When most of us talk about "bureaucracy", we do so in negative terms. That is, we view a bureaucracy as being dysfunctional and cumbersome and characterized by excessive red tape and routine. Ironically, this notion of inefficiency and impersonality runs counter to the original concept of a bureaucratic organization. The term bureaucracy comes from the German sociologist Max Weber who used the concept to describe how industrial-age organizations should operate. Weber, who lived at the turn of 19th to 20th century, patterned his view of an ideal organization after the vaunted Prussian army of the time. He coined the term bureaucracy to describe what he saw as the epitome of organizational efficiency and effectiveness. According to Weber, four important factors made a bureaucracy the ideal way to run an organization.

1. Division of labor (i.e., doing a standardized task over and over)
2. A hierarchy of authority (i.e., a chain-of-command)
3. A framework of rules (i.e., predictable conduct through the application of strict rules of behavior)
4. Administrative impersonality (i.e., rational decision-making, not favoritism)

1. According to Weber, organizations should apply bureaucratic principles in their operations

True

False

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2. If today's organization strictly adheres to Weber's four factors of a bureaucracy, then they will be successful

True

False

Unknown

3. Bureaucracies work better in business settings than they do in government settings

True

False

Unknown