Brief outline:
Administration entails the management and governance of the masses. It is a source of connect between the rulers and ruled. In the public sphere administration pertains to the handling of the issues and problems of the common man.
Critical review:
The administrative pillar is one of the most important one in the sphere of society and it determines the overall outlook of society.
Objective:
The objective of this paper is to assess and analyze the bureaucratic form of administration in a critical review. Assess its effectiveness and the possible misinterpretations and abuses.
Thesis statement:
Bureaucratic style of administration is a tool if handled properly, and it is a weapon of destruction at the same time, if manipulated and abused.
Brief outline:
The history of bureaucratic form of administration can be stretched back far into history. However the origin of the word can be extracted from the French word bureau, and its origin was associated to the desk office work (Elowitz, 1996, 70), later on the practical demonstration can be found in form of German sociologists and researchers work. Max Weber is considered to be the pioneer of the present day bureaucratic form (Ringer, 2010, 220) of governance and administration. Ever since the bureaucratic form of administration model is in use in different countries for over two centuries now. Max Weber was a German sociologist who lived from 1864 to 1920(Tierney 2008, 151).
Critical analysis:
The theory is subject to misappropriations and misinterpretations. This can be eliminated only via the true implementation of bureaucratic model in letter and spirit.
Evidence in support:
Many societies see the bureaucratic implementation resulting in the gulf between the masses, and misappropriations of funds and resources.
The sole responsibility of the administrator:
Administrator merely does not mean a man with authority and he or she may use that force for personal interests and life. Rather it means responsible for the trust, promise, code and duty for which he/ she has been appointed. He stands as the representative of the people and as a representative bears the responsibility of making the most out of the resources and facilities available to him. A similar analogy can be drawn in form of the political leaders and rulers, who are termed the rulers in generic way, yet they are the responsible entities and directly subservient to the people who have appointed them to work as their direct representatives. The public administrators in the same manner have chosen or been appointed for the purpose of looking after the interests of the masses.
Critical review of administrators’ role:
Resources concentration with the administrators is another area of concern and consideration. The use of resources for private purposes is one example.
Application domain:
The application of Max Weber’s principles directly apply to formal form of administrative entities. This makes it more suitable for the government enterprises and agencies. This also makes its scope relatively wide and adaptive in its nature, thereby it can be safely said that any organization or administrative unit that serves on professional and formal procedures can apply the bureaucratic principles in their daily routine activities and orders.
Analytical approach:
The benefits presented by Max Weber’s model are applicable universally.
The better and comprehensive understanding of administrative pattern of bureaucracy can be understood only through its critical assessment, and this is possible through the study and analysis of its basic elements that make up for the theory in itself. Some of these tools and principles of bureaucratic form of administration are as follows:
Separation of the private from public life:
One of the basic and distinguishing features of bureaucratic form of administration is the separation of public affairs from an individual’s private life. This allows for transparency and reduction of chances of abuses. The abuse may come in form of the official power, authority, assets or any other valuables and items which are the sole ownership of the government and in turn the property of the tax payers and common man. Separation of power is ensured by a critically defined and drawn timings, usage of resources and various other components that may serve as potential items of abuse by the officers.
Merit based selection:
Bureaucratic form of administration entails the selection of professionals on account of complete merit and transparency. Violation of any rule as such would lead to non fulfillment of the bureaucratic principles set forth by Max Weber and the actually desired public service.
Division based on specialization:
Being a hierarchical model, bureaucratic model has clearly defined cadres and levels (Lachmann, 2007, 115). Under this each lower level is bound to fulfill the roles and responsibility in an administered and instructed way. Generally four levels exist that are spread between 22 grades from grade 1 to grade 22 as the top most officer.
Analytical view:
Specialization based distributions allows for more specialized work operations. This also enables effective environment.
Specialization based appointments:
One of the basic traits of bureaucratic form of administration is the appointments based on specialization. An individual would serve in a given department and domain only if he or she posses the knowledge as the prerequisite for that particular post. Generalization of the posts, appointment against them run contrary to the true spirit of Max Weber’s underlined bureaucratic model of administration.
Concept of pension and full time engagement:
While every individual seeks security with regard to the future consideration, the bureaucratic model of administration looks after this clause in the most desired manner. It ensures pension and other privileges being allotted to the employees and personnel who were once part of the active team. The benefits served by it is the post retirement life security and financial lift up. This serves as a motivation for people who aim to join the ranks of bureaucratic institutes.
Considerations and concerns:
Like any other form of administration and management function, bureaucratic function is also prone to vulnerabilities and exploitations. These exploitations may come up in form of delays in processes through the organized mechanism of red tapism, it may come up in form of the abuse of power, it may show up in the form of exploitation, delays, or isolation of the brain from its capacity being confined to one particular kind of work that hinders creativity and ultimately productivity (Bozeman & Feeney 2007,98).
Saying no to Red tapism:
Red tapism is an obstructive process and component that hinders the overall process of activity. It is the mere extension and unnecessary following of documents without concrete steps. In short it can be said that Red tapism stands contrary to the rules and regulations of bureaucratic model.
Elitist force:
Based on the sense of accomplishment, duty and responsibility, the bureaucratic administration tends to provide the individuals with a sense of elitist mindset. This comes as a negative of this form of administrative style because these members and personnel must work in line with the aspirations of the masses without any feeling of superiority or elite mindset within.
Concentration of authority in a certain segment:
The concentration of power, authority, say and resources makes up for one of the potential drawback and loophole which may come against the bureaucratic form of administration set forth by max weber.
With ever so fast means of technology incorporating into the social field, the study of sociology from different and new dimensions, questions have been asked about the potential replacement and affectivity of the pre existing bureaucratic model of administration, as a result of this many other schools of thoughts have come to forth which aim to replace or provide the solutions that the original bureaucratic model fails to provide or the possible discrepancies that may exist in the existing working setup.
Given the number of possible loopholes, chances of exploitations in the conventional and two centuries old bureaucratic form of administration, a new mindset has come to forth in form of post bureaucratic model of administration. This model is based on the concepts of overcoming all the shortcomings that the previous model of Weber’s brain child depicts, such as the element of red tapism, the abuse of power, the generalized appointments and all other vulnerabilities that make it less effective.
This model and concept aims at bridging the gap that exists between the two domains of bureaucratic pillars- the administrators and the masses.
Counter administrative systems:
American administrative units deploy relatively different modes of operations and little display of Max Weber’s principles can be seen in practical actions. Scientific management, Woodrow Wilson’s concepts, Frederick Taylor’s ideas are more commonly found in the American background as compared to the West’s interest in the Max Weber’s model of administration.
Conclusion:
Having analyzed its strengths and weaknesses and being in practice for over two centuries, it is spread wide into the administrative units of many nations. It is effective enough yet it has its own shortcomings in terms of the exploitations and possible abuse of authority. With the introduction of modern means such as internet and other technological advancements, the given model may be revamped to make it further effective towards the public administration and resolving of the issues of masses in a more centralized and desired manner.
References:
Bozeman, B., & Feeney, M. K. (2007). Rules and Red Tape: A Prism for Public Administration Theory and Research. M.E. Sharpe.
Elowitz, L. (1996). American Government. NTC LearningWorks.Press.
Lachmann, L. M. (2007). The Legacy of Max Weber. Ludwig von Mises Institute.Press.
Ringer, F. (2010). Max Weber: An Intellectual Biography. University of Chicago Press.
Tierney, W. G. (2008). The Impact of Culture on Organizational Decision-making: Theory and Practice in Higher Education. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
