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Weber's Theory Of Bureaucratic Analysis

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Quotation

“The decisive reason for the advance of bureaucratic organization has always been its purely technical superiority over any other form of organization. The fully developed bureaucratic apparatus compares with other organizations exactly as does the machine with the non-mechanical modes of production...as compared with all collegiate, honorific, and avocational forms of administration, trained bureaucracy is superior” (Weber 93).

Concept

Weber identified the basic tenets of the bureaucracy - those being hierarchy, specialisation of labour, and standardisation of operating procedures. He argued that the bureaucratic model provides the most efficient basis of large scale organisation.

By meticulously dividing labour into specialised …show more content…

To the Protestants, hard work was a religious act, with relaxation seen as the antitheses of a virtuous life. Weber demonstrates the universality of this attitude through the example of sport, writing ‘Sport was accepted if it served a rational purpose…. insofar as it became a means of enjoyment… it was of course strictly condemned’ (86). As there was a strong tendency toward uniformity in the Puritan outlook, when this mentality was applied to work, it manifested in the standardisation of …show more content…

Identifying this capitalist spirit, a term which is somewhat subjective, was a remarkable shift away from the more deterministic doctrines of Marx and Durkheim.

This capitalist spirit of asceticism, was said to come out of the Calvinist strand of Protestantism. Calvinism was unique from Catholicism, in that it was marked by the ‘extreme inhumanity’ (125) of belief in pre-destination. As a result of this doctrine the individual was tasked with offsetting their intense anxiety about the afterlife by looking for signs of their salvation. Weber quotes the sermons of Richard Baxter, who emphasises ‘hard, continuous bodily or mental labour’ (126) as ‘every hour lost is lost to labour for the glory of God’ (126). This ethos was harnessed into the methodical pursuit of profit, and gave way to modern

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