Bureaucracy

How Bureaucracy Works

In bureaucracies, complex tasks are broken into individual activities and assigned as official duties that clearly define the responsibilities, rights, scope or authority, and competencies of the office. Rationality determines rules and procedures that are administered by trained experts, and objective purposes guide the conduct of both officials and their subordinates. Notably, documents are used extensively to facilitate a flow of information throughout the organization and to establish fixed rules and procedures for each individual task.

[Page 99]Bureaucracy operates under strict principles of hierarchy. A chain of command organizes superior offices, which supervise lower offices. Discharge of authority is based on rules without regard to personal judgment or favoritism. The correctness of authoritative rules is rationalized and well established. Procedures are established for the regulated appeal of lower offices to corresponding superior authorities for additional information and direction.

Thus, in the modern office, management is reduced to a standardized set of rules and procedures administered abstractly and impersonally. Employees are hired after prescribed special examination and according to predetermined qualifications, usually tied to educational certifications. Compensation is based on the specific duties of an office and not the individual characteristics of the person who holds the office. Conditions for career advancement are clearly delineated.

Official business is the primary concern of officials; their duties demand their complete attention, whatever the length of obligatory working hours. Officials do not own their means of production. Regulations require the clear separation of an official's private funds and personal property from public funds and resources, with clear and public accounting for resources used to discharge official business.

Theoretical Background

Early use of the term bureaucracy includes a letter, dated July 15, 1765, wherein Baron Grimm and the French philosopher Denis Diderot said that bureaucracy in France meant that officials of all kinds were appointed to benefit public interests and that public interest is necessary for offices—and officials—to exist.