Bureaucracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bureaucracy - Essay Example According to Weber’s Model there are six main elements in Bureaucracy: 1. Clearly defined offices and authorities. 2. Hierarchical structure of offices. 3. Written guidelines for performance of offices. 4. Office as a career. 5. Duties and authorities attached to positions and authority not to the persons. Only way of communication between the offices is written letters or documents. From these principles and ways efficiency of individuals and offices are raised to a great value. Ultimately goal of organization operating successfully and effectively is attained. The whole organization is based on the concept of instrumentalism assuming organizations as machine parts. These machine parts are dependent on each other for greater efficiency. Greater the efficiency of one part or office greater will be the efficiency of the other part or office dependent on first part or office; ultimately this whole scenario will lead to an extremely efficient machinery of. Weber contended that po sitions in an organization are to be filled on the basis of technical capability and knowledge regarding the field office is related to. But in practical world persons holding authority positions in organizations might not be good technically and knowledge of the field. Parson (Weber & Parsons, 1947) raised the question that, do members of an organization have to follow orders due to person or position holding the authority? This question was not addressed in Weber’s model of organizations. Parson raised a question; that if the decisions are made by a person having a less technical capability than in such case whole efficiency of the organization will be at stack. Gouldner (1954) pointed to a slightly different confusion present in the Weber’s model the compatibility of one individual to obey order should be of the two basic reasons â€Å"Orders obeyed by individual is due to reason that it will be helping in achieving the ultimate goal of good efficiency.† Or; â€Å"Orders are obeyed merely due to reason that they are given by the person having greater authority.†Parson and Gouldner have identified major contradictions that are present in the Weber’s model of organizational structure. Parson and Gouldner provided the basis of sociological studies of organizational structure. There are unintended consequences as a result of traditional bureaucratic organizational structure. These consequences are unexpected during the whole operations of the organization and results attained after the rise of these consequences are also quite unexpected This dilemma of unexpected consequences due to human actions was addressed by Merton (1957). Merton’s analysis of â€Å"Bureaucratic personality† stands as a classical statement while talking about organizational behavior and well being associated to it. According to Merton individuals are so busy in carrying out rules and regulations requirements as a result the real objective o f the organization is lost. This results in unproductive results for the organization. Merton advised that rules should be flexible enough to discourage any unproductive results. Gouldners’ patterns for industrial bureaucracy include concepts such as mock bureaucracy, representative bureaucracy and punishment-centered bureaucracy. Mock bureaucracy involves the rules which are rarely enforced routinely and have nothing to do with the objective of the organization. No-smoking rule is an example of such a case. Representative Bureaucracy involves