Lamound, David A
The irrational use of Weber's ideal types
Max Weber's model of bureaucracy has been widely criicised as incapable of adequately capturing empirical reality, internally inconsistent, and inappropriately juxtaposed with the concepts of efficiency and with the concepts of efficiency and reationality. This article first argues that much of this criticism can be disregarded as irrelevant, insofar as it has been largely based on misinterpretation of Weber's conceptions, and then explores a variety of reasons for this misinterpretation. It is argued that the fundamental problem is the consideration of Weber's model in the context of a microanalysis of organisation, since it was not constructed by Weber for use in this way. Weber was an historical sociolo
Civil Service
Bureaucracy
The irrational use of Weber's ideal types
Max Weber's model of bureaucracy has been widely criicised as incapable of adequately capturing empirical reality, internally inconsistent, and inappropriately juxtaposed with the concepts of efficiency and with the concepts of efficiency and reationality. This article first argues that much of this criticism can be disregarded as irrelevant, insofar as it has been largely based on misinterpretation of Weber's conceptions, and then explores a variety of reasons for this misinterpretation. It is argued that the fundamental problem is the consideration of Weber's model in the context of a microanalysis of organisation, since it was not constructed by Weber for use in this way. Weber was an historical sociolo
Civil Service
Bureaucracy