首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Characteristics of a Bureaucracy People usually hold negative opinion towards bureaucracy, but according to Max Weber, bureau
Characteristics of a Bureaucracy People usually hold negative opinion towards bureaucracy, but according to Max Weber, bureau
admin
2013-06-12
45
问题
Characteristics of a Bureaucracy
People usually hold negative opinion towards bureaucracy, but according to Max Weber, bureaucracy has five characteristics, which entail both positive and negative influences on the society.
Division of Labor
Specialized experts are employed in each position to perform specific tasks.
Positive influence: becoming highly skilled and working with【1】______ 【1】______.
Negative influence:
Trained incapacity: workers become so specialized that they develop blind
spots and cannot notice【2】______ 【2】______.
Serious threat to the unemployed.
Sex discrimination due to unnecessary distinctions between men and women.
Hierarchy of Authority
Each position is under supervision of a【3】______ 【3】______.
Positive influence: bringing women advantage at lower levels of bureaucracy.
Negative influence: preventing women from being promoted to higher positions
Women are viewed more as【4】______than as innovators, not aggressive enough 【4】______.
to serve in higher management posts.
Written Rules and Regulations
All the work in a bureaucracy is carried out in accordance to specific rules and regulations.
Positive influence: Ensuring【5】______of every task. 【5】______.
Offering employees clear job performance standards.
Creating a sense of【6】______in a bureaucracy. 【6】______.
Negative influence: Leading to goal displacement, i.e. rules becoming
more important than achieving certain objective.
【7】______ 【7】______.
Duty is carried out without personal consideration of people as individuals.
Positive influence: ensuring【8】______of each person 【8】______.
Negative influence: leading to cold and uncaring feelings of modern organizations
Employment Based on Technical Qualifications
Hiring is based on technical qualifications, and performance is measured against specific standards.
Positive influence: 【9】______can be more open and fair. 【9】______.
Loyalty to the organization can be encouraged.
Negative influence: talented people being promoted continuous till they get
to positions【10】______ 【10】______.
【1】
Characteristics of a Bureaucracy
When we think of the term bureaucracy, a variety of unpleasant images come to mind. In order to develop a more useful and objective definition of bureaucracy, we must turn to the writings of Max Weber. Weber viewed bureaucracy as a form of organization quite different from the family-run business. He argued that every bureaucracy--whether its purpose is to run a day care center, or army--will have five basic characteristics. In our lecture today, we’ll take a brief look at these characteristics.
The first characteristic Weber identified is division of labor. Specialized experts are employed in each position to perform specific tasks. Thus, the president of the United States need not be a good typist. A lawyer need not be able to complete an income tax form. By working at a specific task, people are more likely to he-come highly skilled and carry out a job with maximum efficiency. This emphasis on specialization is so basic a part of our lives that we may not realize that it is a recent development in western culture.
Although division of labor has certainly been beneficial in the performance of many complex bureaucracies, in some cases it can lead to trained incapacity; that is, workers become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems. Besides, specialization is especially disastrous for the person who loses a job during layoff. The third problem is that division of labor may actually contribute to sex discrimination by creating unnecessary and inappropriate distinctions between female and male employees.
The second characteristic Weber found for bureaucracy is hierarchy of authority. Bureaucracies follow the principle of hierarchy; that is, each position is under the supervision of a higher authority. Large medical groups, for example, have boards of directors, executive committees, and administrators.
Recent research suggests that bureaucracy may be a positive environment for women at the lower but not the upper echelons of the hierarchy. It is believed that many traits traditionally associated with women are conducive to participation in a bureaucratic organization. However, women may find their career progress hindered because they function more as facilitators than as innovators, and then are not viewed as aggressive enough to serve in higher management posts. Consequently, although traditional feminine values may be functional for women in the lower levels of bureaucratic structure, they appear to become disfunctional as women aspire to greater power and prestige.
What will be the third feature, then.’? That’s written rules and regulations. Rules and regulations, as we all know, are an important characteristic of bureaucracies. Ideally, through such procedures, a bureaucracy ensures uniform performance of every task. This prohibits us from receiving an extra $ 20 at the bank, but aim guarantees us that we will receive essentially the same treatment as other customers. If the bank provides them with special services, such as monthly statements or investment advice, it will also provide us with those services.
Through written rules and regulations, bureaucracies generally offer employees clear standards as to what is considered an adequate performance. In addition, procedures provide a valuable sense of continuity in a bureaucracy. Individual workers will come and go, but the structure and past records give the organization a life of its own that outlives the services of any one bureaucrat.
Of course, rules and regulations can over-shadow the larger goals of an organization and become disfunctional. If blindly applied, they will no longer serve as a means to achieving an objective but instead will become important in their own right. This would certainly be the case if a hospital emergency room physician failed to treat a seriously injured person because he or she had no valid proof of United States citizenship. Robert Merton has used the term goal displacement to refer to overzealous conformity to official regulations.
The fourth characteristic on Weber’s list is impersonality. He wrote that in a bureaucracy, work is carried out without hatred or passion. Bureaucratic norms dictate that officials perform their duties without the person- al consideration of people as individuals. This is intended to guarantee equal treatment for each person; however, it also contributes to the often cold and uncaring feeling associated with modem organizations.
We typically think of big government and big business when we think of impersonal bureaucracies. Interestingly, during the most turbulent years of the 1960s, student activists bitterly protested the bureaucratic nature of the American university.
Employment based on technical qualifications is regarded as the last feature of bureaucracy. Within a bureaucracy, hiring is based on technical qualifications rather than on favoritism, and performance is measured against specific standards. This is designed to protect bureaucrats against arbitrary dismissal and to provide a measure of security. Promotions are dictated by written personnel policies, and people often have a right to appeal if they believe that particular roles have been violated. Such procedures encourage loyalty to the organization.
Unfortunately, personnel decisions within a bureaucracy do not always follow this ideal pattern. According to the Peter principle, talented persons receive promotion after promotion until, sadly, they finally achieve positions that they cannot handle.
Well, with that we’ll end today’s lecture. Today we talked about the five features of bureaucracy, namely division of labor, hierarchy of authority, written rules and regulations, impersonality, and qualification-based employment. Hope this discussion can trigger your exploration of the intricacy of bureaucracy. Thank you, and see you next time.
选项
答案
maximum efficiency/highest efficiency
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ut4O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
TheearliestcolonialsettlementinAustraliais______,whichwasformerlyknownasPortJackson.
Canberra,thecapitalofAustralia,gotitsnamefromtheword"Canburry",whichisanAboriginalwordmeaning______.
U.S.presidentialelectionisheld______.
Thewell-beingofasocietyisenhancedwhenmanyofitspeoplequestionauthority.Doyouagreeordisagreetothestatementab
Nowadays,foodhasbecomeeasiertoprepare.Hasthischangeimprovedthewaypeoplelive?Usespecificreasonsandexamplesto
InEnglish,"vis"bearsthemeaningof"tolookatsomething"andcanbecombinedwithaffixestoformnewwords,asinsupervis
Usually,therearetworeasonstopursuescientificknowledge:forthesakeoftheknowledgeitself,andforthepracticalu
TheScarletLetteriswrittenby
______isthelargestprovinceinCanadawithapopulationofabout5million.
不过,一个人到了四十岁后,在生活中大概都锻炼出宠辱不惊的本事,也不会在乎锦上添花、雪中送炭或落井下石了。那是因为我们已经历过生命的痛苦与挫折,也体验了许多情感的相逢与离散,慢慢地寻索出生命中积极的、快乐的、正向的理念,这种理念,正是“常想一二”。“常想一二
随机试题
作为免疫学方面的选择,移植前应做哪些检查?
中毒严重,虽经积极支持治疗但情况仍日趋恶化时,应采取以下哪项治疗措施
A.万古霉素B.克林霉素C.阿莫西林D.红霉素E.阿齐霉素与奥美拉唑-替硝唑合用的三联疗法治疗胃溃疡的药物是
蜡随着温度升高极易融化,使沥青的黏度增加,进而减小沥青的温度敏感性。()
对于个人而言,利率水平的变动会影响()。
我国发展对外贸易坚持的方针是()。
政策性金融机构是指那些由政府或政府机构发起、出资创立、参股或保证的,不以利润最大化为经营目的,在特定的业务领域内从事政策性融资活动,以贯彻和配合政府的社会经济政策或意图的金融机构。根据上述定义,下列选项不属于政策性金融机构的是()。
文风源于内心,你表面上可以做到不动声色,但作为情感的________,文字通常会将你内心的感受直接表现出来,一个人的文风并不是________的,它会随着人的年龄、心态、思想内涵及________的变化而改变。依次填入画横线处最恰当的一项是()。
YoungAdultsWhoExerciseGetHigherIQScoresYoungadultswhoarefithaveahigherIQandaremore______【51】togoontou
Whatanaughtyboyhewas.______.
最新回复
(
0
)