This article aims at the investigation of rationality structure found in Max Weber's Philosophy of Bureaucracy. Developed countries consider Rationality in different forms, and one of its main proofs is Bureaucratic organization. Weber puts emphasis on rational action which targets goals. In modern societies, human behaviors are not under the influence of traditions, but Rationalism governs them. Rationalism in western societies is pertaining on implements and is by formal nature which means a kind of Rationalism which applies most suitable and proper tools for reaching rational objectives. Western nations employ appropriate tools for targeting goals in an efficient manner, and that sort of rationality aims at goals in its broad sense. Without taking up a position toward vice & virtues, Weber points to rationality in his sociological analysis. However, implementing rationalism is not sufficient for fulfilling human beings and society’s prosperity. It relies on the fact that appl.
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Beginning with Max Weber, bureaucracies have been regarded as mechanisms that rationalize authority and decision-making in society. Yet subsequent theorists have questioned the rationality of bureaucracies. Which features of modern-day public bureaucracies are rational? Which are not? Buttress your argument with citations from organization and/or public administration theories.
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Weberian bureaucracy is an ideal type of rational and efficient organisation. Bureaucracy, according to Weber, is a type of organisation characterised by fixed division of labour, hierarchical supervision, impersonal decision-making, detailed rules and regulations, and formal selection of employees based on technical skills. It emphasises the organisation's precision, speed, clarity, regularity and efficiency. Weberian bureaucracy is considered a theoretical model that is seldom observed in its purest form in the practical world. Governments and large-scale private organisations used this ideal bureaucracy model throughout the 20 th century.
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Therefore, Is Bureaucracy Dead? Making a Case for Complementarity of Paradigms in Public Administrative Thinking and Discourse
Public Administration has gone through conceptual development to inject renaissance and public value creation. The literature provides a battleground of ideas between bureaucracy, new public management and post NPM with the latter ones chastising bureaucracy. The new developments should be seen as perfecting and correcting some of the extremes of bureaucracy but cannot replace it entirely. Owing to the broad nature of the public sector coupled with complex goals, agencies and mandates; this paper argues for a synergistic relationship and harmonization of the principles espoused by each paradigm; because each may be applicable in specific context, sector and periods. KEYWORDS Bureaucracy; developing countries; new public management; public administration; public value
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Comparative Social Research
It is doubtful whether Max Weber would have been appreciative of his current status as the father of organisation theory. Weber did not develop the concept of bureaucracy as part of a quest to advance a science of organisations, or in order to do a microanalysis of the internal structure of particular organisational units. The concept of bureaucracy was an ideal-typical concept developed as a point of departure for comparisons across historical periods and geographic settings. Weber’s research was motivated by macroscopic and historical questions such as ‘why did capitalism develop in the West’ and, ‘how do persons in the West and other civilizations attach meaning to their activities?’ Unlike consultants and organisation theorists that make use of him today, it was not a major concern for Weber to develop criteria for the most efficient kinds of organisations. Rather, his concern was to identify variations in administrative and bureaucratic cultures and patterns by the means of the bureaucratic ideal type. It is maintained in modern textbooks in organisation theory that there has been a development from a closed and rationalistic paradigm towards an understanding of organisations as open and natural systems, and Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy is taken as a point of departure for this kind of narrative. This classification of Weber as an example of a rational and closed approach is highly questionable. The cross-societal and historical approach used so effectively by Weber, is put on a sidetrack in such mainstream narratives. It would be more in the spirit of Weber to focus on organising as an activity, bureaucracy as an ethos and to study organisations within their particular political and cultural contexts.
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Encyclopedia of Management Theory
