Identify And Explain The Difference Between Weber And Foucault

Power is an invisible form and has the capacity to control or influence the behaviour of a person. The claim given states that ‘employees are not the bearers of power but they suffer the effects of power’ draws attention to the key aspect of power in the organisations. For this reason, this essay will points toward the Weber’s theory for bureaucracy and how Foucault use the Panopticon as a metaphor to define the concept of power. Despite bearing some complementary perspectives, the differences between Weber and Foucault approaches to concepts of power and domination are pronounced. Weber (1968) defined power as the ability of an individual or group to achieve goals even against the resistance of others (Lukes, 1986). In contrast, Foucault (1976)

The top management is the one who look after the entire bureaucracy. Weber suggests the bureaucracy within organisations are more rigid and authoritative, tend to be centralised, highly specialised, do not encourage empowerment, and high formalisation (Best, 2002). As a results, Weber’s conception of power connected with his interest in bureaucracy and office hierarchy (Sadan, 2004). Many organisations rely on bureaucracies to operate whether it is private or public sector such as government, hospitals, and schools. Therefore, everyone must follows the standardised procedures in order to produces similar results in the productivity and to promote the efficient attainment of the organization 's

In Weber’s conception of power, the bureaucratic domination is required within the organsations in order to pursue the organisational goals effectively. However, the discussion of bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy still taken in the consideration in the generation nowadays. There is no right or wrong between the views of Weber and Foucault because it depends on how an employers decide to adopt a suitable organisation structure to fit with their mission and vision of the organisations. For example, Yahoo and Google may refer to the Foucault’s view because it is particular on the creative idea and innovation conversely manufacturing industries may refer to the Weber’s view because it is very particular on the results of