Max Weber

Karl Emil Maximilian Weber (Max Weber) was born in Erfurt, Germany on April 21, 1864. Max Weber was one of the greatest sociologists of the twentieth century, a founding "father" of modern sociology; he was also a historian and a philosopher (Asiado, 2008). Weber deeply influenced social theory, social research and the study of society itself. His wide ranging contributions gave incentive to the birth of new disciplines such as economic sociology and public administration as well as a significant change of direction in economics, political science, and religion. Weber’s most inspiring work was focused on the study of religion, bureaucracy, and rationalization (Asiado, 2008). He was assigned as professor of political economy at the University of Freiburg in 1894 and at Heidelberg University in 1897. He suffered from a mental breakdown in 1898 after his father died and did not continue his academic works until 1904 (Asiado, 2008). In 1907, Weber received a family inheritance which enabled him to continue his work as a private scholar. Max Weber died of pneumonia on June 14, 1920 (Smith, 2001). He is well noted for his study of organisation theory and development of capitalism.They provide the starting point of nearly all sociological studies in these areas..His book is titled ''The theory of social and Economics organisations.

Fayol and taylor were  struggling with the problem of management, but Max weber was developing a theory of authority structures whereby he identified a for of organization to which he gave the name bureaucracy.
 What then is Bureaucracy? Bureaucracy is red tapism, an excess of paper work and stringent rules leading to gross inefficiencies. It is an organizational form with certain dominant characters such as hierarchy of authority and a system of rules.

Max Weber was mainly interested in the reasons behind the employees’ actions and in why people who work in an organization accept the authority of their superiors and obey the laws of the organization. Since authority and power can be used interchangeably, Weber was able to uniquely define these two terms. According to Weber, power forces individuals to comply with the rules and regulations in place and therefore power influences people to act or do something they would not have done (Cutajar, 2010). As opposed to power, Weber defined legitimate authority involved the individual’s consent that authority is practiced upon them by their superiors. As a sociologist, max weber was more interested in the organization and its authority structure.In the analysis of his structure, max weber identified 3 basic types of legitimate authority which were:
1) Traditional authority 2) Charismatic 3) rational-legal authority. In his study, the legitimate authority  discussed was substantially different from power, which is derived by the usage of force, but authority implies that the rules are accepted by those whom it is to be excercised.

1) Traditional Authority: in this scenario, acceptance of those in authority arises from tradition and customs, for example monarchies.

2) Charismatic authority: Acceptance rises from loyalty to and confidence in the personal qualities of the ruler.

3) Rational-legal authority: Acceptance arises out of the office or position of the person in authority as bounded by the rules and procedures of the organization.



Bureaucracy

Max weber noted six major principles of a bureaucratic form, which are:

1) Organization by functional specialty : Specified spheres of competence, specialization of work, the degree of work allocated and the rules governing the exercise of authority.

2) Purposely impersonal: Official positions exist in their own right, and job holders have no right to a particular position.


3) Management by rules: Rules decisions and actions are formulated and recorded in writing.

4) A formal hierarchical structure: A hierarchial arrangement of offices where one level of job or office is subject to control by the next higher level.

5) Employment based on technical qualifications: Appointment of officers are made on ground of technical competence .

6) An "up-focused" or "in-focused" mission : A continous organization of functions bound by rules



The above listed characteristics of bureaucracy gives a sense of a legitimate authority, because the authority of officials are subject to the rules and regulations guiding the organization. It was believed that max weber was of the idea that due to this, bureaucratic organizations were capable of achieving a high degree of efficiency.

The two most significant factors in the growth of bureaucratic form of organizations is size and complexity, because as organizations begin to grow, the the amount of specialization increases, which usually leads to an increase in job levels.