Bureaucracy can be defined as a form of a system which is used in leading. This type of system is based on set rules but not friendships or any ties of kinship. A bureaucratic system of management can be applied in any organization, whether private or public organization. Bureaucracy has several characteristics that define it. Max Weber noted that this is the easiest system of leading which comes with specific abilities and people lead with unity. The first characteristic of bureaucracy is Hierarchical management structure. This means that a certain rank in an organization controls the ranks which are below it and that specific rank is being controlled by the ranks above it. Each rank has its duties and responsibilities which are clearly outlined.
The second characteristic of bureaucracy is a division of labor. This means that each employee in an organization has one specific task which he/she does daily. This makes the employees more skilled since they only concentrate on one task. The third characteristic of bureaucracy is the formal selection process. This means that, for workers to be promoted, they have to be thoroughly assessed on their expertise and their technical qualification which is shown by their level of education. The fourth characteristic of bureaucracy is career orientation. This means that the body ruling an organization is separate from the owners of that organization. Another characteristic is the formal rules and regulations. These are written down for the employees to follow, also the management follows these documented rules when relating to their employees. The final characteristic of bureaucracy is impersonality. This means that the set rules and regulations are enforced to all the people in a certain organization without any exception.
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Bureaucracy can also be termed as a set of managerial administrators who are not chosen and have the power to rule a particular organization or a company (Selden, 2015). Bureaucracy is made up of an authority or a system in which the directors are given certain departments to rule and are directed to rule these departments based on a general order of the management. I came into contact with the term bureaucracy when I was studying the history of the well-known human rights collection of individuals and trade unions. Many of the trade unions and the human rights groups did not want bureaucracy to be applied as they claimed that this system of ruling did not consider most rights of their workers.
As bureaucracy is termed as the best system of management, it also comes with a few disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of Bureaucracy is poor relationships amongst the workers. This comes in as a result of impersonal employers and this may, at times make the employees unhappy. For instance, if a worker, who has been working for a certain organization for a long time has an urgent need of spending some time with her family and requests the manager to consider her situation (Lazega, 2020). The manager denies her the opportunity citing set rules which don’t give room for exceptions. The employee feels offended considering that she has been loyal to the organization for a long time. The organization not considering her feels like an insult. On the other hand, if the manager went against the set rules, and allows her to spend some time with her family, she would feel supported and appreciated. The second disadvantage of bureaucracy is the long methods and procedures which are taken to come up with decisions. Bureaucracy commands that for a decision to be made, a chain of commands has to be followed and this wastes a lot of time (Nancy Fenton, 2019). Therefore, the target of the outcomes may not be achieved in time.
The above-mentioned disadvantages of bureaucracy can be resolved in various ways. Poor relationships among workers can be resolved by giving managers the power to make their own decisions according to what they think is the best for the workers. But, after giving managers this mandate, they should be responsible for the kind of decisions they make and not the whole institution.
When navigating the bureaucratic system of management, it is noted that social group memberships offer some people a favored position when operating under a bureaucracy. Social groups offer people the power to act as a whole and demand for their rights or what suits them best. For example, several social groups across the world have been adopted to fight for human rights and fight for injustices carried out in the community. For this reason, social groups can be used as a means of changing the system of Bureaucracy.
References
Lazega, E. (2020). Bureaucracy, Collegiality and Social Change: Redefining Organizations with Multilevel Relational Infrastructures. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Nancy Fenton, K. O.-G. (2019). AP® U.S. Government & Politics Crash Course, For the 2020 Exam, Book + Online. Research & Education Assoc.
Selden, S. C. (2015). The Promise of Representative Bureaucracy: Diversity and Responsiveness in a Government Agency: Diversity and Responsiveness in a Government Agency. Routledge.
