ORGANIZATIONS...igious organizations, youth organizations, politi-cal organizations, volunteer associations, labor unions, and professional associations. Many formal organizations

4THE STRUCTURE OFFORMALORGANIZATIONS

Sociologists use a special term to designate a large,. omplex secondary group that has been estab-

. hed to achieve specific goals. Such a secondarygroup is called a formal organization. Formalorganizations include a variety of groupings suchas schools, businesses, government agencies, re-igious organizations, youth organizations, politi-

cal organizations, volunteer associations, laborunions, and professional associations.

Many formal organizations have come to bestructured in a form that is known as a bureau-cracy. A bureaucracy is a ranked authority struc-rure that operates according to specific rules andprocedures. The term comes from the Frenchword bureau, which referred to the cloth coveringthe desks of French government officials in the1 OOs.Weber believed that bureaucracies arise inindustrial societies because of an increasing ten-dency toward rationalization. Rationalizationrefers to the process by which every feature ofhuman behavior becomes subject to calculation,measurement, and control.

Today-we use the word bureaucracy to refer toany organization that has many departments or

bureaus. If you have ever applied for a driver'slicense or been admitted to a large hospital, youhave had to deal with a bureaucracy.

Weber's Model of Bureaucracies

The German sociologist Max Weber developed amodel of bureaucracies that still is widely used bysociologists today. According to Weber's model,bureaucracies have the following characteristics:

• A division of labor. The work is divided amongspecialists in various positions. Each specialistis expected to perform specific duties.

• A ranking of authority. There are clear-cut linesof responsibility, with each individual respon-sible to a supervisor at a higher level.

• Employment based on formal qualifications. Spe-cific qualifications are given for each job, andindividuals are hired on the basis of tests, ed-ucation, or previous experience.

• Rules and regulations. There are objective rules,regulations, and routine procedures that specifythe exact responsibilities and authority of eachperson on the staff.

• Specific lines of promotion and advancement. It isassumed that employees expect a career withthe organization. Thus there are clear-cut linesof promotion and advancement. Among the re-wards for remaining with the organization arejob security and seniority.

Organizational structure, specialization of roles, skilled workers, and offiCially statedrules and regulations make modern-day hospitals highly efficient bureaucracies.

Organization of One Public School System

I BOARD OF EDUCATION .~

II

Administrative Assistant I Legal Counsel ISUPERINTENDENTto the Superintendent I 1Executive DirectorCommunications Services

IExecutive Director r . .Internal Auditing ~ Supervisor Secuntyl

-

I I I

Assistant Assistant Area AssistantSuperintendent Superintendent ~ Superintendent Superintendent

Instructional Support Services (Three Areas) ManagementServices Support Services

I I I IAdministrative

Executive Director Executive Director Intern Executive Director~ Elementary I- Central Services •• Financial Services

InstructionArea

Executive Director •• Superintendent Executive Director•• Field Services (Three Areas) • Computer ServicesExecutive Director~ Secondary IInstruction

~ Executive DirectorAdministrative

Executive DirectorPersonnel Program

Intern ••• Evaluation andExecutive Director••• Student PersonnelSpecial Education

••• Executive DirectorStaff Relations Area

••• Superintendent ••• Executive DirectorExecutive Director (Two Large Areas) Planning Services

~ Special Educationand IRelated Services

AdministrativeIntern

Executive DirectorI- Library Media

Services Area•• Superintendent

H Executive Director (Three Areas)

Staff Development IAdministrative

~Executive DirectorAthletics/Activities Intern

i .

84 Unit I Culture and Social Structure

The chart on page 84 shows the bureaucraticorganization of a large school system with approx-imately 85,000 students. Notice how the job titlesrepresent specific duties.

Formal organizations have structures that fitWeber's model in varying degrees. Some organi-zations, such as certain governmental agencies; fit

. these characteristics very rigidly. Other organiza-tions, such as voluntary associations, may be muchless bureaucratic. A voluntary association is anonprofit association formed to pursue some com-mon interest. Membership in voluntary associa-tions is by choice, and many of the workers tendto be unpaid volunteers. Examples of voluntaryassociations include amateur sports teams, profes-sional associations, service clubs, and political in-terest groups.

Relationships in formal Organizations

The formal and impersonal structure of an orga-nization may have within it an informal structurebased on strong primary relationships. For exam-ple, the director of sales in a large corporationmay play golf every weekend with the director ofpurchasing. The treasurer and the director of pub-lic relations may have gone to the same collegeand may now attend religious services together.Thus there are primary relationships within thelarger impersonal structure.

The importance of primary group relationshipsin formal organizations was first discovered duringa now-classic research project at the Hawthorneplant of the Western Electric Company. The in-tended purpose of the study, conducted between1927 and 1932, was to determine how variousfactors affected worker productivity.

As part of the research, the sociologists studiedme interaction of a group of employees assignedme task of wiring complex telephone circuits.Three worker roles were involved-those ofwirer, solderer, and inspector. The wirers con-nected the proper wires together. The solderersthen soldered them. And the inspectors examinedthe completed circuits to make sure they metspecifications. The company paid all workers ac-cording to the number of circuits, or units, theycompleted. Management assumed that eachworker would try to complete as many units aspossible in order to make more money.

In reality, however, this was not the case. Aninformal structure developed among the workers.Together they decided what the norms would befor a day's production. Those who produced morewere called rate busters. Those who produced lesswere called chiselers. Workers who gave any in-formation to a supervisor were called squealers .Through a system of negative sanctions, thosewho did not conform to the norms of the groupwere brought back into line. This informal struc-ture operated independently of the formal struc-ture of the organization and was far more impor-tant to the individual workers.

How Effective Are Bureaucracies?

Max Weber stated that the greatest advantage ofbureaucracies is that they get things done withspeed and efficiency. It has been suggested thatbureaucracies are the best way to coordinate largenumbers of people to achieve large-scale goals.Production volumes made possible by bureaucra-cies have offered us an untold amount of materialgoods at reasonable prices. It also has been sug-gested that bureaucracies create order by clearlydefining job tasks and rewards. They also providestability, since individuals come and go but theorganization continues.

There are, however, some arguments againstbureaucracies. One argument states that the pur-pose of bureaucracies becomes self-continuation,and the goals of individuals may be lost. Somegovernment agencies, for example, continue toexist with very little change, regardless of the par-ticular problems seen by their employees.

Another argument against bureaucracies is thatindividuals tend to develop bureaucratic person-alities. The job becomes a ritual, and creativity isstifled. Rules often take the place of commonsense. In his book, The Peter Principle, LaurenceJ. Peter states that in a bureaucracy employeesoften are promoted beyond their level of com-petence. Employees who were good at lower-leveljobs sometimes are pushed up the bureaucraticladder into positions for which they may havelittle ability.

A.. third complaint about bureaucracies is the"red tape" often involved in dealing with them.Individuals who work for a bureaucracy all playa

Text continues on page 88.

Chapter 4 Social Structure 85

II APPLYING SOCIOLOGY

Why Things Seem to Go WrongHave you ever bought a new product or appli-ance only to have it break after you used it afew times? Have you ever been told to stand inthe wrong line by a person who you thoughtunderstood your problem? Then, after an hour orso, did you find yourself once again waiting in aseemingly endless line to correct a situation thatarose in the first place because of someone else'smistake?

Professor Laurence J. Peter describes incidentslike these in his book The Peter Principle. Towhat does he attribute such occurrences? Quitesimply, he notes:

['n a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to hislevel of incompetence.

In other words, in all organizations in whichmembers are arranged in order of rank, grade, orclass, people are promoted into jobs that they arenot truly qualified to perform.

Following are two examples of the Peter Prin-ciple at work.

CASE A: J.S. Minion

J.S. Minion was a maintenance supervisor in thepublic works department of Excelsior City. He wasa favorite of the senior officials at City Hall. Theyall praised his constant friendliness.

"I like Minion," said the superintendent ofworks. "He has good judgment and is alwayspleasant and agreeable."

This behavior was appropriate for Minion's po-sition. As supervisor, he was not supposed to makepolicy, so he had no need to disagree with hissupervisors.

When the superintendent of works retired, Min-ion succeeded him. Minion continued to agreewith everyone. He passed to his supervisor everysuggestion that came from above. The resultingconflicts in policy, and the continual changing of

86 Unit I Culture and Social Structure

plans, soon demoralized the department. Com-plaints poured in from the Mayor and other offi-cials, from taxpayers, and from the maintenance-workers' union. Minion still says "Yes" to every-one, and carries messages briskly back and forthbetween his superiors and his subordinates.Though his title is superintendent, he actually doesthe work of a messenger. The maintenance de-partment regularly goes above its budget, yet failsto fulfill its program of work. In short, Minion, acompetent supervisor, became an incompetent su-perintendent of works.

CASE B: E. Tinker

E. Tinker was exceptionally hard-working and in-telligent as an apprentice at G. Reece Auto RepairInc. He soon rose to mechanic. In this job heshowed outstanding ability in diagnOSing obscurefaults, and endless patience in correcting them. Hewas promoted to head of the repair shop.

But there his love of things mechanical and hisperfectionism work against him. He accepts anyrepair job that looks interesting, no matter howbusy the shop may be. "We'll work it in some-how," he says.

He will not let a job go until he is fully satisfiedwith it.

He meddles constantly. He is seldom at his desk.He is usually up to his elbows in a dismantledmotor. Meanwhile the mechanic who should bedoing the repair stands watching, and other work-ers sit around waiting to be assigned new tasks.As a result, the shop is always overcrowded withwork.

Tinker cannot understand that most of his cus-tomers care little about perfection-they wanttheir cars back on time! Tinker cannot understandthat most of his workers are less interested inmotors than in their paychecks. So Tinker cannotget along with his customers or with his subor-dinates. He was a competent mechanic, but is nowan incompetent supervisor.

After analyzing hundreds of cases of occupa-tional incompetence, Peter formulated his now-famous principle. He also noted that if there areenough ranks in the bureaucracy:

In time, every post tends to be occupied by anemployee who is incompetent to carry out its du-ties.

If this is the case, how, then, does any work getaccomplished? If all of the employees in a bu-reaucratic organization eventually reach theirlevel of incompetence, why does the structurenot collapse? Peter answers that in most systemsthere are always some employees who have notyet been promoted beyond their capabilities. As aresult:

[Work is accomplished by those employees who

have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

Applying what you have learned in this article,answer the following questions:

1. Based on your experiences with different orga-nizations, do you agree that in a bureaucracyevery employee tends to rise to his or her levelof incompetence? Why or why not?

2. Suppose you were working for a company for10 years. You find out that a co-worker whohas been with the company only 5 years hasjust been promoted. How would you feel?What role do you think seniority should playin promotion decisions? What role should abil-ity play?

Chapter 4 Social Structure 87

Assume that a civil servant is overworked. Theperson can solve the problem in one of threeways: (1) The person can resign. (2) The personcan cut the work in half by sharing it with a newcolleague. (3) The person can demand the assis-tance of two subordinates. Parkinson's Law saysthat the individual will always choose the thirdalternative. The first alternative is unacceptablebecause resigning will mean losing pension, med-ical, and other benefits. The second alternative isunacceptable because people who gain a new col-league then have a rival for promotion. If, how-ever, people have two subordinates, then their joblooks more important because they have controlover two individuals. There must be two subor-dinates so that each is kept in line by fear of theother person's promotion.

Eventually one of the subordinates will com-plain about being overworked. Then that subor-dinate will need two subordinates. Naturally, ifone subordinate gets two subordinates, the othersubordinate must have two subordinates. Our civilservant soon has six subordinates. This shouldensure a promotion. But now our civil servant ismore overworked than ever before, because allsix of the subordinates are sending work to beapproved. The civil servant has to work overtimeto get all the work done but concludes that latehours are a penalty of success.

Although sociologists consider bureaucracies to be the most efficient type of organi-zational structure for modern industrial societies, individuals often find them frustrat-ing. Bureaucratic red tape can lead to long lines and time consuming delays.

limited role in the operation of the overall struc-ture. As a result, the knowledge or power of theworkers very often is limited as well. This some-times causes us to become entangled in red tape,or bureaucratic delay. Consequently, we spend alot of time filling out forms, standing in seeminglyendless lines, or being shuffled from one depart-ment to another before we accomplish our goals.Many of us know all too well how frustrating itcan be to deal with a government agency or alarge corporation.

A fourth criticism of bureaucracies involvestheir tendency to result in oligarchies. In an oli-garchy, power is concentrated in the hands of afew people. When applied to bureaucracies, theconcept refers to the tendency for power to be-come concentrated in the hands of a few peopleat the top of the bureaucracy. These people thenuse their power to promote their own interestsover the interests of the organization. SociologistRobert Michels called this tendency of organiza-tions to become increasingly dominated by smallgroups of people the iron law of oligarchy.

Another interesting criticism of bureaucracieshas become known as Parkinson's Law. This lawstates that "work expands to fill the time availablefor its completion." The following is an exampleof how Parkinson's Law works in a bureaucraticstructure.

88 Unit 1 Culture and Social Structure

SECTION 4 REVIEW

DEFINE formal organization, rationaliza-tion, voluntary association, iron law of oli-garchy

1. lftulerstlltuling Idem (a) What is a bu-reaucracy? (6) Describe Max Weber'smodel of bureaucracies.

2. Sum1lUlrizing Idem Describe the re-search that first established the impor-tance of primary group relationships informal organizations.

3. Organizing Idem Describe the fivecriticisms of bureaucracies discussed inthis section.

II 0

CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY

Social structure is the network of interrelated sta-es and roles that guides human interaction.cial structure can be examined on the level ofoups or on the societal level. When social struc-e is examined on the societal level, the empha-

- often is on social institutions.A status is a socially defined position in a groupin a society. Statuses can be either ascribed orieved. The status that plays the greatest roleshaping a person's life and determining his orsocial identity is called a master status.

Each status has attached to it one or more roles.role is the behavior-the rights and obliga-ns-expected of someone occupying a partie-

status. All roles have reciprocal roles. Theially determined behaviors expected of a per-

n performing a role are called role expectations.single status has many roles attached to it. So-Iogists call these roles a role set. Contradictoryectations within and between role sets can leadrole conflict and role strain.Human interaction takes place in groups. Thest common types of groups are primary groups,

secondary groups, reference groups, ingroups,outgroups, and social networks.

Societies also come in a variety of forms. Soci-ologists recognize three broad categories of soci-eties: preindustrial, industrial, and postindustrial.Preindustrial societies can be further divided intohunting and gathering, pastoral, horticultural, andagricultural societies.

Social interaction can take many forms. The fivemost common forms of social interaction are ex-change, competition, conflict, cooperation, and ac-commodation. Accommodation can be reached bymeans of a compromise, a truce, mediation, orarbitration.

Large, complex secondary groups that havebeen established to achieve specific goals arecalled formal organizations. Formal organizationsdiffer in their degree of bureaucratic structure. Abureaucracy is a ranked authority structure thatoperates according to specific rules and proce-dures. The German sociologist Max Weber de-veloped a model to help study the structure andfunction of bureaucracies.

Chapter 4 Social Structure 89