Bureaucratic Structure
"Bureaucratic structure" refers to a hierarchical organizational setup characterized by clear lines of authority, standardized procedures, and formalized rules and regulations. Decision-making authority is typically concentrated at the top, with information flowing through various levels of management. This structure aims to promote efficiency and consistency but can sometimes lead to rigidity and slow response to change.
8 Key excerpts on "Bureaucratic Structure"
eBook - ePubFrom Max Weber
Essays in Sociology
- Max Weber, H.H. Gerth, Wright Mills(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...VIII. Bureaucracy DOI: 10.4324/9780203452196-8 1 Characteristics of Bureaucracy Modern officialdom functions in the following specific manner: There is the principle of fixed and official jurisdictional areas, which are generally ordered by rules, that is, by laws or administrative regulations. The regular activities required for the purposes of the bureaucratically governed structure are distributed in a fixed way as official duties. The authority to give the commands required for the discharge of these duties is distributed in a stable way and is strictly delimited by rules concerning the coercive means, physical, sacerdotal, or otherwise, which may be placed at the disposal of officials. Methodical provision is made for the regular and continuous fulfilment of these duties and for the execution of the corresponding rights; only persons who have the generally regulated qualifications to serve are employed. In public and lawful government these three elements constitute ‘bureaucratic authority.’ In private economic domination, they constitute bureaucratic ‘management.’ Bureaucracy, thus understood, is fully developed in political and ecclesiastical communities only in the modern state, and, in the private economy, only in the most advanced institutions of capitalism. Permanent and public office authority, with fixed jurisdiction, is not the historical rule but rather the exception. This is so even in large political structures such as those of the ancient Orient, the Germanic and Mongolian empires of conquest, or of many feudal structures of state. In all these cases, the ruler executes the most important measures through personal trustees, table-companions, or court-servants...
eBook - ePub- Miriam E. David, Marilyn J. Amey(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...John Ephraim Butt John Ephraim Butt Butt, John Ephraim Professional Bureaucracy Professional bureaucracy 1203 1205 Professional Bureaucracy A professional bureaucracy is defined by its ability to allow an organization to function in a stable, intricate, and decentralized setting. This is reflected in the higher education setting by the presence of formalized campus cultures, standardized codes of conduct and strategic plans, and systems of stability, such as tenure, that ensure a complex, stable environment, as well as units that operate largely autonomously from one another (e.g., Student Affairs, Athletics, the School of Education). This entry provides an overview of professional bureaucracy in the context of higher education, including its organizational structure, then explores challenges inherent in this structure and possible solutions to those challenges. Organizational Structure Understanding the organizational structure of an institution of higher education can provide invaluable insight into the priorities, power dynamics, and administrative hierarchy of a college or university. Henry Mintzberg (1939–), renowned management scholar, explains that there are five basic elements to any organization: (1) the operating core, (2) the strategic apex, (3) the middle line, (4) the technostructure, and (5) the support staff. The operating core consists of employees who are directly responsible for creating, or supporting the creation of, essential products and services. The strategic apex are the general managers and staff located at the top of the organization. The middle line are managers that are positioned between those employees in the operating core and those at the strategic apex. The technostructure consists of analysts that contribute to the organization through technical skills and strategic planning, while the support staff are those employees that are providing indirect support to the organization as a whole...
eBook - ePub- Kathleen Manning(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Bureaucracies are “natural” in their organization from simple to complex, lower to higher, and smaller to greater. They are complex because employees with more complicated jobs are positioned near the top of the organization. They are higher in the ways that responsibility increases as one goes up the hierarchy. They are greater in the ways that power is concentrated at the top of the hierarchy. Despite advice by early bureaucratic theorists (Fayol, 1916/2016) about the need for flexibility and artful application of principles, bureaucratic organizations tend to “fossilize.” Their ways of operating and standard operating procedures become an impediment, a sea of red tape that frustrates everyone associated with these organizations. Although many are tempted, bureaucratic theorists advise against changing the structure to accommodate or make allowances for individual personalities. To do so interferes with the rational order and can result in a Byzantine organization that lacks logic, rationality, and objectivity. Major Concepts, Characteristics, and Terms In her feminist critique of bureaucracy, Ferguson (1985, p...
eBook - ePub- Lex Donaldson(Author)
- 2001(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Hence the requirement for coordinating units led to hierarchy superimposed over the organic research units (see also Tushman 1977). Product development of IBM mainframe computers involved large numbers of people who were organized into several departments. The project flowed from one department to another with formal sign-offs signaling satisfactory attainment of project targets and transfer of authority (Corey and Star 1971). A Parsimonious Model Having reconciled both bureaucracy and organic theory as each being valid at particular organizational levels, we now need to bring both theories together into one model. There are two structural dimensions and three contingencies in the contingency theory of organizational structure, making it a parsimonious model. Organizational structure is composed of two main dimensions: Bureaucratic Structure and grouping. Organizational structure is molded by the contingencies of size, task uncertainty, and task interdependence. As we have seen, Bureaucratic Structure includes structuring (specialization, formalization, and decentralization) and structural differentiation. Bureaucratic Structure is strongly affected by the contingency of organizational size. As organizations increase in size, they increase their structuring (including decentralization) and structural differentiation. However, the total level of the structuring variables is affected to a degree by task uncertainty. Innovation reduces formalization and centralization, independent of size effects, thereby affecting structuring. Grouping defines the organizational subunits and their colocations (Child 1984). It involves whether differentiation is by functions, products, services, customers, or geographical areas. Task interdependence is the contingency that affects grouping, including divisionalization. Divisionalization is conceptually related to Bureaucratic Structure and has here been subsumed under Bureaucratic Structure...
eBook - ePubSociology, Work and Organisation
Seventh Edition
- Tony Watson(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...There are certain key principles which have been applied in the shaping of modern organisations, ‘bureaucracy’ being a central one. Official structure and culture: basic organisational design principles Although, to understand organisations sociologically, we need to see them as involving both official and unofficial practices, at the core of any work organisation will be the official control apparatus which is designed and continuously redesigned by those ‘managing’ the enterprise. The official control apparatus of an organisation The set of roles, rules, structures, value statements, cultural symbols, rituals and procedures managerially designed to co-ordinate and control work activities. In designing the organisation, the managers seek to establish such things as: • how the tasks to be done within the chosen technologies are to be split into various jobs; • how these jobs are to be grouped into sections, divisions and departments; • how many levels of authority there are to be; • the nature of communication channels and reward structures; • the balance of centralisation to decentralisation and authority to delegation; • the degree of formalisation and standardisation of procedures and instructions; • the values or principles that organisational members should be guided by in their behaviour; and • the beliefs about the organisation and the legitimacy of managerial authority that. organisational members should hold. The most basic set of principles underlying modern structural and cultural organisation design efforts are those of bureaucracy...
eBook - ePub- Jos Raadschelders(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...These four constitute the classical cornerstones of organization (Robbins 1980: 196). They are not identical with nor exclusive for bureaucratic organization. Indeed, it is easy to find them to a varying degree in all organizations at all times whether consciously applied or not. They are interrelated as well. Due to physical and intellectual limitations as well as for reasons of efficiency, specialization develops and materializes in more or less clearly defined competencies. Once the number of employees around a related set of tasks grows, functional differentiation might be necessary. Specialized organizations then separate from a mother organization. Parallel to this a clear structure is necessary consisting of subdivisions, so that from the workfloor up to the top of the organization each supervisor can adequately control his subordinates (span of administration) and has no doubts about to whom he is accountable (unity of command). The classical (bureaucratic) organizational chart resembles the shape of a pyramid and is a line organization. Dominating as this view of organization is, its principles have only guided governments since the nineteenth century. As we will see governmental organization before, say, the 1800s was a little more complex than the relatively recent “classical” model. Even during the heyday of the classical line model its insufficiency was underlined with the introduction of internal management units (the staff line model). The usefulness of the classical model in turn has been challenged in recent decades through the development and introduction of for instance the matrix organization (a combination of a classical and a project organization) (Robbins 1980: 284–285), and the linking-pin organization (Likert 1961). An organizational structure reflects the ideas the designers had as to how the objectives of the organization could best be attained...
eBook - ePubThe Power of Communication
Managing Information in Public Organizations
- Doris A. Graber(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- CQ Press(Publisher)
...Overflowing waste baskets, filled ash trays, temporary signs, and outdated posters may lead a client to infer that (1) this is “just a job” for the staff and they do not take pride in their agency, (2) the manager is ineffective, or (3) the agency is not concerned about its clientele. If an environment is perceived as desirable, relaxing, comfortable, nonhostile, and hence rewarding, it is likely that the activities that take place in that environment will also be perceived as desirable and rewarding. 35 A welfare client interviewed in a homelike setting, with appropriately placed seating facilities, is likely to feel more relaxed, making communication easier, than when the interview takes place in a crowded office where clients have to stand in front of a counter and discuss their personal affairs within earshot of a multitude of strangers. 36 All too often in the public service, the physical setting of agencies is unattractive, dowdy, and even dirty and neglected, making users feel uncomfortable and degraded. Bureaucratic Structure Handicaps It should be clear by now that organizational structure may facilitate communication flows or it may impair them. We now turn to several problems that are endemic in organizations because they arise from the very nature of Bureaucratic Structure. According to Max Weber, the main characteristics of a bureaucracy include (1) a hierarchy of formal positions that makes task performance more rational; (2) division of tasks by specialization; and (3) central direction and coordination of tasks. All of these essential characteristics produce major challenges for information management in public bureaucracies. Hierarchy In hierarchical structures, superiors direct the work and subordinates carry out the superiors’ commands. Instructions flow downward from top-level personnel to the lower echelons in stepwise progression...
eBook - ePubWhen the Monkeys Run the Zoo
The Pitfalls of Flat Hierarchies
- Stefan Kühl(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Organizational Dialogue Press(Publisher)
...2. The Limits of Bureaucratic-hierarchical Organizations The Central Office knows it all. The Central Office understands the big picture, believes in the big picture, and has a map room. At the Central Office, men work together in a constant funk, but they pat you on the shoulder, saying, “My dear friend, you’re in no position to judge from your individual post! But here in the Central Office …” The Central Office’s first and foremost concern is to remain the Central Office. God have mercy on the subordinate branch that dares to do something independently! Whether it’s rational or not, necessary or not, or on fire or not—the Central Office must be consulted first. Otherwise, why would it be the Central Office? Kurt Tucholsky An important element of the criticisms levied against centralized, hierarchical organizations is the image of a divided society, a semi-democracy. Although broad parts of society are “de-hierarchalized,” organizations in the economy, science, and politics are still typically democracy-free because of their hierarchical structure. Although societal fragmentation may have diminished at the overall level of society, with people developing from “subjects” to “responsible citizens,” and the growing “freedom of information” in the press and television, along with global mobility, making the world “a village,” similar developments have not yet taken place in organizations. Employees are still described and treated as subordinates. Basic constitutional rights, such as the freedom of expression, the freedom of speech, and the freedom to choose one’s workplace, would not work within organizations. Departments would feud with one another like competitors...
