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Max Weber and Bureaucracy

Most of us have a fairly dim view of bureaucracy - indeed, the adjective "bureaucratic" is almost always a derogatory one. Which is why it is probably salutary to read what Max Weber has to say on the subject of bureaucracy. Both in this particular essay ("Bureaucracy") and in his work as a whole Weber is fundamentally concerned with the nature of management within businesses and the ways in which managers control both work flow and the organization of labor within the workplace. Weber argued that bureaucratic structures - and bureaucrats to run and enforce them - in the workplace were a significant improvement over what came before. Before the bureaucratic organization of the workplace, the owner or manager could be entirely arbitrary - which often resulted in horribly cruel treatment of workers.

Bureaucracies were both more efficient and more humane than the laissez-faire form of management that preceded them, Weber argued, so long as they included the following key elements:

A hierarchy of authority, with different rules and responsibilities for individuals at each level

Managers who were separate from owners

Authority arising from position and not personality

The problems that have arisen with bureaucratic structures are, Weber would no doubt argue, much milder than those that existed under previous systems.

Weber, Max. "Bureaucracy". In Max Weber: Essays on Sociology. New York: Oxford UP, 1958, 196-244

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Max Weber and Bureaucracy. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:35, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1688103.html