Outline the characteristics of bureaucratic organization.

Formal Organizations

Modern life complains that large and impersonal secondary organizations dominate society. From schools to businesses to healthcare to government, these organizations referred to as formal organizations, are highly bureaucratized. Indeed, all formal organizations are, or likely will become bureaucracies. We will discuss the purpose of formal organizations and the structure of their bureaucracies.

Bureaucracies are formal organizations. Bureaucracies have a collection of characteristics that most of them exhibit. Pioneer sociologist Max Weber characterized a bureaucracy as having a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules, and impersonality (1922). People often complain about bureaucracies––declaring them slow, rule-bound, challenging to navigate, and unfriendly. Let’s look at terms that define bureaucracy to understand what they mean.

Hierarchy of authority refers to the chain of command that places one individual or office in charge of another, who must answer to her superiors. For example, as an employee at Walmart, your shift manager assigns you tasks. Your shift manager responds to his store manager, who must answer to her regional manager, and so on, up to the CEO, who must answer to the board members, who answer to the stockholders. Everyone in this bureaucracy follows the chain of command.

Bureaucracies have a clear division of labor: each individual has a specialized task to perform. For example, at a university, psychology professors teach psychology, but they do not attempt to provide students with financial aid forms. The Office of Admissions often takes on this task. In this case, it is a clear and commonsense division. But what about in a restaurant where food is backed up in the kitchen, and a hostess is standing nearby texting on her phone? Her job is to seat customers, not to deliver food. Is this an intelligent division of labor?

Bureaucracies have explicit rules that are outlined, written down, and standardized. For example, the student guidelines are contained in the Student Handbook at your college or university. As technology changes and campuses encounter new concerns like cyberbullying, identity theft, and other problems, organizations scramble to ensure their explicit rules cover these emerging issues.

Finally, bureaucracies are also characterized by impersonality, which takes personal feelings out of professional situations. This characteristic grew, to some extent, out of a desire to avoid nepotism, backroom deals, and other types of favoritism while protecting customers and others served by the organization. Bureaucracies can effectively and efficiently serve volumes of customers quickly. However, explicit rules, a clear division of labor, and a strict hierarchy of authority do not allow them to adjust promptly to unique or new situations. As a result, customers frequently complain that stores with bureaucratic structures, like Walmart, care little about individuals, other businesses, and the community.

Bureaucracies are often meritocracies, meaning hiring and promotion are based on proven and documented skills rather than on nepotism or random choice. To get into a prestigious college, you must have an impressive transcript. You must graduate from law school to become a lawyer and represent clients. Of course, there are many well-documented examples of success by those who did not proceed through traditional meritocracies. Think about technology companies with founders who dropped out of college or performers who became famous after a YouTube video went viral.

In addition, organizations that aspire to become meritocracies encounter challenges. How well do you think established meritocracies identify talent? Wealthy families hire tutors, interview coaches, test-prep services, and consultants to help their kids get into the best schools. This starts as early as kindergarten, where competition for the most highly-regarded schools is incredibly fierce. Are these schools, many of which have copious scholarship funds that are intended to make the school more democratic, really offering all applicants a fair shake?

There are several positive aspects of bureaucracies. They are intended to improve efficiency, ensure equal opportunities, and serve a large population. And there are times when rigid hierarchies are needed. But remember that many of our bureaucracies grew large while our school model was developed–during the Industrial Revolution. Young workers were trained, and organizations were built for mass production, assembly line work, and factory jobs. In these scenarios, a transparent chain of command was critical. Now, in the information age, this kind of rigid training and protocol adherence can actually decrease productivity and efficiency.

Today’s workplace requires a faster pace, more problem-solving, and a flexible approach to work. Too much adherence to explicit rules and a division of labor can leave an organization behind. And unfortunately, once established, bureaucracies can take on their own life. Maybe you have heard the expression “trying to turn a tanker around mid-ocean,” which refers to the difficulties of changing direction with something large and set in its ways. Governments and current budget crises are examples of this challenge. Finally, bureaucracies grew as institutions at a time when privileged white males held all the power. While ostensibly based on meritocracy, bureaucracies can perpetuate the existing balance of power by only recognizing the merit in traditionally male and privileged paths.

The McDonaldization of Society

The McDonaldization of society (Ritzer, 1994) refers to the increasing presence of the fast-food business model in common social institutions. This business model includes efficiency (the division of labour), predictability, calculability, and control (monitoring). For example, in your average chain grocery store, people at the cash register check out customers while stockers keep the shelves full of goods, and deli workers slice meats and cheese to order (efficiency). Whenever you enter a store within that grocery chain, you receive the same type of goods, see the same store organization, and find the same brands at the same prices (predictability). You will find that goods are sold by kilogram, so you can weigh your fruit and vegetable purchases rather than guess the price for that bag of onions. The employees use a time card to calculate their hours and receive overtime pay (calculability). Finally, you will notice that all store employees are wearing a uniform (and usually a name tag) so that they can be easily identified. Security cameras monitor the store, and some parts of the store, such as the stockroom, are generally considered off-limits to customers (control).

While McDonaldization has resulted in improved profits and increased availability of various goods and services to more people worldwide, it has also reduced the variety of goods available in the marketplace while rendering available products uniform, generic, and bland. Think of the difference between a mass-produced shoe and one made by a local cobbler, between a chicken from a family-owned farm versus a corporate grower, or a cup of coffee from the local roaster instead of one from a coffee-shop chain. Ritzer also notes that rational systems, as efficient as they are, are irrational because they become more important than the people working within them or the clients they serve. “Most specifically, irrationality means that rational systems are unreasonable systems. By that I mean that they deny the basic humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within or are served by them.” (Ritzer, 1994)

Chapter Summary

Social institutions are patterns of relationships that endure from one generation to the next, part of the social structure. Privilege is the unearned advantages ascribed to a person or group. Privilege does not include earned benefits. The failure to distinguish between earned and unearned advantages allows privileged groups to say their privileges are earned. The social structure elements include groups, social class, social status, and social roles. Social institutions are structures that provide for patterned relationships. The dominant social institutions include family, educational, religious, economic, political, and legal systems.

Major Points of the Chapter

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define the elements of the social structure.
• Compare and contrast achieved and ascribed status.
• Recognize privilege concerning achieved and ascribed status.
• Compare and contrast role, role expectation, role performance, role conflict, and role strain.
• Identify traits of primary and secondary groups, including in-group and out-group biases.
• Outline the characteristics of bureaucratic organization.

Study Questions

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