Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy The organisation is bigger and complex today, thus many problems occurs in a Large-scale organisation and to solve problems, bureaucracy designed by Max Weber in twenties century. Max Weber believed that organisation should be managed on rational and impersonal basis. The essential features of Max Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy are: Specialisation, Hierarchy, Rules and regulations, and Full records. 1. Weber shows psecialisation in his theory. One of the major advantages in this system is dividing large project into small parts. Managers and employees assign duties based on their job specialization and they are required professional skills in their areas. 2. The organisation of offices follows the principle of hierarchy. That is, each lower office is under the control and supervision of higher one. 3. Weber believed that rational regulation helps to provide the discipline to an organisation. Organisation used rules to restrict the arbitrary power of employer, and demarcation rules protected jobs. Although rules and regulation can cause frustration to employees, they also reduce role ambiguity and offer them high organizational identification. 4. Administrative acts, decisions and rules are formulated and recorded in writing. Ironically, the principle of bureaucracy designed to maximize efficiency, people may complain about the “evils of bureaucracy”. The major drawback of bureaucracy is that it can lead to 1.dehumanization and lack of initiative. Relationships between managers and employees are only rules and duties of their roles. It is possible that employees feel alienation each other and make demoralisation. 2. It might cause job dissatisfaction and frequent turnover from bored tasks. 3. Furthermore, stress on rules and regulations make organisation to be inflexible when situation change like contingency circumstances. In case of emergency, it might be late for solving the problems due to official procedures. For the needs of mass administration today, Weber’s bureaucracy is completely indispensible. There are several reasons why bureaucracy is still used in the modern society in the world. Firstly, 1.bureaucracy can avoid human emotional behavior and opinion in organisation through rational rules, impersonality and clear division of responsibility. This can bring decision-making without personal disturbance and control. Therefore, employees work well to accomplish their goals. 2. Another factor in bureaucracy is that standardized procedures increase efficiency. 3. Furthermore, job specialization makes individuals become expert in their own areas. This is to set the most appropriate worker to appropriate positions. 4. Lastly, administration acts and decision are recorded in writing provides an organisation memory and continuity over time. Still in 21 century, records are kept of all crucial transactions. It gives bureaucracy a crucial role in our society as the central element in any kind of large-scale administration. One of the reasons why bureaucracy is still popular is that bureaucracy structure has modified gradually to adopt and survive. I believe that certain structure needed because it benefits relations easier to handle. Bureaucracy has offers rational-legal type of superior mechanism for governments, hospitals universities and the military indeed. Ideal Type -analytical tools These types of bureaucracy are ideal types or listing devices for analytical purposes. The ideal type lists essential characteristics for understanding phenomena of social action and institutions. They can be set up as contrasts. The ideal type is derived from actual social institutions but as they are lists of essentials they then take on an analytical function can be used further afield.