The Bureaucratic Phenomenon

by Wesley Mitchell, Michel Crozier

Overview

In The Bureaucratic Phenomenon Michel Crozier demonstrates that bureaucratic institutions need to be understood in terms of the cultural context in which they operate. The originality of the study lies in its association of two widely different approaches: the theory of decision-making in large organizations and the cultural analysis of social patterns of action.

The book opens with a detailed examination of two forms of French public service. These studies show that professional training and distortions alone cannot ex plain the rise of routine behavior and dysfunctional "vicious circles." The role of various bureaucratic systems appears to depend on the pattern of power relation ships between groups and individuals. Crozier's findings lead him to the view that bureaucratic structures form a necessary protection against the risks inherent in collective action.

Since systems of protection are built around basic cultural traits, the author presents a French bureaucratic model based on centralization, strata isolation, and individual sparkle-one that that can be contrasted with an American, Russian, or Japanese model. He points out how the same patterns can be found in several areas of French life: education, industrial relations, politics, business, and the colonial policy. Bureaucracy, Crozier concludes, is not a modern disease resulting from organizational progress but rather a bulwark against development. The breakdown of the traditional bureaucratic system in modern France offers hope for new and fruitful forms of action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412811583
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	12/30/2009
Pages:	346
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction PART ONE THE CASE OF THE CLERICAL AGENCY I. The Over-all Organization and the Employees' Individual Adjustments to Their Tasks 2. Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships and the Problem of Routine PART TWO THE INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLY 3· The Social System at the Shop Level: The Plant Subculture and the Formal Authority System 4· The Social System at the Shop Level: The Relationships between Groups and the Adjustment Patterns of Groups 5· Power Relationships at the Management Level I PART THREE BUREAUCRACY AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM 6. Power and Uncertainty 7· The Bureaucratic System of Organization PART FOUR BUREAUCRACY AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON: THE FRENCH CASE 8. The French Bureaucratic System of Organization 9· The Importance of Bureaucratic Patterns of Action in the French Social System 10. The Bourgeois Entrepreneur and Bureaucracy 11. The Bureaucratic Phenomenon and the French Model as Part of the Over-all Development of Industrial Society