Bureaucracy, comes from Bureau = Bureau and Kratos = Government. It is the government of the desks, that is to say of the papers. The bureaucrats are the ones who carry the paperwork and with them control and govern those who work.
The university is an educational institution in which the student community is the most important source for generating jobs and earning income.
The institutions that approve the projects, the research of the academics are of great importance to the institution. The government, agencies and institutions combine an important role so that the student community, academic and administrative body come together for the good performance and significance of the institution, on which depends the accreditations of the same, approach and create other careers to spread the education to the student community.
The bureaucracy in the university is ideal, due to its legal denomination structure that is exercised through educational and administrative statutes and regulations, in this area it is also characterized as excessive influence, you can imagine that it is not good, since in many times the excessive influence could be erroneous, it depends on the approach that is given, if this is for the mission and for the good of the educational community, teachers and administrators, the planned objectives will be obtained, the educational demand will grow more and more and the educational quality will be recognized by other institutions.
Bureaucracy is a controversial subject, due to the way it is applied, but we cannot explain what its function and its multiple aspects are without knowing its definition.
Examples of everyday bureaucracies include those of hospitals, courts, churches, schools and both public and private companies, that is, bureaucracy is not only limited to an economic aspect, from an economic point of view of the company, in our case we have to focus on the educational aspect based on the Max Weber model.
Ideal Model of Bureaucracy by Max Weber
Max Weber (1864-1920) was a German economist and sociologist, who through his study of civilizations developed the modern concept of Bureaucracy by refuting, criticizing, and expanding Marx's views.
Weber attempted to prove that capitalism was strongly influenced by ethical and religious values and that, therefore, economic relations could not explain only the relations of force in capitalism, as Marx had argued.
Weber defined bureaucracy as the most efficient form of organization taking into account the complexity of the state apparatuses, of the governmental dependencies and thinking about the needs of changing and dynamic societies.
The bureaucracy in the university is ideal, due to its legal denomination structure that is exercised through statutes and educational and administrative regulations.
Max Weber identified the following basic basic rules for bureaucratic development:
The positions constitute the main nucleus for the student, teaching and administrative community, promotions and appointments must be according to their academic and professional preparation, demonstrating their productive quality according to their qualities, and will be remunerated according to their activities.
Democratic action and transparency are then the elements that can sustain the model at the present time, since the choice decision of those who comprise it may depend on the operation of the bureaucratic apparatuses in the institution.
A bureaucracy are levels of management that require many approvals to make any decision. A second characteristic of bureaucracy is the difficulty in firing employees. Bureaucracy is in control of everything that happens. And to do something you have to go through various procedures asking for permission to do it. Bureaucracy makes everything difficult and expensive and ultimately ends up doing nothing.
The statutes and regulations are legal. Everything that is done in the administration is backed by a written regulation of greater or lesser rank. No official may act arbitrarily.
Communications and formal agreements are regulated, respected and recognized according to the signatures and stamps necessary to be valid.
Rationality in the division of labor. It will be carried out applying scientific management ideas for greater legal certainty. Impersonality in work relationships. There may be no religious or partisan influence on the bureaucracy.
There is a well-established hierarchy of command authority, limited but efficient the access of a chief in the administration will also be arranged by rules and procedures.
1. Features
- Carefully defined positions or positions Well-defined hierarchies of authority and responsibility Adequate personnel for technical and professional functions Statutes and regulations governing official acts Security in the position or positions and the possibility of promotion
The bureaucracy arises from the need for: precision, speed, clarity, knowledge of the archives, continuity, discretion, unity, strict subordination, reduction of friction and of material and personal costs.
Bureaucracy, for Max Weber, is the efficient organization par excellence, the organization called to solve rationally and efficiently the problems of society and, by extension, of companies. The bureaucratic organization is scientifically designed to function accurately, precisely to achieve the ends for which it was created, no more, no less.
The term bureaucracy will have three connotations:
- Bureaucracy in the sense of vulgata: its ordinary, popular and parochial meaning. Bureaucracy as a dominant social class embedded in the State. Bureaucracy as a model of organization, in the Weberian sense of the term.
According to Weber, a bureaucratic system is regulated by the following principles:
- The performance of official functions is permanent and constant (in the sense that officials do not change tasks arbitrarily and that there will always be someone who performs a certain function). Such functions are strictly executed according to the following rules:
- The tasks of each official are delineated according to impersonal criteria. The official has the authority to carry out his tasks. The means of coercion available to that official are strictly limited and the conditions of their use clearly defined.
Additionally, there are the following considerations regarding officials:
- Each official is hired, appointed or elected on the basis of his conduct. Each official exercises the authority that has been delegated to him according to general and impersonal rules. Their loyalty is to the proper performance of their functions. The recruitment, election and / or position of each official depends on their relevant or technical qualifications. The official's work is exclusive. The officer may have no other job or responsibility than the performance of her duties. The officer is compensated or rewarded with a regular salary and the possibility of career advancement, progress that depends primarily on her effort and dedication to the performance of her duties.
2. Applications
The official must exercise his judgment and ability in the service of the one who was appointed according to the statutes and regulations, in is responsible for the impartial performance of his functions as established by law or relevant regulations and must sacrifice his personal opinions. -or resign his office, if that duty becomes contrary.
Applications of the Weberian model in modern business.
- The specialization of tasks in the work process. The idea of standardizing the performance of functions. Centralization in decision-making, when this is appropriate for the purposes of the institution. Or otherwise, decentralize it. The uniformity of institutionalized practices that come to typify the modern notion of corporate image. No duplication of functions or leadership. The professionalization of the administrative function for the good of the institution. Function of the merits and talents of the people. In the institution, high levels of standardization must be achieved, to ensure that what is done is done, and what has to be done.
3. Principles
The figure and work of Max Weber has marked, as perhaps those of no other author, the way of posing problems in the Social Sciences and, above all, in theories of organization.
His construction of a Social Science, and the basic categories he employs in it, are based on ideas from Historism and neo-Kantian ideas, especially on Heinrich Rickert's formulation.
Historism is considered by many to be an anti-enlightenment movement that emerged in Romanticism. Reason has, in its concrete manifestations, a genesis historically conditioned by the culture of each people. This gives rise to a concept of anti-enlightened, romantic historism.
Weber was the son of Historism. Although his basic work is aimed at creating a Sociology that understands, for him, sociology was merely a slave to History. An instrument that could help you reform the methodology of established history.
Rickert in his basic thesis consists of transforming the historical relativity of all knowledge into a kind of fundamental a priori condition, which is formulated as the logic of the value constitution of all conceptualization. For Weber, this non-naturalistic methodology that allows understanding the formation of scientific cultural objects will be one of the starting points of his thinking.
4. Criticism
Max Weber himself perceived that there really cannot be an ideal type of organization. Therefore, the real bureaucracy will be less optimal and effective than its ideal model. According to Weber, it can degenerate in the following ways:
- The vertical hierarchy of authority may not be explicit or delineated enough, causing confusion and conflicts of jurisdiction. Competences may be unclear and used contrary to the spirit of the rules; Sometimes the procedure itself can be considered more important than the decision or, in general, its effects. Neglect, corruption, political confrontations and other degenerations can counteract the rule of impersonality, being able to create a recruitment and promotion system not based on merit.. Officials can avoid responsibilities. The distribution of functions can be ineffective, producing excessive regulatory activity, duplication of efforts and, in general, inefficiency.
Even a non-degenerate bureaucracy can be affected by certain problems:
- On specialization: Rigidity and inertia in processes, making decisions slowly or being impossible to apply when unusual cases arise, and also delaying changes, evolution and adaptation of old processes to new circumstances; Assumption that the system is always perfect and correct for definition, causing your organization to be less prone to change and self-criticism; Little esteem for dissenting opinions; Creation of more and more rules and processes, increasing their complexity and decreasing their coordination, facilitating the creation of contradictory rules.
In extreme examples the bureaucracy can direct the treatment of human beings as impersonal objects. This process has been criticized by numerous philosophers and writers (Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Hannah Arendt) and satirized in the Dilbert comic. Mafalda, a cartoon character created by Quino, named his turtle Bureaucracy.
In the Marxist Leon Trotsky's conception, the regime of the former USSR after Stalin's triumph corresponded to the political domain of a privileged caste, the bureaucracy.
By the beginning of the third millennium decade, it is argued that the grandchildren of the young generation will no longer know a bureaucratic system, replaced or eliminated by computer technologies and the purpose of streamlining human processes.
conclusion
The model of Max Weber's bureaucracy is certainly controversial, especially if it is analyzed in light of the new conditions that mark the sign of business times: open and globalized markets.
Therefore, it is possible to extract the following teachings:
- That organizations are not closed but open systems. That the institution moves in highly dynamic environments. The role of the institution is to measure, evaluate and foresee risks and uncertainties. That the institution must foresee changes, adapt to them and, still improve, for the future. The purpose of the institution is created by its mission, and that the mission and designed based on the needs of the student community, which is who finally "leads" to the institution. That the most important factor in the institution is not work, but who do it: people. The bureaucratic model has certain structural characteristics and norms that are used in the institution. Bureaucracy is the most efficient form that they could use effectively in the institution arising from the needs of modern society.The bureaucratic form is the most efficient instrument in administration.
Bibliography
- Max Weber, “Economy and Society”, Fund for Economic Culture Max Weber, “What is Bureaucracy”, 20th centurywww.cema.edu.arwww.geocities.com.
