appear busy. They expand their

activities.
(cf University Committees).

The Peter Principle

Bureaucrats rise to their level of incompetence: competent

employees are promoted until they reach a position where they
are in over their heads. They perform poorly and therefore
remain at that level. This leads to widespread inefficiencies.

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McDonalization: Weber Re-vindicated?

G. Ritzer The McDonaldization of Society (1993) argued that the

organizational principles underlying McDonalds are increasingly
dominating society.

McDonaldization of Society: the process by which the principles of

the fast-food industry came to be applied to more and more features of
social life.

Evidence

Parents buy toys at chain stores like Toys R Us.

Package holidays

Universities devise mass courses based on pre-packaged

modules. [cf B. Smart (ed) Resisting McDonaldization, 1999].

Students are admitted on the basis of standard grades.

Professors assign ghost-written textbooks and evaluate students

with tests mass-produced for them by multinational publishers
like McGraw-Hill [Mc Sociology]

Four Basic Principles of McDonaldization

Efficiency

Ray Kroz set the goal of serving a customer in 50 seconds.

Fast food ethos.

Based upon economies of scale, assembly-line production of

food and low costs

Speed = a virtue.

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Calculability

Every aspect of food production and consumption is

measured and calculated:
Hamburger = 1.6ozs
Slice of cheese = oz
Fries = 9/32 inch thick

Environment = deliberately planned. Precision = a virtue

Uniformity

A World that offers No surprises.

Food prepared identically in every McDonalds.

Predictability = a virtue.

Automated Controls

To eliminate unreliability/unpredictability of human element

within restaurants, McDonalds has automated its cooking
equipment to cook at fixed temperatures for set periods of time.

Workers at McDonalds have little skill and virtually no

autonomy. They perform highly specialized jobs: one person
grills the burgers whilst others, dress them, made French fries,
whipped up milkshakes and served the customers in assemblyline fashia.

The Irrationality of the Rational

Rational organization has succeeded in producing and

promoting poor quality food and in devaluing the experience of
having a meal. Also as a working environment it is alienating
and unfulfilling.

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