Max Weber (1864-1920) was the initiator of the systematic study of bureaucracy. His observations of the development of bureaucracy and the formation of the conditions that contributed to it, such as the monetary economy, the emergence of the capitalist system, the industrial revolution, and the Protestant ethic, are references to the topic. with his theory of bureaucratic domination, tries to establish the conditions under which the person who holds power justifies his legitimacy and the ways in which the subjects over whom power is exercised submit to it. It is not enough to legitimize power; a certain degree of administrative organization is necessary to allow the exercise of power.
In this Psychology-Online article, we are going to explain What it consists of and what are the characteristics of Weber’s theory of bureaucracy.
Weber’s theory of bureaucracy distinguishes 3 principles of legitimation that allow us to distinguish the types of domination:
- Charismatic domination: justified by the characteristics of the leader and accepted by the subjects based on their faith and in which, if an administrative organization emerges, which is unstable and indeterminate.
- Traditional domination: It legitimizes the power of the chief in the past and the inherited status and gives rise to feudal-type administrative organizations in which the “officials” depend on the chief and are strongly linked to him.
- Legal dominance: It is based on the law as a legitimizing principle based on its rationality and is independent of the leader or boss who enforces it.
Bureaucratization means increasing prevalence of a rational and formal type of organization. “Bureaucratic administration” means the exercise of control based on knowledge (technical competence), a trait that is what makes it specifically rational.
According to Weber, bureaucracy must present the following main characteristics or features:
Legal nature of rules and regulations
The bureaucracy is an organization made up of a series of rules and regulations, which are established in writing. It is based on its own legislation in which it defines and guides what the operation will be and how the administration and bureaucratic organization will be carried out. These rules and regulations are very detailed, precise and rational, as they must be consistent with the initial objectives.
Hierarchy of authority
Legal norms are established by their rationality and the legal body is composed of a consistent system of abstract rules established intentionally; The person who performs the authority occupies a position whose functions, prerogatives, rights and obligations are delimited and by the reason for his position; The person who obeys authority does so only as a member of that group, he only obeys “the law” and the legal precepts, not the individual wills of the leaders.
Maximum division of labor
The bureaucratic organization is characterized by being composed of official positions delimited by rules that determine the sphere of competence of each of them in accordance with the following principles: delimitation of the obligations to be fulfilled by each position based on the division of work; provision of the authority necessary for the performance and fulfillment of those obligations; delimitation of the conditions and coercive means for the exercise of that authority. The organization of positions follows the hierarchical principle so that each position is under the control and supervision of a superior, and each official is responsible to his superior for his decisions and actions and those of his subordinates.
Rule determination
The conduct of officials is governed by a coherent system of technical rules and general standards and consists of the application of these rules to each specific case and situation.
Professionalization and rationality
Specialization and qualified preparation are required and your selection will be made in accordance with this type of criteria. Employment is considered as a career that is developed according to a promotion system established based on seniority or technical ability and knowledge. This is an award of positions and positions for reasons of competence and not for personal preferences or nepotism.
Impersonality
Administrative acts, decisions and rules will be formulated and recorded in writing and the ideal official carries out his task in a spirit of impersonal formality.
According to Weber, from a technical point of view, experience would universally demonstrate that pure bureaucratic administrative organization is capable of providing the highest degree of efficiency. The developed bureaucratic apparatus is exactly the same as the machine with respect to non-mechanical forms of production. Precision, speed, univocality, officiality, continuity, discretion, uniformity, rigorous subordination, savings in friction and objective and personal costs are greater in a severely bureaucratic and especially monocratic administration, served by specialized officials.
Weber tried to formulate a ideal type of bureaucratic administration. It is not an empirical model of bureaucratic functioning, nor is it the result of an average of the characteristics of all existing bureaucracies. It is a pure type obtained by abstracting the most characteristic bureaucratic aspects of all known organizations and whose essential note is rationality and efficiency.
Criticisms of Weber’s ideal bureaucracy
Criticisms have arisen of the Weberian concept of bureaucracy and the usefulness of the ideal type. Some aimed at pointing out the insufficiencies of a concept that did not take into account the empirical aspects of specific organizations and forgot their non-rational dimensions; Others reveal the contradictions of the ideal type established by Weber, pointing out that a specific organization that met all the characteristics established therein would not necessarily have to be located at the maximum efficiency, because the factors that determine this cannot be established in the abstract.
Criticisms that have revealed the dysfunctional differences that arise from the bureaucratic organization model established by Weber.