Weber, Max

Modern Bureaucracy Model

In his model of modern bureaucracy, Weber described a series of recurring arrangements established on the premise of maximizing the calculability of action and predictability of results: a single hierarchy of offices occupied by persons selected on the basis of technical qualification; these employees are hired on free contracts and paid by responsibility, performance, and qualification; official business is carefully documented; employee conduct is governed by impersonal rules; employees are subject to strict organizational discipline; and they are promoted for performance or seniority. Weber stressed that work has been traditionally organized differently, much less oriented toward goal accomplishment than complying with the sanctity of tradition. Within what he called patriarchal and patrimonial forms of bureaucratic organization, for example, personalized authority, privileges, and rewards and use of personal connections, favors, and discretion loom large, militating against uniform conduct and performance at both the individual and the organizational levels.

Max Weber pointed out that the rise of modern bureaucracy had a profound impact on work; it is much more efficient and reliable than traditional ways of organizing work.

Weber pointed out that the rise of modern bureaucracy had a profound impact on work. Modern bureaucracy, he observed, is much more efficient and reliable than traditional ways of organizing work because the pursuit of calculability and predictability promotes precision, efficiency, and uniformity of operation. These strengths of modern bureaucratic organizations as a whole have been borne out by drastic improvements in global productivity since the 19th century. Weber pointed out that employment within modern bureaucracy has profound implications for the individual as well. Compared to personalized access to and control of employment, the presence of well-defined systems of authority, discipline, and compensation reduces confusion and [Page 963]anxiety about job responsibility and security and instills confidence in fairness and justice within modern bureaucratic organizations. This culture of legality, equality, and impersonality provides a quite different basis for esprit de corps than those of traditional bureaucratic organizations.

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