Both public and private organizations recognize the need to organize their activities in order to improve efficiency and productivity. There are different ways of organizing a large number of people to work collectively towards the achievement of a common goal.
In the primary reading, Max Weber provides a model of organizing activities, employees and the administration to achieve efficiency. He names it bureaucracy. It refers to a model of administration that emphasizes on the use of departments and bureaus to achieve the goals of an organization.
The model of bureaucracy dates back to the early 19th century although it existed in a rather fragmented way in the pre-modern world. Nonetheless, Weber elaborates the concept and defines functions, roles and characteristics of bureaucracy and bureaucrats.
Bureaucrats represent the employees and managers of an organization who hold specific qualifications and specialize in their duties and roles. This essay seeks to analyze the characteristics of bureaucracy and bureaucrats as highlighted in the primary reading.
Characteristics and the Nature of an Official Position
First, Weber (2009, p.197) articulates that a bureaucratic structure is typical of hierarchical structures.
In other words, a bureaucratic political system has few officials as the structure goes up. Junior employees and subordinates occupy the bottom of the hierarchy while the managers and senior management team occupy the top of the structure.
Second, Weber (2009, p. 197) says that all bureaucrats ought to possess specific skills and expertise to fulfill the goals of an organization. This implies that office holders (employees or managers) have specialized in their duties and roles.
Third, a bureaucracy is typical of papers and shelves as the name suggests. In other words, employees work with written documents that are placed in shelves and desks. Bureaucracy reflects numerous offices of the modern organizations that similar to bureaus.
Fourth, Weber (2009, p. 197) points out that the major function of an office is to increase efficiency and productivity of the organization.
To that end, an office is fully developed when the employees and the managers are able to streamline their activities towards improving the efficiency of the organization (Weber 2009, p. 197).
Finally, Weber (2009, p. 198) postulates that the most important objective of a bureaucrat is to ensure that employees and members of staff ought to follow the set rules and regulations of the office (bureau).
The employees can learn the rules and regulations through training and guidance on their specific roles within the structure.
Weber (2009, p.198) characterizes the nature of the position of a leader in a bureaucracy. First, the office holders should possess a vocation or a calling for the leadership roles and have an intrinsic motivation to perform at different capacities within the system.
Second, leaders must recognize that leading other people is a duty rather than a role. They should not focus on compensation packages as is with other laborers in the market.
Further, Weber (2009, p. 199) articulates that a bureaucratic leader serves the interests of the office with undivided loyalty. This implies that the modern bureaucratic leaders are loyal servants of the impersonal office (bureau).
Hence, they serve the office with all respect and loyalty by ensuring that they are consistently able to achieve the objectives of the organization (Craib1997, p. 11).
Moreover, the position of an official or a leader of a bureaucratic structure has more social esteem than the positions occupied by the followers (Weber 2009, p. 199). The rationale is that the official enjoys various privileges that the governed do not enjoy.
Other characteristics of the position of the official include appointment by superior authority as opposed to an election, permanence of the office, career growth and development, and the hierarchical ranking of the bureaucrats.
To emphasize on the permanence of the position, Weber (2009, p. 202) postulates that it has tenure of life. This implies that the position does not ‘die’ when a leader resigns or stop fulfilling the duties associated with the office.
An Illustration of the Concept in Everyday Life
An example of bureaucratic structure modern society is a public organization. At the outset, public organizations have hierarchical structure where junior employees hold the lowest position within the structure.
As you go up the hierarchical structure, the number of employees reduces since there are few official leaders in the hierarchy. It is important to highlight that a superior authority appoints the directors and managers of public organizations.
This is in line with Weber’s characteristics of modern bureaucratic organizations where an official ought to be appointed by a superior authority. In pubic organizations, board of directors appointed by various public authorities has the mandate of employing or appointing a new bureaucrat.
In addition, public organizations have permanent positions that are reserved for the leaders. In other words, the position of the director of public organizations has existed in many societies for many years.
This implies that the office has ‘tenure of life’ in the sense that it remains even when the director resigns or quits. Employees of public organizations enjoy promotion along hierarchical ladder.
In other words, public organizations ensure that individuals experience career growth and development. This is in accordance with the principles, characteristics and rules that govern bureaucratic structures.
Finally, it is noticeable that pubic organization exists within specified sectors and industries that serve as their areas of jurisdiction.
Conclusion
In summary, bureaucracy is a model of administration where employees and managers work together to achieve efficiency of an organization. It is associated with Max Weber who defined and elaborated on the roles, characteristics and the nature of the model.
In the primary reading, Weber (2009, pp. 196-203) highlights the characteristics of the model and the bureaucrats. He says that a bureaucracy is characterized by hierarchical structure, specialization, division of labor, expertise, specific rules and regulations and ‘paper work’.
Besides, Weber (2009, p. 202) highlights the nature of an office in a bureaucratic model. The office occupants ought to possess a vocation of leading and recognize that leading is a duty rather than a role. They should possess undivided loyalty to the office.
Subsequently, the office is impersonal, permanent and it allows employees to experience career growth. An illustration of the model in the modern society is the nature of administration in public organizations.
References
Craib, I 1997, Classical Social Theory, Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Weber, M 2009, Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, Routledge, Oxon.