Bureaucratic Structures : Power And Authority

Power is having authority, control along with many influential factors, whether direct or indirect through bona fide expedients. Stojkovic, Kalinich and Klofas (2015) lamented, "Enforcing one's way over others requires the expenditure of resources, the making of commitments, and a level of effort that can be undertaken only when the issues at hand are relatively important" (p. 290). However, authority most often come from the duties and responsibilities delegated to a position holder in a bureaucratic structure. A manager of a criminal justice organization, for instance, has the authority to control and direct the activities of the staffs and expert them to respond with appropriate actions to attain organizational purposes.

According to Alfred Chandler (1977), the structure involved ‘administrative coordination’ can bring higher profit, productive and lower cost. He describes it as “The visible hand”. He believe the traditional will be gradually replaced by the multi-unit ‘modern business enterprise’ The top of the mine-and-staff structure based organization is the top management, then middle management, lower management and foremen, supervisors and so forth. (See figure 1) The command send from the top manager to the middle manager, then the mission will be allocated to the lower level until to the front-line staff. A person in a line position is directly involved in achieving the basic objectives of the organization. A person in a staff position, by

If group is deemed a reference group, consider how this group affects or hasaffected your lifepersonally and/or professionally? If you select any organizations for youranalysis, consider Weber’s five characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy and suggest which (if any) of the characteristics are directly applicable to your organization. From personal experience, examine the positive and negative ramifications of operating within a bureaucratic structure.

Trying to find a job that will make you happy? Guess what? The answer is external again. The happiest jobs are those where you focus on helping, and usually interacting with one-on-one, other people. The least happy? Those where you work by yourself and have hierarchical bureaucracies. Read more about it here and

The new structure implemented by Edward has changed the flexible and creative organisational culture to a bureaucratic and administrative culture. Bureaucracy is a type of organisation where organisation is whereby there is division of labour, clear structured hierarchy, detailed rules and restrictions and impersonal relationship (Robbins et al., 2012). 6 Steps and Rising has divided tasks into simple, mundane and routine tasks and established a detailed hierarchy with clear chain of command, implemented restrictive rules that govern all employees and uniform application of rules across the whole organisation. This new implementation restricts individual creativity and limits the organisations to adapt and respond to a dynamic environment.

In bureaucracy, there also is a clear and distinct division of labor that is noticeable to almost anyone. At party city I was in charge of the cash register during my shift and stocking the solids, and making balloon orders over the phone. This was just one of the many jobs. There were back dock workers that would unpack from the shipments, there were costume organizers, and party staff. Every employee had a specific team and each team had a team leader and the team leaders had a manager. This points to the fact that the work is divided into the structures of authority. The division of labor is intertwined with the hierarchical structure of authority. With this simple division of the tasks and labor required to make the company run, the workers are

Miscommunication between bureaucratic agencies and their leaders can lead to problematic outcomes, like in the case of the Argentine intelligence service. The article titled, “Argentinian government moves to dissolve domestic intelligence agency” written for The Guardian by Jonathan Watts describes how President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner believes the agency to be corrupt. She has decided to disband the current system and create a new federal intelligence agency. This problem illustrates issues of delegation and the problem of agency loss. In analyzing the situation, it is important to note that although the presidential system they have now has played a part in the issues surrounding Argentina, changing to a parliamentary system would

The aim of bureaucracy is to standardize all activities within the organization and ensure that control passes from up to the bottom. As such, owners are allowed to control the organization in a more efficient and indirect way thus mitigating the risk of self-conflict and loss of control of the organization affairs. The bureaucratic system came up with the common functions of management and these are controlling, organizing, planning, commanding and coordination (King & Lawley, 2013).

However, despite Max Weber’s theory that bureaucracies are like iron “iron cages” that are a efficient form of administration. Prior to modern government reform patronage, spoils, and bribery were just part of the political environment for Public Administrators. In today’s, modern government Public Administrators are hired based on the merit and technical qualifications that secure the individual can carry out the duties of the office. However, Public Administrators are forced to work in a hierarchical organization

Weber’s bureaucratic approach focuses on the importance of hierarchy by putting great emphasis on the use of rules, procedures and making impartial personnel decisions when managing. He put great emphasis on the jurisdiction, explaining that work should be “divided according to type and purpose” staying within the correct working unit just as the organization’s rules and laws would state (Milakovich, et. al., 2013, p. 146). A hierarchy would be established with a chain of command clearly identifying a system of super- and

The year 1911 saw Frederick Winslow Taylor publish a book titled ‘The principles of scientific management’ in which he aimed to prove that the scientific method could be used in producing profits for an organization through the improvement of an employee’s efficiency. During that decade, management practice was focused on initiative and incentives which gave autonomy to the workman. He thus argued that one half of the problem was up to management, and both the worker and manager needed to cooperate in order to produce the greatest prosperity.

Based on this right, the bureaucracy designed by Weber has clear division of labor; thoroughly indicated hierarchical relationship and pointed out impersonal relationship (Crozier, 1964). In the course of history, there have been various more perfect organizational systems, therefore, bureaucratic theory was questioned and criticized by many scholar. However, there are still certain organizations that use bureaucracy theory to design the corporate structure despite many critical views.

A bureaucratic structure is hierarchical and where the level below answers to the level above it. Hierarchy is defined as a classification of people according to their relative authority and rank (Jones, 2013, p. 97). Bureaucracy can be described as the individuals within a firm are regulated by the firm’s objectives, procedures, and processes in ascertaining organizational protocol. Managers have authority within their bureaucratic level to establish procedures and regulations based upon the organization’s objectives. A manager’s authority is restricted to the level of authority bestowed on their title. A firm’s hierarchy establishes a chain of command that is easily recognizable throughout the organization, so that the employees are able to easily identify who they are responsible to. For instance if a packaging supervisor approached a production employee to ship a product to a customer the employee would know that the packaging supervisor is out of their jurisdiction and to approach their supervisor for

Based on Weber’s management theory, the hierarchy of command, the basic feature of bureaucratic organization is that there is a hierarchy of position within a PA organization. Hieararchy is a system of ranking various positions in descending scale from top to bottom of the organization. For example, in local government the hierarchy of authority begins with elected officials, City Manager, Department Directors, Deputy Directors, Supervisors, Analysts, Coordinators, Lead Workers, and so forth. Communicating the duties to stakeholders, the employee builds confidence in the correct decision making for the activities in the organization and in return gives accountability to the individuals within the organization. Working under the Director of Human Resources office, I have a chain of command I follow when I am in doubt with my work responsibilities. When in doubt, I always consult with my Director. If she is unable to get the answer for me, she typically goes to her counterparts and tries to attain a constructed answer. If my Director was at some point unable to assist me with the issue, there would be a hierarchy of command that would be sought in order to

Bureaucracy is a term that has been coined by a French economist Vincent de tourney in 1745. In French bureau connotes desk. It is the systematic and organised body which makes it accountable for proper functioning. Its complexity and elaborate nature makes it reliable and error free. While the former can be a drawback, taking in to consideration the amount of time it takes and the large body of people involve, the latter is proving to make up for it. It can also be defined as a large scale. administrative, systematic and a well coordinated manner of carrying out organisational tasks and day to day activities. There are three types of power in organisations: Traditional, Charismatic and