According to Max Weber, the bureaucratic organization is the most rational means to exercise a vital control over the individual workers. Which in turn is controlled by another layer of leaders. It should not be influenced by personal relations and benefits. All administrative processes are defined in the official rules. The authority is organized in a manner that guarantees a higher level of leadership controls each level of subordinates. It was published just as the U.
Marx posited that while and government bureaucracy seem to operate in opposition, in actuality they mutually rely on one another to exist. If one person leaves then some other occupies that place and the work does not suffer. Benefits of Bureaucracy : The following are the advantages of Bureaucracy: 1. This means less thinking outside the box and less collaboration with colleagues. Bureaucracy is an administrative system designed to accomplish large-scale administrative tasks by systematically coordinating the work of many individuals. Their contract terms are determined by organisational rules and requirements and the employee has no ownership interest in the company. Hierarchy is a system of ranking various positions in descending scale from top to bottom of the organisation.
An administration directs organizational resources towards an objective goal, such as generating profits or administering a service. Under Democratic President Andrew Jackson, many thousands of party loyalists filled the ranks of the bureaucratic offices around the country. Instead, a closed and rationally reviewed system should be implemented and followed. Confidence can be built by taking small steps. The key difference is that bureaucratic leadership is also concerned with the people doing the work as well as the work itself.
While private organizations seek to survive by controlling costs, increasing market share, and realizing a profit, public organizations find it more difficult to measure the elusive goal of operating with efficiency and effectiveness. But in terms of leadership theory, Max Weber and George Ritzer have perhaps been the most dominant in describing the style. In bureaucratic organisation, offices also follow the principle of hierarchy that is each lower office is subject to control and supervision by higher office. Autocratic leadership style is mostly implemented in industries that operate complicated tasks and in ones that are highly performance or result oriented since this style is required in organizations that demand error-free products. Another example of bureaucratic management is the modern corporation. According to Weber, the function of an efficient bureaucratic system is to focus on specialists. Theories shaping bureaucratic leadership As the bureaucratic systems began taking over modern societies, many philosophers and thinkers began examining the frameworks influencing bureaucracy.
Rules and requirements Formal rules and requirements are required to ensure uniformity, so that employees know exactly what is expected of them. Perhaps, the theorization of bureaucracy was almost inevitable. An official record is almost regarded as encyclopedia of various activities performed by the people in the organisation. Therefore, the model does require an ability to follow the rules and take orders from the subordinates. Impersonal Relationships: A notable feature of bureaucracy is that relationships among individuals are governed through the system of official authority and rules. Clegg; Martin Harris; Harro Höpfl, eds.
Features of Bureaucratic Organisation: Weber highlighted the following features of an ideal bureaucracy: a Division of labour: In a bureaucratic organisation, jobs are broken into smaller units where each person carries out a specialised task. For some highly regulated industries with exposure to risk this style of leadership is crucial for success. It is therefore very important that bureaucratic organisations properly inform employees well in advance about their approach to work and requires them to accept this. Sloan was a meticulous leader, although sometimes rather ruthless as well. Rules provide the benefits of stability, continuity, and predictability and each official knows precisely the outcome of his behaviour in a particular matter. This means that whoever is appointed has the knowledge, expertise and skills to handle the job.
Key Criticisms One of the biggest criticisms of this style of leadership is that it does not encourage innovative and creative thinking. Critics are arguing that with the certain steps needed to carry out tasks and the need to follow a chain of command to proceed, lots of time can be lost especially if decisions and results are needed immediately. Around the same time that Frederick Taylor was developing his theory of scientific management, other theorists were considering entire systems, such as government departments and large businesses, and trying to figure out how to manage them more effectively. Max weber described 6 six principles of Bureaucratic management approach. For example, the Government organisations, we can observe separate offices looking after particular functions. The right division of labour within a bureaucratic organisation also allows employees to specialise themselves further, so that they may become experts in their own field and significantly improve their performance.
However, unlike Weber, Fayol was concerned with how workers were managed and how they contributed to the organization. Eventually, after President James Garfield had been assassinated by a disappointed office seeker, Congress responded to cries for reform with the Pendleton Act, also called the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. Protection from arbitrary dismissal is guaranteed. Politicians like and gained power by promising to eliminate government regulatory bureaucracies, which they saw as overbearing, and return economic production to a more purely capitalistic mode, which they saw as more efficient. The effectiveness of the style has seen a number of great leaders take advantage of the framework, with business leaders understanding the essential nature of the style. This restricts employees to come up with innovative ideas, making them feel like just a number instead of an individual.