classical bureaucratic properties (hierarchy of authority, division of labor, impersonality,

objective standards, technical competence, rules and regulations) described by Max

Weber (1947) in his seminal analysis of organizations. In practice, the word bureaucracy

takes on many connotations, most of them negative. But Weber claims that, “Experience

tends to universally show that the purely bureaucratic type of administrative organization

. . . is, from a purely technical point of view, capable of attaining the highest degree of

efficiency.” Yet, contemporary criticisms of bureaucracy are rampant. For example, Scott

(1998) describes four bureaucratic pathologies—alienation, overconformity,

unresponsiveness, and relentlessness—each of which is pervasive and has negative

consequences for participants. Feminists attack bureaucracy and argue that it is

fundamentally a male invention that rewards masculine virtues and values such as

competition, power, and hierarchy (Ferguson, 1984; Martin and Knopoff, 1999). And

school executives criticize state bureaucracies for impeding local cont

public schools of Ohio. All items were 5-point Likert items on which teachers were asked

(formal rules and procedures) and centralization (hierarchy of authority). We turn to an

We turn next to a typology of organizations based upon the two fundamental

Some topics in this essay:
Blazovsky Newland, Adler Borys, Procedures Two-way, Factor Analysis, Item Generation, Types Bureaucracy, Centralization Centralization, Aiken Hage’s, Max Weber, Hoy Miskel, enabling centralization, rules procedures, enabling bureaucracy, enabling formalization, hierarchy authority, administrative rules school, rules school, administrative rules, coercive formalization, formalization centralization, enabling coercive, adler borys 1996, formalization enabling centralization, administrative hierarchy school, aiken hage 1968,