Weber's Characteristics of Bureaucratic Organizations

Impersonality

Bureaucracy puts rules ahead of personal which so that both clients and workers are treated in the same way. From this personal approach comes with image of the "faceless bureaucrat."

Technical Competence

Bureaucratic officials have the technical competence to carry our their duties. Bureaucracies typically hire new members according to set standards and then monitor their performance. Such impersonal evaluation contrasts with the ancient custom of favoring relatives, whatever their talents, over strangers.

Rules and Regulations

Cultural tradition counts for little in a bureaucracy. Instead, rationally enacted rules and regulations guide a bureaucracy's operation. Ideally, a bureaucracy operates in a completely predictable way.

Hierarchy of Positions

Bureaucracies arrange workers in a vertical ranking. Each person is supervised by someone "higher up" in the organization while in turn supervising others in lower positions. Usually, with few people at the top and many at the bottom, bureaucratic organizations take the form of a pyramid.

Formal, Written Communications

It is said that the heart of bureaucracy is not people but paperwork. Instead of the casual, face-to-face talk that characterizes interaction within small groups, bureaucracy relies on formal, written memos and reports, which accumulate in vast files.

Specialization

Our ancestors spent most of their time performing the general task of looking for food and shelter. Bureaucracy, by contrast, assigns people highly specialized jobs.