Bureaucracy

Anita Pankake & Brenda R. Kallio

The development of bureaucracy, an idealistic type of organization, is most generally attributed to Max Weber, a German sociologist. Many organizations use various characteristics of the bureaucratic model. Schools and other educational organizations are no exceptions. Some of Weber's bureaucratic characteristics have been shown to assist in the efficient and effective operation of the educational organization; others are likely to cause organizational inefficiency or unanticipated consequences. Weber studied government entities and, more specifically, the formal portion of those institutions. His intent was to demonstrate that the bureaucratic model could create rational solutions to the various complex problems of the modern organization. He especially wanted to demonstrate that the bureaucratic organization could overcome the decision-making limits of the individual or other forms of human organizations. His work focused on the relationship between the official and the office but paid less attention to the human elements or to the informational aspects of ...

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