Understanding the Dominance of Formal Organizations

We live in a world of organizations that make it nearly impossible for us as individuals to live our lives as our own. The purpose of me writing this is to show you how and why.

The organizations that dominate our society are known as formal organizations. Businesses, schools (colleges and universities, corporations, governments, churches and other religious institutions all fall under the category of a formal organization. Basically any institution you come into contact with on a daily basis. The harsh reality is that every person in this world, your friends, family, professors, bosses, especially you are a member of an organization; possibly several. And each of us contributes to the organization in our own way whether we want to or don’t.

Bureaucratic organizations are characterized by division of labor and hierarchy. Division of labor is the certain task that we as individuals hold within the organization. Your position depends on what you’re qualified for. The most skilled people will be placed in positions where they can get the task done in the most efficient way possible. The hierarchy is composed of offices where there are few people at the top controlling the people at the bottom. Your placement within the hierarchy explains how much authority you have in the organization but each office is ruled by another above them except for if you’re at the very bottom and at the very top. So if you’re at the bottom you have little to no authority. The people at the top, or powerful elite create the rules and regulations essential to each position held beneath them so that their goals for the organization are met. And that in itself leaves no room for individuality for the people at the bottom. Your behavior is under control because as a member of the organization you are forced to follow the rules set before you

This is where Weber’s Iron Cage comes into play. The Iron Cage is a metaphor for the rules and regulations that imprison us as humans in a society. It basically stops us from being able to act or think as individuals, we’re stuck in our positions within the bureaucratic organization. Essentially every aspect of our life is controlled by bureaucracies. George Ritzer describes a form of this control in what he calls McDonaldization. According to Ritzer, McDonaldization is a process where society is starting to become like a fast-food restaurant in the way that it operates. There are four principles that are associated with McDonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control (replacing humans with nonhuman