Max Weber and the Bureaucratic Theory

A. Introduction
The term ‘bureaucracy’ has been widely used with invidious connotations directed at
government and business. Bureaucracy is an administrative system designed to accomplish large-
scale administrative tasks by systematically coordinating the work of many individuals. Weber
has observed three types of power in organizations: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal or
bureaucratic. He has emphasized that bureaucratic type of power is the ideal one.
 Weber is well-known for his theory of Bureaucracy
Weber is well-known for his theory of bureaucracy. This theory has its application in politics,
businesses and probably many institutions that have legal authority. Bureaucracy is based on
principles like specialization, hierarchy, formal selection and formal rules. There is a close
connection between modern capitalism and bureaucracy. However, this integration has led to a
loss of the “human touch’, which is why these principles need re-examination. The principles of
bureaucracy – although are usually frowned upon for being cumbersome and leading to ‘red-
tapism’ – are found virtually in every formal organization today. Weber’s ideal bureaucracy was
designed to eradicate inefficiency and waste from organizations.
B. Max Weber, Thought and Major Contribution
Max Weber (1864-1920) is a memorable thinker in Sociology for he left a deep imprint upon
sociology. Born in Germany in 1864, Max Weber was a precocious child. He went to university
and became a professor, but suffered a mental breakdown in 1897 that left him unable to work
for five years. In 1905 he published his most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism. He returned to teaching in 1918 and died in 1920. He is considered the father of
modern sociology.
 Early Life and Education
Max Weber was born on April 21, 1864. His father, Max Weber Sr., was a politically active
lawyer with a penchant for “earthly pleasures,” while his mother, Helene Fallenstein Weber,
preferred a more ascetic lifestyle. The conflicts this created in their marriage acutely influenced
Max. Still, their house was full of prominent intellectuals and lively discourse, an environment in
which Weber thrived. Growing up, he was bored with school and disdained his teachers, but
devoured classic literature on his own.
After graduating from high school, Weber studied law, history, philosophy and economics
for three semesters at Heidelberg University before spending a year in the military. When he
resumed his studies in 1884, he went to the University of Berlin and spent one semester at
Göttingen. He passed the bar exam in 1886 and earned his Ph.D. in 1889, ultimately completing
his habitation thesis, which allowed him to obtain a position in academia.
 Early Career
Weber married a distant cousin, Marianne Schnitger, in 1893. He got a job teaching
economics at Freiburg University the following year, before returning to Heidelberg in 1896 as a
professor. In 1897, Max had a falling out with his father, which went unresolved. After his father
died in 1897, Weber suffered a mental breakdown. He was plagued by depression, anxiety and
insomnia, which made it impossible for him to teach. He spent the next five years in and out of
sanatoriums.
When Weber was finally able to resume working in 1903, he became an editor at a prominent
social science journal. In 1904, he was invited to deliver a lecture at the Congress of Arts and
Sciences in St. Louis, Missouri and later became widely known for his famed essays, The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. These essays, published in 1904 and 1905,
discussed his idea that the rise of modern capitalism was attributable to Protestantism,
particularly Calvinism.
 Later Work
After a stint volunteering in the medical service during World War I, Weber published three
more books on religion in a sociological context. These works, The Religion of
China (1916), The Religion of India (1916) and Ancient Judaism (1917-1918), contrasted their
respective religions and cultures with that of the Western world by weighing the importance of
economic and religious factors, among others, on historical outcomes. Weber resumed teaching
in 1918. He intended to publish additional volumes on Christianity and Islam, but he contracted
the Spanish flu and died in Munich on June 14, 1920. His manuscript of Economy and
Society was left unfinished; it was edited by his wife and published in 1922.
C. Max Weber’s Ideal Type of Bureaucracy
The concept of “ideal type” is one of the major concepts in Weberian sociology.
 Weber’s Definition of Ideal Type
The concept of the ideal type was developed by German sociologist Max Weber, who used it
as an analytic tool for his historical studies. Some writers confine the use of ideal types to
general phenomena that recur in different times and places (e.g., bureaucracy), although Weber
also used them for historically unique occurrences (e.g., his famous Protestant ethic).
According to Max Weber, “an ideal type is an analytical construct that serves the
investigator as a measuring rod to ascertain similarities as well as deviations in concrete
cases.” By ideal type, Weber meant a model for evaluating specific cases. In actuality, perfect
bureaucracies do not exist.
 Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy
Max Weber was a German sociologist born in 1864. He grew up at a time when
industrialization meant how employees were organized was becoming increasingly important.
Society was moving towards larger and larger organizations, from farms employing a dozen
people, to factories employing thousands of people.
Weber saw that organizing large groups of people like this presented new challenges,
especially when it came to authority. At this time, most organizations were running based on
traditional authority, where how well you did was based on who you knew rather than what you
knew. Today we call this favoritism, but Weber called it particularism, where a particular group
of people had disproportionate sway over the organization. Weber saw that it was unlikely that
this was the best way to run an organization.
 What is Bureaucratic Theory?
The bureaucratic management theory, introduced by Max Weber stated that to manage an
organization efficiently, it is essential to have a clear line of authority along with proper rules,
procedures and regulations for controlling each business operation. Bureaucracy refers to the
possessing of control over a group of people or activities through knowledge, power or authority.
Because of the problems Weber saw with traditional authority he favored a more rational
approach to running an organization and helping it to achieve its goals. This theory focuses on
the following two primary criteria:

1. A clear organizational hierarchy

An organizational hierarchy defines how people are structured and fit within an
organization. For example, a typical company will have the CEO at the top of the hierarchy,
followed by the executive board. Each board member will then be responsible for managers, who
in turn will manage employees.
 Weber wanted each hierarchy to have what he called legal-rational authority. This means
that defined authority sits with a position, not with a person. For example, your subordinate
would never be able to tell you what to do even if they happened to be the son of the CEO
because their formal position doesn’t hold that power. Basically, your authority comes from the
position you hold in the hierarchy.

2. Clear rules for decision making

Weber referred to this as rational-legal decision-making rules. This means that there
should be a set of explicit rules and procedures defining how the organization functions, and that
these rules should be consistent with the rules and laws of wider society.
Max Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory of Management proposes that the best way to run an
organization is to structure it into a rigid hierarchy of people governed by strict rules and
procedures. According to Max Weber:
Bureaucracy is a type of hierarchical organization which is designed rationally to
co-ordinate the work of many individuals in pursuit of large scale administrative tasks.”
D. Background
Weber was born in Germany in 1864 and grew up during the time when industrialization was
transforming government, business, and society. Weber was interested in industrial capitalism,
an economic system where industry is privately controlled and operated for profit. Weber wanted
to know why industrial capitalism was successful in some countries and not in others. He
believed that large-scale organizations such as factories and government departments were a
characteristic of capitalist economies.
Weber visited the United States in 1904 to study the U.S. economy. It was here that he
observed the spirit of capitalism. He noted that capitalism in the United States encouraged
competition and innovation. He also realized that businesses were run by professional managers
and that they were linked through economic relationships. He contrasted this with capitalistic
practices in Germany where a small group of powerful people controlled the economy. In
Germany, tradition dictated behaviors. People were given positions of authority based on their
social standing and connections, and businesses were linked by family and social relationships.
Weber was concerned that authority was not a function of experience and ability, but won by
social status. Because of this, managers were not loyal to the organization. Organizational
resources were used for the benefit of owners and managers rather than to meet organizational
goals. Weber was convinced that organizations based on rational authority, where authority was
given to the most competent and qualified people, would be more efficient than those based on
who you knew. Weber called this type of rational organization a bureaucracy.

E. Features (Characteristics) Of Weber’s Bureaucracy:

Weber identified six characteristics or rules of a bureaucracy. They are summarized in the
following table.
1. Hierarchical Management Structure

One of the hallmarks of a bureaucracy is a hierarchical management structure. In a hierarchy,

each level within the organizational structure controls the level below but is controlled by the
level above.
 Hierarchy is a system of ranking various positions in descending scale from top to
bottom of the organization. In bureaucratic organization, offices also follow the
principle of hierarchy that is each lower office is subject to control and supervision
by higher office.
Thus, no office is left uncontrolled in the organization. This is the fundamental concept of
hierarchy in bureaucratic organization. This hierarchy serves as lines of communication and
delegation of authority. It implies that communication coming down or going up must pass
through each position.
Power and authority are clearly and explicitly defined for each position within the hierarchy.
Job responsibilities and duties are also clearly defined for each position.
Thus, an organization has a hierarchical structure in a pyramid style: few individuals at
the top, while many people at the lower levels.

2. Division of Labor
Work of the organization is divided on the basis of specialization to take the advantages of
division of labor. Each office in the bureaucratic organization has specific sphere of competence.
 Division of labor means that tasks are divided between the employees of the
organization. Each employee will be responsible for specific tasks and each
department will be responsible for specific functional areas.

This involves:
(i) a sphere of obligations to perform functions which has been marked off as part of a
systematic division of labor;
(ii) the provision of the incumbent with necessary authority to carry out these functions;
and
(iii) the necessary means of compulsion are clearly defined and their use is subject to
definite conditions.

As an example of this think about how your salary is set and paid within a large organization.
Your salary will be set by your line manager, but you will be paid by the Payroll department,
rather than the money being paid to your boss who would then give it to you.
 There are advantages to breaking things up in this way. First, your manager is the person in
the best position to set your salary as they observe your performance much more closely than the
payroll department. Second, the payroll departments are specialists in payroll and ensure you get
paid on the same day each month.

“Who should do what work and who should shoulder what responsibility
is divided by this structure.”

3. Formal Selection Process

Yet another crucial idea is that the Bureaucracy has its own system of selecting employees
and giving them promotions on the basis of seniority, technical competence, specialized
knowledge or skills.
 Weber believed that the workers should be recruited through their technical skills
and expertise instead of ‘first come first selected’ basis. Even the promotion should
be based on performance and merit. This not only leads to better productivity but
also adds to employee’s growth and satisfaction.
All employees are treated equally and are hired and promoted on the basis of qualifications,
expertise, performance, and experience. There are formal rules and regulations to ensure this
selection process isn’t abused. For instance, in the bureaucracy of Pakistan, one cannot enter on
basis of friendship or social relations; rather one has to pass the civil service exams to get
entrance.

4. Career Orientation
Another essential principle is that management should motivate employees to build a long-
term career in the organization by providing job security and performance-based incentives to
them.
 It implies that if one follows the rules and regulations and perform well, he will not
be arbitrarily fired. In fact, if one performs well, he may even have the chance to be
promoted or receive a pay rise.
In this way, the organization offers each employee the opportunity for a long term career,
provided they follow the rules and perform well. Thus, the organization is career orientated.
5. Formal Rules and Regulations
Furthermore, a basic and most emphasized feature of bureaucratic organization is that
administrative process is continuous and governed by official rules. Bureaucratic organization is
the antithesis of ad hoc, temporary, and temporary and unstable relations. A rational approach to
organization calls for a system of maintaining rules to ensure twin requirements of uniformity
and coordination of efforts by individual members in the organization.
 There are rules in place that govern how all employees should behave. Managers
cannot simply appraise their employees according to their whims. Instead, they
must assess employees according to the rules.
These rules are more or less stable and more or less exhaustive. When there is no rule on any
aspect of organizational operation, the matter is referred upward for decision which subsequently
becomes precedent for future decision on the similar matter. For example, if one has been set a
target to make 10 widgets and he makes 10 widgets then he has achieved his target. His manager
cannot simply decide retrospectively that he should have really made 15 widgets and then fire
him for not making 15 widgets. The rules protect employees against this type of behavior.
Similarly, there are rules surrounding how we behave, treat, and interact with other employees.
In short, rules provide the benefits of stability, continuity, and predictability and each
official knows precisely the outcome of his behavior in a particular matter.

6. Impersonality
In an organization, the impersonal relations develop among the employees, which may lead
to favoritism or nepotism. Weber said that the application of rules and managerial decisions
should be impartial and independent of such relations.
 The rules are well defined and clear and are applied in the same way to everyone.
The rules are there to prevent favoritism or nepotism. Moreover, the decisions must
be based on rational and practical grounds rather than emotional or impersonal
influence.
If two employees were to enter into a relationship together whilst working within the same
department, then often one of them will be moved to a different department or different part of
the organization to avoid favoritism and help keep in-work relationships impersonal.
In other words, relationships with the clients and among personnal are guided by rules, not
emotions. There should be no personal considerations in dealing with the clients. Thus,
such relations are impersonal.
F. An Evaluation of Weber’s Bureaucratic Model
1. Advantages of Bureaucracy
Weber’s bureaucracy theory has been widely applied in the era of the 1900s by the business
entities, government organizations and political associations.
The benefits of this approach are explained in detail below:

a. Specialization or Expertise
In bureaucracy management, the work is divided among the employees according to their
skill, capabilities and expertise, which results in job specialization in the organization.

a. Skill-Based Recruitment
The employees are recruited by matching their skills and experience with that required for
the vacant job position to ensure that the right person is placed at the right job.

b. Predictability
When there is a systematic hierarchy and defined rules and methods of performing the
 complicated tasks in the organization, actions in similar situations become somewhat
predictable for the management.

c. Equality
The management remains unbiased towards the employees and ensures a fair-judgement at
the time of any issue or problem in the organization.

d. Structure
A systematic organizational structure can be developed through bureaucracy where the rules,
regulations, methods and procedures are pre-defined.

e. Systematic Record Keeping

This approach focuses on systematically recording all the business transactions and
operations in documents to be used by the other employees in future.

f. Rationality
The recording of operations brings rationality, i.e., framing the laws, rules, regulations and
procedures for future, based on the experience.
 2. Negative Aspects or Dysfunctional Aspects of Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy has its own ugly face. It has its own demerits and Weber, the champion of
the theory of bureaucracy, was aware of this. Abraham and Merton have stated:

“Having granted its virtues and its unquestionable advancement of modern society, Weber
was the first to concede the vices of bureaucracy.”

Some of the main drawbacks of dysfunction of bureaucracy are summarized as:

a. Dehumanization: “Service without a Smile (Hummel 1987)”

b. Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands to fill the time available”
c. Peter’s Principle: “Bureaucrats rise to the level of their incompetence”
d. Michels’ Observation: “Iron Law of Oligarchy”
e. Merton on “Goal Displacement
f. Dahrendorf on “Quarrel among officials”
g. Delay in Business Decision-Making
h. Corruption, Red Tapism and Nepotism

a. Dehumanization “Service without a Smile (Hummel 1987)”

Since bureaucracy is an impersonal organization, all clients of the organization are treated in
the same manner. Rather than treating clients and personnal as people with unique needs,
bureaucracies sometime treat clients as standard cases and personnal as cogs in a mechine. This
treatment is called “dehumanization”, and can lead to alienation from the organization.
b. Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands to fill the time available”
According to Parkinson, workers in bureaucracies give the appearance of being extremely
busy, because if they appear otherwise, they may be given additional work or even lose their
jobs. As they say: look busy, do nothing. This is known as Parkinson’s Law.

c. Peter’s Principle: “Bureaucrats rise to the level of their incompetence”

According to Peter, competent bureaucrats are rewarded with a promotion to higher-level
post that demands more competence. This process of rewarding competence at one level, with a
promotion to a higher level will continue until the bureaucrats reach a level that is beyond their
competence.

d. Michels’ Observation: “Iron Law of Oligarchy”

According to Michels, every bureaucracy is controlled by an oligarchy, a small group of
people that controls the bureaucracy for its own benefits. Michels gave three reasons:
 First, he felt human nature involves an innate tendency to seek power;
  Second, the nature of political struggles leads to oligarchy as groups struggle for position;
and
 Third, the structure of large-scale organizations gives rise to oligarchies because they
need people with special skills.
Michels felt that the masses were apathetic and incompetent, and in need of strong leaders.
Leaders tend to be educated and have expertise; thus, they tend to be oligarchs.

e. Merton on “Goal Displacement

According to Merton, goal displacement occurs when rules become an end in themselves
rather than a means to an end, and organizational survival becomes more important than the
achievement of goals. Teachers, who emphasize marks more than learning are practicing goal
displacement.

f. Dahrendorf on “Quarrel among officials”

As Dahrendorf has pointed out junior and senior officials of bureaucracy always quarrel
among themselves lowering its dignity and efficiency. In fact, this quarrel among these officials
has necessitated the beginning of trade unions.

g. Delay in Business Decision-Making

The top-level management keeps the decision-making authority with itself. Therefore, the
lower-level managers have to rely upon the top-level managers, even in the case of any
emergency or situations demanding immediate action.

h. Corruption, Red-Tapism and Nepotism

Last but not least, bureaucracies are often associated with excessive corruption, red-tapism
and nepotism, whereby excessive structure, rules, and processes slow tasks down and lead to
frustration for the people trying to get things done to the best of their ability. All of these are
rampant in third world countries’ government department, especially in Pakistan. Files are not
“moved” until the palms of officials are greased. Promotion and postings are made not on merit
but on nepotism and “connections”. This is the reason why performance of many official
departments is pathetic.

Weber thought bureaucracy would result in the highest level of efficiency, rationality,
and worker satisfaction. In fact, he felt that bureaucracy was so logical that it would transform all
of society. Unfortunately, Weber did not anticipate that each of the bureaucratic characteristics
could also have a negative result.
 For example, division of labor leads to specialized and highly skilled workers, but it also can
lead to tedium and boredom.
 Formal rules and regulations lead to uniformity and predictability, but they also can lead to
excessive procedures and “red tape.”
In spite of its potential problems, some form of bureaucracy is the dominant form of most
large organizations today. The “pyramid” organizational structure, with responsibility split into
divisions, departments, and teams, is based on principles of bureaucracy. It is used by nearly all
large corporations. Weber’s idea that hiring and promotion should be based on qualifications, not
social standing, is built into U.S. labor laws.

G. Concluding Remarks
Bureaucratic theory was developed by Max Weber to address some of the problems with
traditional authority. Max Weber refined the structure to a more stable, organized and easy-to-
operate framework to avoid the problems of bureaucracy that Americans now associated with the
federal big government.
 Bureaucracy: The ideal form of administration – especially in a government sector
Unlike many other people, Max Weber believed that the ideal form of administration –
especially in a government sector – was bureaucracy. He believed that if carefully managed, a
bureaucratic administration can lead to effective decision-making, optimum use of resources and
successful accomplishment of organizational goals. However, for that to be true, Max Weber
proposed six important points that should be present in that bureaucratic system.
Based on the above six important characteristics, more effective decision-making and better
results were aimed at. These principles and characteristics were widely received by both the
public and private sectors, and the very basics of a bureaucratic system are actually based on
these six principles proposed by Max Weber in his theory of bureaucracy.