BSS 1101 Lecture 7
BSS 1101 Lecture 7
BSS 1101 Lecture 7
Lecture-07
Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy may be defined as that type of hierarchical organization which is
designed rationally to coordinate the work of many individuals engaged in
carrying out large –scale administrative tasks. In popular parlance, the term
“bureaucracy” is equated with “red-tape,” efficiency and the like. But to the
sociologist the term „bureaucracy” means a certain type of social structure, a
formal, rationally organized social structure in which there is integrated a series
of offices, of hierarchical statuses and of levels of graded authority.
Bureaucracy, thus defined, stresses division of labor, hierarchical control, fixed
patterns of communication, and dependence upon fixed rules and records. In
every modern society such formal organizations are found in large business
enterprises, church bodies, nationwide labor unions, large party organization as
well as the government. “The body of officials actively engaged in „public‟ office
along with the respective apparatus of material implements and the files,” says
Weber, “make up a „bureau‟. In private enterprise, the „bureau‟ is often called the
„office‟”.
Modern writers like Albow, Anthony Downs, Victor Thomson and others have
elaborated the definition of bureaucracy. Taking into consideration all these
definitions we may identify the essential structural features that constitute a
bureaucratic organization. These are:
Hierarchy:
Specialization:
Formalization:
Impersonality:
Size:
Non-marketable output:
A true bureaucracy thus must have all seven characteristics enumerated above,
though some organizations may be more bureaucratic than others. To the
sociologist a bureaucracy means a certain type of social structure, a formal
rationally organized social structure, in which there is integrated a series of
offices.