Bureaucracy as a form of social organization

 

Bureaucracy as a form of social organization

Introduction

 

Welcome to lesson two which deals with the bureaucratic organization of social organizations. In this lesson we will discuss the major characteristics of a bureaucracy as postulated by Max Weber and apply these characteristics to a school setting. An understanding of Weber’s Ideal Bureaucracy should help in understanding the operations of institutions, particularly learning institutions such as schools.

 

Objectives of the lesson

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the characteristics of Max Weber’s Ideal Bureaucracy.

2. Explain how bureaucracy manifests itself in a school.

 

Introductory activity

What do you understand by bureaucracy? Having spent many years as a pupil in a school and probably many other years as a teacher, you will be aware of some of the ways in which schools operate.  Can you think of some of the procedures and activities in a school which constitute aspects of a bureaucracy?

 

Explanation on the introductory activity

It should not have been very difficult to identify aspects of bureaucratic organization in a school. Understanding these aspects, their form and why they are necessary, will help you understand school organization better.  Below is a detailed discussion of the characteristics of a bureaucracy and of the school as a bureaucracy. Some organizations appear to be arranged along bureaucratic lines while others may not be so clearly bureaucratically organised. Looking at the characteristics of a bureaucracy will help you to determine which organization is a bureaucracy.

 

Bureaucracy as a form of social organization

 

Before we begin to discuss different aspects of authority anchored on bureaucratic organization, it is important to mention here that generally three types of legitimate authority exist. These are:

Traditional authority. These include kings, chiefs, headmen etc. These perpetuate existing goals and norms of social order. It is ill-suited to adaption to social change and holds on to what is valued and generally is resistant to change.

 Charismatic authority. Such authority is based on affectionate ties to an individual. Personal affection and personal allegiance of followers toward their leader/ruler is key. People are convinced that particular persons’ actions embrace new wonderful ideas. The individual ruler is cherished. Rulers’ natural pleasantness attracts followers. The ruler is naturally endowed with ability to load. Such authority has one major problem. It is usually unstable because it is linked to or dependent on one person who is believed to be the best hence followers cannot trust anyone else. There is usually a crisis of leadership when the current ruler leaves his /her position due to death, etc. Legal authority. This relates to aspect of authority which is legitimated in the supremacy of formally established law. It is embedded in an established body of social norms and anchored on a rational pursuit of achieving goals. Rules and laws can be enacted to control the running of an organization and these rules and laws can be changed to suit what the management wants.

This last type of authority, legal authority, represents what is known as bureaucracy and this is the authority structure under consideration in this unit. It gives birth to what is known as a bureaucracy. The distinctive characteristic which distinguishes it from social structures like the family is that it has formally been established for the specific purpose of achieving certain goals.  In other words every organization has a formally instituted pattern of authority and an official body of rules and procedures which are intended to achieve its specific goals. School organization therefore refers to how the local school is structured in various areas.  

 

Bureaucracies are formal organisations generally recognisable by certain characteristics. Bureaucracy is a form of administration which provides a hierarchal structure that normally operates according to certain procedures. Bureaucracy is the hierarchical arrangement of a structured organization or institution. It is found in large scale organizations characterized by formal rules, impersonal procedures, a centralization of authority and the specialization of tasks and abilities (Datta, 1984). Understanding bureaucracy is the key to the analysis of formal organisation of any institution.

Fundamentally, a bureaucracy is a rational arrangement of ‘offices’ providing certain means for administration and control of the office-holders actions.  Officials enter the bureaucracy expecting security, specialisation, salary and seniority based upon achievement and examinations.  Every organisation has a formally instituted pattern of authority and an official body of rules and procedures which are intended to achieve its specific goals.  

Characteristics of a bureaucracy

 

According to Max Weber, a German sociologist, all social organisations must ideally have the following characteristics:

 

1. Hierarchy of authority 

The positions or statuses in an organization are organised into a hierarchical authority structure. This means that there are fewer positions at the uppermost part of the pyramid while there is a large number of positions at the base. In this structural arrangement each official occupying a position is responsible for his subordinates' actions and each official has authority over the officials under him within the limits of the rules and regulations of the organisation. Rules and commands come from the top to the bottom. Lower officials accept and execute commands/implement these rules.  

 

For differentiated division of labour to operate efficiently and also for proper co-ordination to occur, some positions have more authority and status than others.  Positions carry with them responsibilities and these must have clearly demarcated roles.   Everybody knows who they are responsible to and channels of communication and how to relate to each other as per their different positions.  Communication is generally downwards.  The hierarchy of officials thus ensures the co-ordination of the various functions and provides formal channels of communication from the board down to the operations through directors, managers, supervisors, foremen and charge hands.  Weber believed that such a structure was not only the most rational but also the most efficient form of administration.  Offices are hierarchically arranged so as to facilitate demarcation of responsibility and promotion according to ability.

 

The structure of an organisation is expected to have fewer positions at the top than below, and it thus possesses an apex. Positions in the school are arranged in a hierarchical manner, so that the top most position is superior to the lower ones. There is division of labour and specialization. This includes the subdivision of pupils into classes according to their ability based on assessment. Every school is organized under some specific rules and regulations which contribute towards constituting an authority structure.   We should note that the school is a bureaucratic organisation. This being so, the positions in the school are arranged in a hierarchical manner, so that the topmost position is superior to the lower ones. Outside the school system, the headteacher receives orders from the Ministry of Education through District Boards and so on. Within each school, he is the most superior officer and all the other positions are subordinated to him. The headteacher oversees to the day-to-day functioning of the school and gives directives to his subordinates, other academic or non-academic staff. He is accountable for the actions of every other person occupying a position in the school. One crucial point here is that no official of the school system is bureaucratically allowed to have dealings or communications with others outside the school system without the knowledge or approval of the principal or any other person acting on his behalf at any given time. Thus, all communications between teachers and outside the school are routed through the principal, the aim of which is to prevent actions by subordinates that might not be approved by the principal.

 

The school also has a control; rules and regulations have to be followed for instance break time, knocking off time, walking in a single file and so on. The physical space of the school is also formally arranged. There are certain rooms for the teachers, and within the typical classroom the teacher’s desk occupies a special part of the room, and others for pupils. Time is formalized into special ways, the school year is divided into terms, the day into periods such that every person is expected to be in a given place engaged in a given activity at every period of time. The school’s formalism can be seen in the prescribed standards of behavior that characterize the relationships between the teachers and the pupils and among the teachers themselves.  In other words these are things that are acceptable by a certain institutions as rules and regulations. There is a curriculum and a syllabus backed up by the school. There is also a uniform for identification and for symbolizing the student’s acceptance of the school authority.

 

In practice, for reasons of efficiency, the communication channels are ignored. The headteacher can communicate directly with teachers and students without necessarily passing through his deputy or heads of departments. In maintaining the ideal situation, however, it might be expected that clear lines of communication would make the organisation more efficient; that is acting and communicating strictly according to the structural positions of the school system. Moreover, having the authority structure of the school more efficiently ordered should result in a proper coordination of all the activities of each of the positions within the hierarchy. Coming to the level of the students, the senior prefect is superior to all the other prefects and the student body. The primary functions of bureaucratic control in the school is how to regulate pupils and teachers in the formal learning situation. What is taught, by whom, when and where the lesson takes place, how performance is assessed.

In a school the following is the authority structure :

-Head

-D/ head

-Senior teacher - HOD.

2. Operation according to rules or procedures

There are formally established systems of rules and regulations which govern or regulate official decisions and actions. There are also written rules which have to be followed to the letter.

 

Every bureaucracy has rules and regulations controlling the actions and operations of the organisation to its set goals. Each official has defined duties, and his activities and interactions with other are governed by the formal rules of the bureaucracy.  However, informal groups/relationships and informal leaders arise, as workers interact.  Usually there is vertical flow of communication and authority (mainly top-bottom).  This is founded in the exclusion of personal considerations from official business.

 

Three types of rules and regulations can be identified in the secondary school system. Positions, rights and obligations are also clearly specified by a set of rules and regulations on which decisions are made.  Officials are required to observe established, usually written, rules and procedures.  Bureaucracies are concerned with mechanisms of control, rewards for conformity and punishment for descent/deviance.  There are also unwritten rules.  Unwritten rules may sometimes contradict or avoid the written rules.  These are explicit rules which define the responsibility of each member of the organisation (and the coordination of different tasks).  The rights, duties and qualifications of the official will be carefully defined so that he/she s replaceable with a minimum of upheaval to the smooth running of the organisation.  The rules ensure uniformity, rational decision-making and efficiency.  There is a job definition for everyone and individuals in the organisation, to avoid ambiguities and bring about specificity.  How every individual must behave is well defined by an organisational code of conduct, for instance, General Orders in the government as well as Teaching Service Regulations. A teachers’ authority is partly derived from the laws which relate to education generally, or to that in a particular school.  He marks the register, and reports absentees; this is accepted as legitimate because he is a neutral agent in a legal procedure which binds him as well as the class.  If the head teacher insists on all classrooms being vacated during break, and this is written into school rules, the right of an individual teacher to clear rooms is derived from these regulations.  The class obeys the teacher with less complaint when it sees that his actions are derived from regulations for which he serves as agent.  Teachers frequently have to enforce regulations which they neither make nor interpret. Rules and regulations exist in a school to ensure conformity, compliance and cooperation.

3. Functional division of labour (specialisation)

Organisation tasks are distributed among the various positions as official duties. This implies that there is a clear-cut division of labour among the positions, which calls for a high degree of specialisation. All bureaucracies have clearly designated positions.  Everyone knows their position in the organisation according to their skills and expertise.  This is established to achieve specific goals in the most specific, rational and efficient manner possible.  The functions are highly differentiated.  The narrower the tasks of the individuals, the higher the expertise.  Division of labour is deliberately planned to achieve specific ends.

4. Impersonality and uniformity

Officials are expected to assume an impersonal orientation in their contacts with clients and with other officials. A bureaucratic organisation is governed by notions of impartiality and uniformity.  If the goals of the organization are to be achieved the actions of each office holder will have to be predictable according to the specifications of the rights and duties attached to his/her positions.  The whole arrangement is specifically designed to minimise the personal idiosyncrasies and irrationality of the officials.  Every person in a bureaucracy is treated equally.  Personal or emotional considerations are secondary or not important at all.  What matter is how the individual performs.  Officials and clients are subject to the same rules of procedure.  There is impartiality in the treatment of subordinates and clients. This means that personal interests and other individual business must come second. 

A principal is not supposed to treat a relative, if he has one in the school, differently from others. Impersonal detachment is designed to prevent the personal feelings of principals and their staff from interfering with their rational judgment in carrying out their official duties.

 

5. Sphere of competence and security of employment

Employment in the organisation constitutes a career for the officials. As a rule, an official is a full-time employee and looks forward to a life-long career in the system. Employment is based on the technical qualification of the employee rather than on political, family or other connections. A bureaucratic organisation is meritorious.  People must be qualified for their jobs and promotions must be on merit.  This entails that not only are people divided into specific roles, they are experts/specialists in those fields.  Trained and skilled personnel are appointed to occupy specific roles. There is the possibility of moving up through the rank (depending on how they form).  Each person should be conversant with his duties and everybody becomes an expert in his field.  

6. Definition of staff roles as offices

Authority is used in a special way in a bureaucracy.  Authority is clearly demarcated.  These boundaries relate to the work in the offices.  Authority resides in the offices of the organisation and not the people occupying those offices.  Office implies duties.   

 

Practical activity

Go back to the section on introductory activity at the beginning of this lesson and write down your points. Ask yourself the following questions: Have I learnt anything from this lesson, and if so then what?  How best can I remember this new knowledge? How well can I best mix it with my previous knowledge on this topic?  What have I not understood?  Ask yourself the following questions: How can I best remember this new knowledge and apply it in my daily work as a teacher? These and similar questions will help you to get a good grip of Weber’s Ideal Bureaucracy. Also discuss ways in which a school functions as a bureaucratic organization and write down your points. 

 

Summary of Lesson

The school has been looked at as a formal social organization because it possesses all the characteristics of social organizations. In doing so, it was said that the school has clear-cut organizational tasks distributed among its members, the positions are organized into a hierarchical authority structure, there are formally established rules and regulations guiding the action of its members, officials are supposed to assume impersonal roles, and employment in the school system constitutes a career which can be entered through technical qualifications. 

 

The school has been looked at as a formal social organization because it possesses all the characteristics of social organizations. In doing so, it was said that the school has clear-cut organizational tasks distributed among its members, the positions are organized into a hierarchical authority structure, there are formally established rules and regulations guiding the action of its members, officials are supposed to assume impersonal roles, and employment in the school system constitutes a career which can be entered through technical qualifications.