Office Space: The Hierarchy Of Bureaucracy

Superior Essays
Bureaucracy is an organization that focuses on a system of government in which the authority within the bureaucracy is a hierarchy which shows who clearly is in change. . “First, authority is hierarchically structured, making a clear chain of command. Second, selection of personal is competitive and based on demonstrated merit. Third, a specialized division of labor allows for the more efficient completion of assigned tasks. Fourth, bureaucracies are governed by formal, impersonal rules that regulate all facets of the organization.” (Appelrouth, pg. 176) In other words, this system of government is based on rationalization. Most of the important decisions are made by high ranked officials. These high ranked officials are non-elected government …show more content…
Peter feels trapped in this “iron cage” which can be symbolized by the cubicle he works in and the job he absolutely hates. Bill Lumbergh, one of eight bosses, takes advantage of the system through rational-legal domination by making Peter come in on Saturday and Sundays. Bureaucracy has given Lumbergh the power that allows him to treat the workers poorly and unfairly, by demanding workers to do all the work while he does nothing but walk around and fire people. It is not until Peter is hypnotized which is when he finally realize that he is a part of mechanical solidarity. Peter, his workers, and even the girl he likes named Joanna are all stuck in the organization that leaves them feeling like their work is meaningless, boring and repetitive. The characters have no interdependence and solely spend all their time and effort pleasing their boss that doesn’t do any work. “Iron cage” could also be seen at Chotchkie’s, the nearby chain restaurant where the Peter and his coworkers go on their break, where the servers had to follow the company's rule of wearing enough flairs. It was not until after the Peter was hypnotized until he realized how important his independence was and soon noticed how alienated he was from his work. Weber viewed bureaucracy as essential to industrial capitalism, but noted that the rationality of bureaucratic workplaces often turn us into "specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart", in other words the workers became in this trans that their work was meaningless causing them to feel no self-worth or importance in life. Once Peter was freed from this “iron cage” he then found himself careless and stress-free. He is now able to do and get what he wants in life. This is when he really starts to enjoy his life how he wants to. He has now escaped the “iron cage” and then encourages his coworkers to do

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Nevada Wetlands Case Study

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Nevada Wetlands Case involves four major guerrillas who pursued their personal goal under the pretext that they were saving the Stillwater and Carson lake wetlands from Bureau of Reclamation irrigation practices at the Nevada Newlands Project. The Nevada Four took advantage of the conflicting missions of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Reclamation. They believed that the project was going to negatively affect the water quality and wildlife in that wetland. Task Segment:…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Bureaucracy is the other side of the coin, defined as : “a system for controlling or managing a country, company, or organization that is operated by a large number of officials employed to follow rules carefully”(“Bureaucracy Definition,” 2015), this means that those who support a Public Administration system that is fully bureaucratic want those who are most qualified appointed by those in power to care for the country(Crew, 1992). This push and pull of systems has plagued Public administration since the start and never seems to fully get answered(Burke & Cleary, 1989). There are scholars who believe that the greatest system is a combination of both and these three systems are what we will be examining in this literature review. Democracy is the system that most commonly the public thinks of when they think of Public Administration and public service.…

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The reader sees that to him, work represents worth. In the incident with the fire at the factory, English had decided to jump out to save himself. Because of the accident, he was not able to work to support his family anymore and his son, Isaac stayed at home to take care of him for many years. These points made English feel worthless. He believes that if he would have died at work, his family would have been better off and would have thrived with the money paid out by the company.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Morris P. Fiorina, who wrote The Rise of the Washington Establishment, is a political scientist who received his education from the University of Rochester as well as Allegheny College from 1968 to 1972. At the age of 70, he is currently the Professor at Stanford who teaches political science. He has multiple writings that converse about the government and even has an award for these writings. The Rise of the Washington Establishment discusses that the federal bureaucracy has taken over and turned our government into officials that only care about their positions and salary and stopped caring about the voice of the people.…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The empirical findings in the first paper reflect the theory for which excessive bureaucracy is built upon. The paper ultimately confirms the positive relationship between increased confiscations and an increased police budget, which the paper seeked to prove. It also identifies that the correlation becomes more positive as the jurisdiction size increases. This relationship shows that through reallocating resources the police bureaucrats are capable of benefitting from larger budgets, as well as, not being subject to as significant inter-bureaucratic competition. This relates to the excessive bureaucracy theory as it illustrates how the bureaucrats are motivated to supply excess to the market in order to enlarge their own budget and in turn…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nt1330 Unit 6 Term Paper

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1. Structural ex ante constrains on the agencies that prevent deviations before they occur “The most effective means for achieving policy stability are constraints on the flexibility of agencies, rather than reliance on rewards, punishments, and oversight.” Enfranchising the constituents of presidents and congress through administrative structure and process, we can constrain the bureaucrats. We should clarify each political player’s responsibility and right by regulations and laws with negotiation and bargain.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A bureaucracy is a system of government where the decisions are made by state officials…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Racial profiling is an issue that still threatens American society today. Assuming a person’s involvement in illegal activities based off of their ethnic background is unconstitutional according to the 14th amendment. That didn’t prevent the assault against Shoshanna Hebshi on September 11, 2011. Certain racism-related interest groups have the power to propose rules or solutions to prevent racial profiling. The system of the iron triangle can potentially have a significant effect on racial profiling by acknowledging the issue, proposing a solution and carrying it out.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his foundational work The Types of Legitimate Domination (1922) Weber attempts to establish a theoretical framework to help understand the nature of political legitimacy and the means by which it is achieved. By observing human relationships and their interaction with both formal and informal institutional structures, he is able to provide a detailed sociological analysis highlighting fundamental differences between several strategies of domination (Weber 1978: 212). In doing so, he establishes three 'pure types ' of legitimate authority based on the type of legitimacy claimed therein; legal-rational authority; traditional authority, and charismatic authority. Each type, according to Weber, endows its ruler with a justifiable right to rule,…

    • 1100 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In “Don’t Blame the Bureaucracy” by H. Brinton Milward and Hal G Rainey, they argue how the bureaucracies are blamed for things that they are not in control of. The failures in the bureaucracies are because of the public and the pressure of all the assignments…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Street-Level Bureaucracy: The Critical Role of Street-Level Bureaucrats by Michael Lipsky was written to explain the importance of the role of public service workers when delivering government services to the public. The involvement of public administration in difficulties that are currently affecting the undeserved and have made the government to take responsibilities on public safety, health and security. Lipsky believed that government workers play a significant role in our society by making discretionary judgements that evaluate the welfare of individuals. The conflict that street-level bureaucrats possess is on the state influence and control public services. The constant demands that bureaucrats make are important decisions that will…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Class, This week’s assignment was a discussion on three (3) unique characteristics of criminal justice agencies that have characteristics of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is defined “as a government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority” (staff, 2017) In my research I found that every Criminal Justice agency has a type of bureaucracy in it system. In every Bureaucracy, every task is broken down into multiple levels into a type of division of labor. The division of labor is not a new idea but its simplicity is what makes it efficient.…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to introduction to Sociology 2e a bureaucracy is “Formal organizations characterized by a hierarchy authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules and impersonality. “ Max Weber said that a bureaucracy normally would have four definite characteristics. Hierarchy of Authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules, and impersonality. Some people say that companies like General Motors, Amazon, and Facebook are bureaucracies. Let’s explore this proposition.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The resources that street-level bureaucrats have to work are very inadequate. Yet, the demand from the public, or clients, is always increasing. As a result, street-level bureaucrats are constraints to the resources. Street-level bureaucrats also have broad discretion and that’s because of the constraints they are force upon. The resources that they have to work with also make the goals of street-level bureaucrats ambiguous and conflicting.…

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This course began by questioning the proper role and place of public administration as a field of study. As we conclude with our final week, the topic arises once again. Donald Kettl in "Public Administration at the Millennium: The State of the Field, Laurence Lynn Jr. in "The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm: What Traditional Public Administration Really Stood For," and Frederickson et al in The Public Administration Theory Primer evaluate the field of public administration, by answering three questions. They provide answers to where has the field been, where is it now, and where is it going.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays