Lets start this episode off with a little word association.
When I say the word pumpkin, what's the first thing that pops into your head?
Is it Halloween?
Or maybe even pumpkin pie?
What about the word sports?
Does a particular sport like football, basketball, or baseball immediately come to mind?
How about the word love?
Okay well maybe that's too much of a reach.
Let me try one more.
How about the word bureaucracy?
Chances are the word bureaucracy doesn't evoke feelings of efficiency, competence, or even
effectiveness for that matter.
In fact, we usually associate bureaucracy to be the exact opposite.
We've seen first hand the results of bureaucratic systems in our schools, businesses, and even
government.
But what if I were to tell you that bureaucracies may not be all that bad.
What if I told you that the term bureaucracy actually is defined as the exercise of control
on the basis of knowledge?
You see originally bureaucracy developed as a reaction to the personal subjugation and
subjective judgements of earlier administrative systems.
Instead of a society of laws that were based on rationale and logical judgement, many countries
were governed by monarchies or dictatorships that imposed their will on others.
And because of the fact that birthright was the sole determinant for who could next occupy
these positions, important factors such as education, skills, abilities, and experience
were ignored.
It was because of this that a German sociologist by the name of Max Weber developed what is
referred to as Bureaucratic Management.
Weber's work was prescriptive in nature, meaning it was describing an ideal system as opposed
to one that currently existed or would ever possibly exist.
And the underpinning of bureaucratic management is that managing based on rational-legal authority,
which stems from rules and other controls, was more effective than managing based upon
subjective criteria such as favoritism and nepotism.
In light of the prescriptive nature of bureaucratic management, Weber would go on to present several
essential characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy.
The first characteristic was the division of labor.
A key component to Fayol's 14 Principles of Management, the division of labor focuses
on the practice of specialization.
By dividing jobs into a smaller set of tasks we increase efficiency as workers only perform
the tasks that they are most qualified for.
The division of labor also allows management to clearly define what workers are responsible
for and ultimately who has authority in an organization.
The second characteristic of a bureaucracy is the presence of a managerial hierarchy.
All organizations should clearly denote positions within the organization and how they relate
to one another.
This chain of command, often illustrated through an organizational chart, shows positions from
the highest level of the organization to the lowest.
This is the equivalent of Fayol's scalar chain that he referred to in his 14 Principles of
Management.
The development of a chain of command ultimately leads to better communication as employees
have an understanding of their role within the organization as well those around them.
The third characteristic of a bureaucracy is formal selection.
In response to the presence of favoritism and nepotism in traditional systems, Weber
believed that ideal bureaucracy was one that should select employees based upon technical
qualifications.
And really isn't that how employees should be selected?
Isn't it in the best interest of the organization to have the most knowledgeable, most experienced,
and most skilled workers at all levels of the organization?
By hiring and promoting employes based upon merit, you not only benefit the organization
by having the best workers available, but you also reward workers by recognizing them
for the efforts.
The four characteristic of a bureaucracy is career orientation.
In order for the organization to run efficiently, Weber believed that employees should be career
professionals rather than politicians.
This was to help insure that assigned duties were performed well regardless of outside
pressures and also to insure that operations man smoothly even during elections.
Employees were to be encouraged to look forward to a life-long career with the organization,
and should be provided with some layer of protection from arbitrary termination by management.
The fifth characteristic of a bureaucracy is the establishment of formal rules.
These formal rules should apply to all employees at all levels of the organization with no
consideration for employee rank or status.
These rules were also meant to be written down so as to insure that they could not be
misrepresented.
The sixth and final characteristic of a bureaucracy is impersonality.
Weber believed that the rules and other controls that were previously established were impersonal
in nature.
Acting impersonally refers avoiding the consideration of personality as well as personal preference
when deciding how to administer certain rules and other controls.
Rules should be applied uniformly to all members to the organization with no special treatment
being provided to any one person.
Remember that Weber envisioned bureaucracies as a response to the subjective nature of
monarchies and dictatorships.
So it should come as no surprise that eliminating individual discretion and focusing on objective
rational-legal authority was a priority to Weber.
Together these six essential characteristics make up Weber's view of an ideal bureaucracy.
Although different from today's interpretation, Weber considered bureaucracy to be the most
efficient method of organization.
With that being said, Weber did conclude that bureaucracy also contains several disadvantages,
which of course seem to be common knowledge in today's society.
Despite this, Weber's work is considered to be an essential component in modern societies
today and resulted in a great deal of research in the area of organizational theory.
Well that's all for this video.
In our next video, we'll discuss the general environment, as well as how the general environment
impacts the way that businesses operate.
For questions please leave them in the comment box below and I'll do my best to get back
to those in a timely fashion.
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you while you sleep.
Thanks for watching.