Organisational models

The bureaucratic model

A bureaucracy is a type of formal organisation which has certain characteristics aimed at making
it work efficiently. For example, large companies and government offices are often run along
bureaucratic principles because they have many people working in then doing lots of different
jobs. Managing all these people is made easier by having strong centralised control with a
hierarchy of administration. This means that power and authority are given to individuals in
accordance with their status and role at each level with the decision-making being controlled
by rules and regulations. In this way, decision-making is depersonalised insofar as it comes from
the official rank of the individual rather than him or her.
Now read p47-48 of Bush to get an idea of these features of bureaucratic organisations.

Division of labour
hierarchy of authority
written rules and regulations
impersonal

Education systems and schools are large and complex organisations. Even a primary school with
say, 500 students and 20 staff, is extremely large compared to the offices of most businesses or
to most factories. It is not surprising therefore that bureaucratic principles have been
commonly applied in the running of schools by many modern societies. Power and authority rest
normally with the Ministry of Education whose officers make decisions to be passed down to
schools.
If you were the Minister of Education, can you list a few reasons why you would be in favour of
some or all of these bureaucratic characteristics to assist you in running the education system of
your country? Pages 48-50 of Bush may help you with this.
Bureaucratic organisations generally have administrative class responsible for maintaining
coordinative activities of the members and Work of the school is divided on the basis of
specialisation to take the advantages of division of labour in ministry of education.

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In the light of your own experiences, how far would you describe the education system of the
UAE as bureaucratic?
Most of public schools are defined as bureaucratic schools
In general public education is bureaucratic but they but on the other hand, ministry of
education takes an entrepreneurial approach to involve the private sector, improve and
modernize facilities, reduce bureaucracy, update curricula and take advantage of information
technology.
Limitations of the bureaucratic model
Considering that bureaucratic principles were seen as the means to achieve efficiency, it is
ironic that the terms bureaucracy and bureaucratic are most widely used nowadays to describe
organisations which are slow and cumbersome with too much official processing or red tape in other words, those which are inefficient. This is because the features of bureaucratic
management can have both positive and negative effects.
Bush outlines some of the disadvantages of the bureaucratic model as it is applied to schools on
pages 50. Read about these before going on to complete the following:
1.
There is a danger that the process of administration can become more important than the
goals of the school. More time, resources and energy can become devoted to management than
to the education of children. Can you give any examples of this from your own experience?
From my experience in a boys school, I realized that the principle focus was in developing the
management rather than improving teaching or education. From my experience I saw a show of
goals without implementation of them in the school.
2.
Fixed rules and regulations can prevent the kind of flexibility required to make
improvements in teaching and learning. For example:
These rules are more or less stable and more or less exhaustive
3.
Another difficulty in applying this model to schools rests with the people working in
them. Read what Bush has to say about this at the top of page 50 and on pages 62-66. Explain
this in your own words:
The role of the teacher affect too, because if the teacher do not apply innovation in her work
the main focus is to do her work as she told which is no way to see new changes in education.
4.
Setting goals in a school can be difficult. In a manufacturing business, goals might be
centred on increasing production, lowering operating costs and maximising profits. In a school
however, although a goal might be to increase average examination scores, education involves
much more than this and contains elements which are not easily measured or quantified.
Discuss this issue for a few minutes.

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5.
Decision-making in a school can present problems in any kind of top-down
administration. In dealing with production levels in a factory, for example, it is relatively easy
for the managers to make rational decisions. In dealing with education and its application to
children, the issues are a lot more complex. Teachers and school principals, collectively or
individually, often have to make decisions about what is best for the children under their care.
These decisions are not always rational nor can they always be based on prescribed criteria.
More often, they are based on personal professional experience applied to situations which may
have an infinite number of variations. Decisions made under such circumstances are often more
subjective/emotional rather than rational. Discuss this and give a few examples of when this
could happen.
Knowing the problems is essential before decisions making and choice the possible and the most
appropriate solution is the way if decisions making with taking into account that professional
experience played an important role to evaluate the chosen solutions.

6.
In addition, it cannot be assumed that teachers act as individuals making decisions
consistent with their official roles. We read earlier about how individuals and groups within an
organisation act in an informal way as a result of personality, friendship groups and their own
individual personal and professional needs. Far from being the dispassionate decision-makers
remote from outside influences and acting within the prescribed parameters appropriate to
rank, teachers often act individually or collectively, in accordance with their own preferences,
values and professional judgement.
How might a group of teachers react if a school principal handed down a directive which they
did not feel they could support professionally? Can you give an example?
They can support their perspectives with actions to cooperate with each other and suggest
involving the school principal with them to support them. For example they dont have to wait
to do changes and wait the support they can start the first step.
To conclude, think about the following quote concerning leadership in bureaucracies and decide
how far a school principal fits this description.
Under the bureaucratic model, the leader is seen as the hero who stands at the top of a complex
pyramid of power. The heros job is to assess the problems, consider the alternatives and make
rational choices. Much of the organisations power is held by the hero and great expectations are
raised because people trust him to solve problems and fend off threats from the environment.
(Baldridge et al 1978 in Bush 2011 page 59)

Write your comments here

This model has disadvantages and advantages but from my perspective I can see changes comes
from their own without following the bureaucratic model or solving problems under pressure of
power. It can discourage creativity and innovation of both employees and organization.

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