4 Faces of Bureaucracy in the Structure of the Government

Bureaucracy is a heated topic for many. But the talks often show variant in what it is, confusing those who have little idea about its elements. This can be disappointing. It is very necessary to know its four faces because of its importance in organization theory. Moreover, academic contents of public administration often revolve around their issues. Approach them analytically by going over the four faces of bureaucracy:

1. An Organization that has hierarchy: Hierarchy basically refers to an arrangement of departments according to their rankings. Those at the top make all the decisions which the employees of the lower departments implement without questioning. This is the elementary definition of bureaucracy which Max Weber wrote about. But technically, in order for an organization to qualify as a bureaucracy it must be huge and its heads have to be less aware about what is going on in departments below theirs. This is found in private companies. But public organizations are still different kind of bureaucracy in the sense that they do not compete in the free market.

2. The sum of all the offices of the government: Through this, bureaucracy says that no matter what, the system of the government is here to stay. The public servants will continue to serve the people. The new elected leader will not have any impact on this. So the main keyword is permanence.

3. All working in the public sector: This is the personified version of the bureaucracy. In this situation, ranks of all the public servants are dissolved. Typically, anyone who works for the government is placed here. Examples include the military, cops, public school staff and so on. However, those are elected are not considered part of the bureaucracy. In fact, for one to qualify for this position he has to be non-elected public servant.

4. The inefficient: Honor here is lost. Because bureaucracy has a tendency to slow down work it often is used as an insult to describe an organization that just does not wish to move or has a tendency to do several mistakes. Then think about how people view public servants. The most common misconception about them is that they do not exactly work. People love to joke about them. The irony is that even through bureaucracy, US has managed to remain supreme in the world. Also the public servants have stable jobs and in many cases, very good pay similar to what is paid by the private countries.