Features Of Bureaucracy

There are
many possible ways to describe the features of a bureaucracy.  I will use a famous enumeration
of these features put forward by Max Weber.  I will examine five features of bureaucracy that
Weber identifies.

The first aspect of bureaucracy is a division of labor.  In
a bureaucratic system, there have to be different people who do different jobs.  If you have a
loose group of (for example) three lawyers who are together in an office simply to share rent
and the cost of a receptionist, there is no bureaucracy.  Bureaucracy only exists if there are
different people doing specific different jobs.

The second aspect is a
hierarchy of authority.  A true bureaucracy needs to have a chain of command.  There must be set
lines of authority where each person in the bureaucracy knows who they report to and whose
commands they must obey.

Third, there are written rules and regulations.  A
bureaucracy is run on the basis of formal rules.  Bureaucracies are not run on the whims of
their employees.  A manager does not get to simply make up the rules on a day-to-day basis. 
Instead, there are written rules so that everyone knows what is required of them.

Fourth, a bureaucracy is impersonal.  What that means is that it does not take into
account personalities or the identity of people involved in any particular issue.  If, for
example, you want to take vacation, you get exactly the number of days that the rules say you
get, regardless of whether you are the bosss nephew.  If you violate rules, you incur the
consequences, again regardless of your personal connections to anyone. 

Finally, employment in a bureaucracy is based on competence and qualification.  It is
sometimes said that life is about who you know, not what you know.  In a bureaucracy, this
should not be the case.  You get hired or promoted based on whether you are qualified for a
given job, not based on whether you have personal connections.

In these ways,
bureaucracies are very rationalized, formalized systems for getting work
done.