The Bureaucratic Phenomenon

In The Bureaucratic Phenomenon Michel Crozier demonstratesthat bureaucratic institutions need to be understoodin terms of the cultural context in which theyoperate. The originality of the study lies in its associationof two widely different approaches: the theory of decision-makingin large organizations and the cultural analysis ofsocial patterns of action.The book opens with a detailed examination of twoforms of French public service. These studies show thatprofessional training and distortions alone cannot ex plainthe rise of routine behavior and dysfunctional "viciouscircles." The role of various bureaucratic systems appearsto depend on the pattern of power relation ships betweengroups and individuals. Crozier’s findings lead him to theview that bureaucratic structures form a necessary protectionagainst the risks inherent in collective action.Since systems of protection are built around basiccultural traits, the author presents a French bureaucraticmodel based on centralization, strata isolation, and individualsparkle-one that that can be contrasted with anAmerican, Russian, or Japanese model. He points out howthe same patterns can be found in several areas of Frenchlife: education, industrial relations, politics, business, andthe colonial policy. Bureaucracy, Crozier concludes, is nota modern disease resulting from organizational progressbut rather a bulwark against development. The breakdownof the traditional bureaucratic system in modern Franceoff ers hope for new and fruitful forms of action.

Michel Crozier was the founder and director of the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations and senior research fellow of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He is currently a member of the Acadmie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He is the author or co-author-of numerous books including The Stalled Society, The Crisis of Democracy, and The Trouble with America. Erhard Friedberg is professor of sociology and director of the Master of Public Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris. He is the author of numerous books including Actors and Systems (with Michel Crozier) and Local Orders-Dynamics of Organized Action.

Acknowledgements	p. v
Introduction to the Transaction Edition	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
The Case of the Clerical Agency
The Over-all Organization and the Employees' Individual Adjustments to Their Tasks	p. 13
The objectives of the clerical agency and its over-all characteristics	p. 13
The different categories of personnel	p. 15
The organization of work and productivity	p. 17
Employees' work satisfaction	p. 22
The importance of the work load	p. 24
The feelings about work	p. 24
The decisive influence of social status	p. 28
Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships and the Problem of Routine	p. 31
Employees' social participation and integration	p. 31
Employees' evaluations of the Agency	p. 31
Social isolation and the lack of friendship ties	p. 35
The negative solidarity of the personnel and the extent of union activities	p. 37
Authority Relationships	p. 40
The supervisors' predicament	p. 46
The over-all pattern of Routine	p. 50
The Industrial Monopoly
The Social System at the Shop Level: The Plant Subculture and the Formal Authority System	p. 61
The over-all organization of the monopoly	p. 61
The organizational givens and the workers' attitudes	p. 67
The work load	p. 68
The seniority system	p. 70
Mechanization and the technological environment	p. 76
The content of the workers' subculture	p. 79
The formal authority system	p. 80
The reactions of the subordinates	p. 82
The nature of formal authority in the plant	p. 86
The Social System at the Shop Level: The Relationships between Groups and the Adjustment Patterns of Groups	p. 89
The Group Relationships	p. 89
The relationship between production workers and foremen	p. 90
The relationship between production and maintenance workers	p. 93
The relationship between foremen and maintenance workers	p. 98
The Adjustment Patterns of each Occupational Category	p. 100
The production workers' type of adjustment	p. 100
The maintenance workers' type of adjustment	p. 103
The supervisors' type of adjustment	p. 105
The System of Power Relationships in the Shop: Its Equilibrium and its Limits	p. 107
Power Relationships at the Management Level	p. 112
The career patterns of the four members of the management team	p. 113
The existing patterns of conflict	p. 118
The comptroller-versus-director conflict	p. 118
The assistant director versus director conflict	p. 119
The conflict between technical engineer and assistant director	p. 122
The Patterns of Adjustment of Each Occupational Category	p. 129
The technical engineer's pattern of adjustment	p. 129
The director's adjustment pattern	p. 131
The assistant director's adjustment pattern	p. 135
The Meaning of Conflict in a Bureaucratic System of Organization	p. 139
Bureaucray As An Organizational System
Power and Uncertainty	p. 145
Power as the New Central Problem of the Theory of Organization	p. 145
The example of the industrial monopoly	p. 150
The production workers	p. 151
The maintenance workers	p. 153
The lower supervisors	p. 154
The management team	p. 155
The Role of Power within an Organizational System	p. 156
The problem of the supervisor-subordinate relationship	p. 160
The problem of the work standards	p. 161
The Influence of Power Relationships on Organizational Structure	p. 162
The Evolution of Power Relationships Systems	p. 164
The Primacy of Organizational Goals and the Limits of The Power Struggle	p. 165
The Bureaucratic System of Organization	p. 175
The Problem	p. 175
The Theory of Bureaucratic Dysfunctions: The "Human Relations" Approach to Bureaucracy	p. 178
The Problem of The Achievement of Conformity	p. 183
The Basic Elements of a Bureaucratic Vicious Circle	p. 187
The extent of the development of impersonal rules	p. 187
The centralization of decisions	p. 189
The isolation of the different strata and the concomitant group pressure on the individual	p. 190
The development of parallel power relationships	p. 192
The vicious circle	p. 193
The Problem of Change in a Bureaucratic System of Organization	p. 195
The Bureaucratic Personality	p. 198
The Individual's Stake in Bureaucracy	p. 203
Bureaucracy As A Cultural Phenomenon: The French Case
The French Bureaucratic System of Organization	p. 213
The Problem of Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships	p. 214
The Problems of Authority and the Avoidance of Face-to-Face Relationships	p. 220
The Problem of Change and The Paradoxical Weakness of Power	p. 224
Other Possible Models of Bureaucratic Systems of Organization	p. 227
The Russian system	p. 228
The American system	p. 231
The Importance of Bureaucratic Patterns of Action in the French Social System	p. 237
Bureaucratic Patterns of Behavior and Social Institutions	p. 237
The French Educational System	p. 238
The French Labor Movement and The French Pattern of Industrial Relations	p. 244
The French Politico-Administrative System	p. 251
The administrative subsystem	p. 252
The policy-making subsystem	p. 255
The revolutionary grievance-settling subsystem	p. 258
The interrelations between the three subsystems	p. 262
The French Colonial System	p. 263
The Bourgeois Entrepreneur and Bureaucracy	p. 270
The Limits of the Bureaucratic System and the Entrepreneurial Role	p. 270
Bourgeois States and The Entrepreneurial System	p. 274
The Opposition Between The World of Free Enterprise and Paternalism and The World of State Bureaucracy	p. 277
The Relationship Between The Two Systems and the Problem of Innovation	p. 282
The French Model of Change and Adjustment to Change	p. 286
The Bureaucratic Phenomenon and the "French Model" as Part of the Over-all Development of Industrial Society	p. 294
The Problem to be Solved	p. 294
Bureaucratic Systems of Organization and The Evolution of Industrial Society	p. 296
The Growing Threats to the French Bureaucratic Patterns	p. 300
The Model's Possibilities of Resistance: The French Public Administration	p. 308
The French Bureaucratic Contribution	p. 313
Subject Index	p. 315
Index of Names	p. 318
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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The Bureaucratic Phenomenon

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