GS 336: Work and Society

Lecture 15
 3: CLASSICAL APPROACHES TO WORK

Objectives/Outine:
 Max Weber: Profile
 Weber’s views on:
• Social Class and Stratification
• Social Status
• Party (Power)

 Max Weber’s Idea of Rationalization

 Weber’s Model of Bureaucracy
 Max Weber (1864-1920)
Born in 1864 (Thuringia, Germany);
Studied law, medieval history, economics and
philosophy;
Became lawyer and started teaching in the
University of Berlin;
In 1893, taught economics at University of
Freiburg and then moved to chair of
economics at Heidelberg;
Strongly influenced by Marx’s ideas of
socialism and active politics. However, he
differed with him on the idea of utopian
society (Communism).
 Weber on Class and Stratification

Likewise Marx, Weber also considered property

ownership being the ‘basic category’ of class
position and class stratification.
Weber views that class, status and party (power)
were not exclusive groups but contingently
correlated.
To Weber, the complex and multidimensional nature
of social stratification determines the creation of
class consciousness.
 Weber on Class and Stratification
Weber’s classification of classes:
• Property classes
• Commercial or acquisition classes, and
• Social classes

 Weber’s definition of social class: “When a number of

individuals have a significant component of their life
chances determined by their power within their
economic order.” This specifies that:
• Classes are entirely economic
• Classes are closely related to market situations
 Weber on Class and Stratification

 Since Weber relates class to market situation, anyone

without access to the market is restricted to a status
group not a class.

For Example:
• Slaves

• Individuals with unpaid domestic duties, and

• Long-term unemployment
 Weber on Class and Stratification

For Weber, classes stem from occupations: There are as

many classes as there are different occupations.

For Example:

• Working class of labor sellers

• The lower middle class of small shopkeepers
• The intelligentsia with little property but technical
qualification, and
• The privileged class who owe their superordinate position
to property ownership or education or both.
 Weber on Social Status
 Status: The distribution of social honor or social esteem.

Co-related highly with class

Determined by life style, formal education,
Occupational prestige or hereditary

• Ascribed Status: Pre-birth attached status.

For example: caste, ethnicity, race, family membership,
nationality, etc.

• Achieved Status: Statuses that can be achieved.

For example: Class structure, occupational structure, and other
privileged position achieved on the basis of talent and
qualification such as bureaucrats, military officers, etc.
 Weber on Social Status
 According to Weber, class provides the material
grounds for the provision of status symbol.

 However, in some situations status is more influential,

and independent of class.

For example:
Membership of an ethnic minority or gender group is
more influential for the determination of life chances
than class positions.

9
 Weber on Party (Power)

 Classes fight over economic issues/interests.

 Status groups contests the distribution of social honor.
 Parties are oriented towards the acquisition of social
power - it operates at all levels and cross all
boundaries of class and status---power is situational
 Parties attempt to reconstruct the status quo
(the existing state of affairs), while class and status
groups generally reflect the status quo.
 Weber’s Idea of Rationalization
An increasing, long-range tendency in all areas of
life to replace the magical, the subjective and the
sentimental explanations of (social) phenomena
with the logical, the objective and the scientific.
 Weber’s Idea of Rationalization
 Mysteries and mythical (magical) assumptions are
disappearing as science progresses.
 Traditional actions have been replaced with
rational actions.
• People no longer undertake activities on
emotional reasons.
• People are more calculative: Do things when the
benefits are higher than the cost.
• People assess the actions as the most efficient
ways of achieving the goals.
 Weber’s Idea of Rationalization
 Human actions are guided by rational rules and laws.
 The rules are built upon rational principles and
common sense.
 The foremost physical manifestation of this rationality
takes three forms:
 Capitalism
 Jurisprudence (legal structure—rules and
regulations), and
 Bureaucracy
 Weber’s Idea of Rationalization

 To Weber, contemporary (capitalistic) society is

increasingly grounded in rationality (--logical
thinking, cause and effect relation).

 Capitalism requires laws, rules and regulations

(not power elites holding the society back).

 This legal structure limits people’s freedoms and

traps them in bureaucratic society.
 Weber’s Model of Bureaucracy
Main idea: Work is done bureaucratically
Bureaucracy is:
 the exercise of control through the basis of
knowledge.
 seen as the means of translating social action
into rationally organized action.
 is the structure and set of regulations in place to
control activity, usually in large organizations
and government.
Bureaucratization is a development of modern society
 Structure of Weber’s Model of
Bureaucracy
 Hierarchy
 Division of Labor
 Consistency
 Qualification
 Professional–Private Separation
 Devotion to Purpose
 Advancement / Seniority
 Bureaucracy Authority and its flow
subordination
“Such a system offers
Highest Office
the governed the
possibility of appealing
the decision of a lower
High Office High Office
office to its higher
authority” (p. 50).
Low Office Low Office Low Office

Lowest Office Lowest Office Lowest Office Lowest Office

Organization follows hierarchical principle -- subordinates follow orders of

superiors, but have right of appeal (in contrast to more diffuse structure in
traditional authority).
Division of Labor Specialization
*Separation of
Executive roles and duties
* “’higher’ authority
[is not] authorized
to take over the
Policy &
Operations business of the
Planning
‘lower’”
(p. 50).
Strategic Policy Regional
Planning Development Management

Special Legislative
Office Staffing
Projects Relations Maintenance

Jurisdictional areas are clearly specified, activities are distributed as

official duties (unlike traditional form where duties delegated by leader
and changed at any time).
 Consistency
Rules regulate all matters
“abstractly.” i.e. no one
is special
Not Special

Not Special Not Special

Not Special Not Special Not Special

Not Special Not Special Not Special Not Special

Intential, abstract rules govern decisions and actions. Rules are stable,
exhaustive, and can be learned. Decisions are recorded in permanent
files (in traditional forms few explicit rules or written records).
 Qualification
Training and qualification is
the number one requisite.
PhD * How to manage
* How to carry out duties
* Knowledge of the rules
Master’s Master’s

Bachelor’s Bachelor’s Bachelor’s

Associate’s Associate’s Associate’s Associate’s

Employment is based on technical qualifications; assign work and hire

personnel based on competence and experience.
Persons are appointed not elected, and compensated by salary.
Separation of Professional and Private
Orders filtering The bureau is
of web surfing separate from the
“private domicile of
Always makes Loves work as a the official” (p. 51).
personal calls on break from the
personal cell phone family

I certainly DID NOT Loves being Wouldn’t even

use my office’s
copier to print these able to leave THINK of
notes for you work at home stealing pens

Never uses Glad s/he doesn’t Wouldn’t even

Treats company car
THINK of stealing
photocopier for have to live in this much better than
rubber cleaning
own tax forms cubicle personal POS
gloves

• Means of production or administration belong to office. Personal

property separated from office property.
• Professionalism and Honesty.
Devotion to Purpose and Duty
* Devotion is to your work
and role, not to person
Devoted to above you.
Bureau
Management
*“[official] is not
considered the
Devoted to Devoted to
personal servant of a
Division Division ruler” (p. 52).
Management Management

Devoted to Devoted to Devoted to

Planning Policy Region

Devoted to Devoted to Devoted to Devoted to

Project Schmoozing Office Toilets
Advancement and Seniority

Promoted here
6 months ago
(and don’t know what the
Hell I’m doing)

Promoted
here 7 years
ago

Promoted
here 17 years
ago

Started here
25 years ago

Employement by the organization is a career. The official is a full-time

employee and looks forward to a life-long career. After a trial period they get
tenure of position and are protected from arbitrary dismissal.
Consequences of Institutional Bureaucracy

1. Objectivity—a relatively value-free (purely objective)

adaptation of means to ends
2. Continuity and permanence of the bureaucratic
office and structure regardless of the personnel
occupying particular positions—institutions are
more important than persons
3. Upward Mobility: Everyone has the chance to get
a higher position
 Criticism of Bureaucracy

Too much following of the rules and procedures.

Vertical hierarchy of authority can become
disordered: some offices can be skipped/absent in
the decision making process, and there may be
conflicts of competence.
Over-specialization; making individual officials not
aware of larger consequences of their actions.
Lack of innovation: Entrenched in the bureaucratic
tradition that we can't see alternatives. Diminish
the creative capacities of employees.
 Homework

What is Weber’s idea of

Rationalization: How Capitalism and
Bureaucracy are rational models?
 Thanks,

Any Questions?