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Schools Bureaucratic Organizations


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Published: 23rd March, 2015

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16.”D” Schools tend to be bureaucratic organizations. What does this Mean? Why is Max Weber an important
name to know when

Discussing bureaucratic organizations? What are some bene ts

and some disadvantages of schools as bureaucratic organizations? Why are many of the characteristics of
Weber's ideal bureaucracy still used in school's today? In what ways is your current school a bureaucratic
organization?

Bureaucratic Organizations are characterized by numerous attributes, a few of the major points are: a
detailed hierarchy of leadership, a clear set of rules formally applied, a workforce of full-time, life time
employees, whose salaries are not a product of their performance. Typically bureaucratic organizations were
government agencies; however, political parties, churches, educational institutions, and private businesses
have become bureaucratic organizations. Max Weber wrote his doctorial dissertation on business
organizations and then later wrote. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. “In this work, Weber
argued that religion was one of the non-exclusive reasons for the di erent ways the cultures of the Occident
and the Orient have developed, and stressed importance of particular characteristics of ascetic
Protestantism which led to the development of capitalism, bureaucracy and the rational-legal state in the
West.” (Wikipedia, Max Weber) Weber is considered as one of the originators of modern sociology.

Advantages of having a bureaucracy in schools today are the hierarchy of leadership and formally applied
rules. Leadership is an important and necessary element in schools. Without consistent leadership and rules,
the school will become chaotic. “Weber speaks of 'credentialism', the preoccupation evident in modern
societies with formal educational quali cations. All these things - credentials, xed salary, tenure, stability of
sta ng, Weber incorporates into his ideal type. They are all required, he believes, for the e cient
functioning of an administrative machine.” ( Kilcullen, John, Max Weber: On Bureaucracy) However the
previous points also become some of the disadvantages of a school being a bureaucratic organization. These
points become the reason you have full-time, life-time employees being paid a sizeable salary that is not a
product of their performance; thus allowing employees to continue working, even though the employees are
no longer productive to the organization. Another disadvantage of the bureaucratic organization is the
excessive paper trail that is mandatory but keeps the educational process from happening at all or changing
to t the needs of students.
Weber's ideas on the modern bureaucrat (educator/administrator) is a permanent professional; this requires
a su cient salary and job security, otherwise people will not stay in the job. Unless they do stay in the job,
the organization will not be e cient. It takes time and experience to learn the job, not so much because it is
di cult to perform the particular task, but because it all has to be coordinated. A complex division of labor
requires constancy of sta . Due to the nature of bureaucratic work, and also perhaps because of the
signi cance of training and coordination in the job, the bureaucracy (educator/administrator) wants trained
recruits. Their education will be attested by some certi cate. Since School Systems are governed by the State,
(yet another bureaucratic organization) more certi cations, paper work and rules are stipulated. (Kilcullen,
John, Max Weber: On Bureaucracy)

My school is a bureaucratic organization in all the points discussed previously. We have all the advantages
and disadvantages. It has become such a problem, that board policies are inhibiting educational possibilities
from happening due to their 10 day notice rule. Some educational situations are spontaneous, they do not
give a ten day notice and since we cannot “bend the rules” for particular situations; these opportunities are
just passed by. Students are the only ones being hurt by these bureaucrat decisions.

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