Bureaucratic Theory

John Rhoniel B. Mateo

Max Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory

Bureaucratic Theory was developed by a German

Sociologist and political economist Max
Weber(1864-1920).
According to him, bureaucracy is the most efficient
form of organization. The organization has a well-
defined line of authority. It has clear rules and
regulations which are strictly followed.

Introduction
 Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy refers to a specialized system and process of
maintaining uniformity or authority within an organization.

Bureaucratic processes are most common in

Large organizations Government

Principles of Bureaucratic
theory • Job specialization
•Authority hierarchy Formal

selections

•Formal rules and regulations

Impersonality
• career orientation
 Job specialization

Jobs are divided into simple, routine and fixed category based
on
competence and functional specialization.
 Authority Hierarchy

• Officers are organized in hierarchy in which higher officer

controls lower position holders i.e. superior controls
subordinates and their performance of subordinates and lower
staff could be controlled.
 Formal selection

• All organizational members are to be selected on the basis of

technical qualifications and competence demonstrated by
training, education or formal examination.
 Formal rules and Regulations

• To ensure uniformity and to regulate actions of employees,

managers must depend heavily upon formal organizational
rules and regulations. Thus, rules of law lead to
impersonality in interpersonal relations.
 Impersonality

• Rules and controls are applied uniformly, avoiding

involvement with personalities and preferences of
employees. Biasness and favoritism are not preferred.
 Career orientation

• Career building opportunity is offered. Promotions and salary

hikes are strictly based on technical competence. They work
for a fixed salaries and pursue their career within the
organization.
 Criticism of Bureaucratic Organization

Bureaucratic organization is criticized because of the following

reasons :-

• Bureaucratic organization is a very rigid type of organization.

It does not give importance to human relations. It is suitable
for government organizations. It is also suitable for
organizations where change is very slow.

• Too much emphasis on rules and regulations. The rules and

regulations are rigid and inflexible.
• There will be unnecessary delay in decision-making due
to formalities and rules.

• Bureaucracy involves a lot of paper work. This results in lot

of wastage of time, effort and money.
Post-Bureaucratic Organization
 Charles Heckscher has developed an ideal type, the
post-bureaucratic organization, in which decisions are
based on dialogue and consensus rather than authority
and command, the organization is a network rather
than a hierarchy, open at the boundaries (in direct
contrast to culture management); there is an emphasis
on meta-decision-making rules rather than decision-
making rules. This sort of horizontal decision-making
by consensus model is often used in 
housing cooperatives, other cooperatives and when
running a non-profit or community organization. It is
used in order to encourage participation and help to 
empower people who normally experience oppression
 in groups.