Saturday, April 11, 2009
Weber's Rational Bureaucracy and the Children's Shelter
This essay will first explain Weber's rational bureaucracy. It will explore the institutional features and the historic preconditions that are necessary in order for bureaucracy to exist. The second essay will examine how bureaucracy operates in the Children's Shelter.
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Max Weber: Rational Bureaucracy
ReplyDeleteOne of Weber’s central ideas focuses on bureaucracy. Bureaucracy continues to reproduce itself and Weber suggests it take a rational-legal form. He describes an ideal type of rational bureaucracy which he understood produces the most efficient form of organization. In order for bureaucracy to be established, there are several elements that are necessary for it to occur. Rational bureaucracy is identified with six essential features. Organizations function within a fixed jurisdiction, hierarchy of positions, organization based on documents, expert training, separation of work and home, and management through rules (196-8). These features prevent inefficiency because there are established duties, a clear hierarchy, a rationally managed organization, a system that can be evaluated for promotion, a clear distinction between home and work, and a system defined by rules that maintain rational order.
In addition to these institutional features, officials obtain a certain position in bureaucracy. Officials should have a sense of vocation to ensure commitment in their duty, they must be appointed, have attained high social esteem, tenured for life, mobilized career, and paid a salary that compensates according to position. While these institutional conditions and official orientations are fundamental, there are also historical preconditions that underlie bureaucracy. In order for bureaucracy to sustain, a money economy is necessary because money historically remunerated salary and taxes. Stable bureaucratic order is made through fixed incomes which prevent officials from tax collecting as a means of personal enrichment (205). The concentration of means of administration entailed expropriating assets to create a bureaucracy, Roman law provided procedural abstract principles, and democracy laid a fertile ground for bureaucracy to emerge since it allowed for individuals to treat others equally. These historical preconditions converged with the institutional features and officer positions, establish a rational bureaucracy.
The Silicon Valley Children’s Shelter is an institution that possesses many elements that characterizes Weber’s rational bureaucracy. The children are at the center of the institution and the personnel involved in this organization work within different roles to determine what is in the best interest for the child. At the shelter, the children are cared for and examined by counselors. These counselors have a fixed duty to report behavior and fulfill caretaking tasks during a child’s stay at the shelter. To be a counselor, one has to obtain an educational background to be qualified to specialize in the work of properly caring for the children. The counselors are responsible for reporting documentation to a social worker. Children are assigned a social worker when they become a dependent of the court and the social worker has many duties to determine the child’s future. Social workers are given documentation from counselors and additionally provide their own documentation when they report information to the higher official of a lawyer.
The social workers visit the shelter and records updates about a child’s personal performance. When a child temporarily stays at a home, the social worker carries paperwork and routinely checks if the home has been abiding by court rules. For my situation, the court’s goal was to reunify my siblings and me with my mother, but my family had to obey attending mandated programs, therapy, etc. These are all reported to the lawyer who has the duty to determine, through the management of the documentation, if acts of improvement have occurred and whether a child is truly ready to return home. These then go to a judge, who is the lead official of this organization. With the documented information about the child from the counselors, social workers, and lawyers, who possess knowledge through their training in education and experience, the judge ultimately determines what outcome is best for the child. These features have positive consequences for the Children’s Shelter as an institution because these qualified personnel construct an efficient form of organization by deciding what a child justly needs. If a child’s family has complied with court rules, this is recorded through documentation, and it demonstrates to others that efforts are being made. The higher the position in office, the more knowledgeable one is about analyzing and determining how to go about with family situations. This bureaucratic procedure works to interpret these situations in a manner that ensures a child is well-adequately cared for, and provided with the best home possible when and if ready.
Thanks for sharing Christine, I think it is eye-opening to see how the government bureaucracy has taken control over children's and parents' lives when it sees families as not correctly functioning. Also, I have heard some unhappy stories about foster families who do not care and tend for their foster children, which may point to bureaucratic dysfunctions.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response, Kristina! Yes, you're completely right. There are many instances in which foster families have improperly cared for children. I have actually seen that happen several times. It is interesting that the goal of the foster care system is to place children in a home according to their needs, but the best in their eyes may not actually be the best for the child. In my paper I took a positive approach about how bureaucracy operates in the shelter because my life has changed so much for the better from all of the aspects within the organization. I think it would also be interesting to know how many successes and failures occur within the institution, and the extent to which bureaucratic dysfunctions can actually damage a child's life.
ReplyDeleteThe approach you took seemed very enlightening and positive. It looks like the social workers and lawyers do try to fit the needs of the child with the best suitable parent, however, I would love to also know when foster care can damage a child's life. Overall, you're right in that these types of bureaucratice institutions consit of highly skilled officials who possess all documentation of these children, so I would only hope that they try to provide the child with the best family care possible.
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