Bureaucracies

Ideal type characteristics

• specialization
• hierarchy
• rules
• technical competence
• impersonality
• formal communication

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A bureaucracy is an organization rationally designed to perform complex tasks efficiently. While very formal in their organizational structure, bureaucracies do have an informal structure. For example, many people create informal channels of communication within large scale organizations. This can functional (bypasses red tape) but also dysfunctional (spreads rumors that might not be true.)

Weber identified the ideal type characteristics of bureaucracies.

The Terry Gilliam movie Brazil depicts the nightmare reality of a bureaucratic world overrun by authroitative control. You can read about the movie at: http://www.trond.com/brazil/.