Bureaucracy; Ch. 3; page 77
Bureaucracy can definitely be found where I work. We have fixed divisions of labor (I am a manager with fair seniority of 6 years).
The division of labor or the authority pipeline if you will is as follows:
1. C-level Officers
2. General Manager
3. Assistant-General Manager
4. Manager on Duty (me)
5. Skating Instructors
6. Cashiers
7. Skate Counter Employees.
We have a set of rules that every employee must follow and they can be found in our written employee handbook.
We hire based on previous experience and required qualifications (ability to ice skate).
Everyone is not treated equally due to their different roles (i.e. - management delegate taks for lower positioned employees; lower employees do not tell managers what to do).
C-level officers have always had this bureaucratic business model since the company first opened.
last day to blog
15 years ago
It is interesting to see the bureaucratic divisions in each field of work. As a PR professional, my company is also divided into various levels, Account Coordinators, Account Executives, Senior Account Executives and Account Supervisors. We each have our own tasks that we must complete each day for our particular client accounts. However, that is where the structure stops, because in addition to those tasks, we each have other opportunities to let our skills shine - regardless of job level - whether we are a writer, or a social media genius. I think the necessary level of bureaucracy depends on the field in question.
ReplyDeleteI also found your breakdown of bereaucratic divisions to be very interesting for your organizations. You mentioned in your original blog post that "everyone is not treated equally due to their different roles". My question was that is everyone within the same role treated the same or is their favoritism when it comes to moving up the rankings? Does communication competence have anything to do with that? You also mentioned that this bureaucratic model has been in place since the company first opened. Do you see this changing anytime soon?
ReplyDeleteSorry for all of the questions. I really thought your breakdown of roles was very interesting and made me realize that these levels are not only there in your organization, but in companies everywhere. I think without some structure, it would simply result in chaotic communications, especially in larger companies.
Like your work, my work also can act as a Bureaucracy. I work at a restaurant and have worked at other restaurants as well and they all seem to follow this system with fixed divisions of labor as follows at each store:
ReplyDeleteGeneral Manager
Manager
Manger's Assistant
Bartender
Server
To Go Server
Host
Cook
Busser
I definitely feel as though some have seniority over others, like myself, because I have worked for the company for almost five years now. I have a set schedule which usually isn't standard and I have priority of day's off. Though all employees are to follow the same rules, I feel sometimes favoritism is shown. Through my experience every restaurant I have worked at has followed this same model.
Seeing as you have seniority, how soon do you think you will get a promotion? I feel that in many cases with bureaucracy that some people can only move up so high within their company. I worked for years and clearly had seniority, but was held back from receiving a promotion because my boss thought I was good at my job and could hire someone else to do the manager job.
ReplyDeleteI do think bureaucracy is necessary in the work force, but at times an employee can just get screwed by never receiving a promotion.