Bureaucracy

Division of Labor and Job Specialization

Work in the bureaucracy is divided and distributed throughout the organization. This distribution of organizational work identifies required roles and the functions [Page 91]that accompany each role. These divisions of labor tend to cause employees to become experts in their assigned areas and result in job specialization. For example, school roles and responsibilities can be divided in multiple ways—by elementary and secondary, by subject or content area, and by administrative function such as business, student services, curriculum, special programs, and so on. Often, certification is the official designation of job specialization.

Guidance through Rules and Regulations

Rules and regulations define the rights and responsibilities involved in each position within the organization. Through rules and regulations, activities within the hierarchy can be coordinated, and a level of continuity, uniformity, and stability of operations can be ensured even when personnel changes occur. Schools and school districts have numerous rules and regulations by which the organization is governed and decisions are made. Some of the rules and regulations are external, coming from the state or federal government or through the courts. Other rules are initiated and adopted within the organization through policies, contracts, student and teacher behavior codes, and so on.

An Impersonal Orientation

This area focuses on the formal organization and emphasizes that decisions should be based on facts, not feelings. The assumption is that operating from a basis of facts promotes rational decision making and equal treatment of individuals. Evaluation of performance, whether of students by teachers, teachers by administrators, or building administrators by central office administrators, is to be based on objective data gathered from a variety of sources, not on feelings of like or dislike between the individuals involved.

A Well-Defined Hierarchy of Authority

Offices in the organization are arranged in a hierarchy, with each lower office being supervised by the one above it. For schools and school districts, the welldefined hierarchy of authority begins at the state level with the legislature, the state board of education, the state commission, and then the local board of education. At the local level, the hierarchy begins with the local board of education, moves to the superintendent, to various central office administrative persons with specialized job responsibilities, to school administrators, and then to teachers and students. Persons in each of the roles report to and are supervised by the role immediately above.

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