Essay On Bureaucracy In Society

850 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Problems with prison reform

“BUREAUCRACY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND AMERICA” “INTRODUCTION: MAIN TOPIC AND SYNOPSIS” The criminal justice system and America in general has a lot of bureaucracy. The bureaucracy can sometimes become a hindrance to the people that the system is supposed to be helping. Rarely, do we hear anyone state they are glad for bureaucracy or the red tape bureaucracy seems to create. I think myself and many Americans at first glance dislike bureaucracy; however this appears to be the most prevalent organizational model in most businesses. According to our book “we owe many of the original insights regarding the structure and functioning of bureaucracies to the work of the famous sociologist Max Weber (Palmiotto and Unnithan). While watching the movie Brubaker we also saw how bureaucracy worked for and against the prisoners at the prison. The bureaucracy at Wakefield State Prison in the movie showed the works for the prison bureaucracy along with the bureaucracy from community, prison board and government officials. “BODY: GROUP REFLECTION” We believe that some of the major advantages of bureaucracy are “the presence of a hierarchy makes it clear who is in charge and designates individuals at the …show more content…

As we saw throughout the movie Brubaker there were many challenges to a corrupt bureaucratic system. In the movie “we saw rampant abuse and corruption which included sexual assault and torture of inmates, worms in the inmate’s food, inmates being charged for better food or even something as simple as a haircut, insurance fraud of doctor not treating patients, the original doctor charging inmates for care (Tran). The consequences one faced we noticed was the warden being replaced under prison reform. We also noticed the consequences that inmates were treated like humans and with this treatment became better humans in living within the prison

Show More
Related

  • Example Of Allocative Representation Essay

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    Top-level managers in bureaucratic organizational structures exercise a great deal of control over organizational strategy decisions, which is ideal for business owners with a command and control style. As for the disadvantages, bureaucratic structures can discourage creativity and innovation throughout the organization. No matter how ingenious a business owner is, it is virtually impossible for a single individual to generate the range of strategic ideas possible in a large, interdisciplinary

    Read More

  • Panoptical Power in China

    3082 Words  | 7 Pages

    Although relatively few prisons have been constructed according to the plan of the Panopticon given Bentham's optimism about its practical utility, Foucault (1975/1977; 1980) has articulated the Panopticon as a generalizable model of the functioning of power in modern disciplinary societies with applications beyond the prison including hospitals, the...

    Read More

  • Trustees and Delegates

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    Modern Bureaucracy in the United States serves to administer, gather information, conduct investigations, regulate, and license. Once set up, a bureaucracy is inherently conservative. The reason the bureaucracy was initiated may not continue to exist as a need in the future. The need or reason may change with a change in the times and the culture needs. A bureaucracy tends to make decisions that protect it and further it’s own existence, possibly apart from the wishes of the populace. It may not consistently reflect what might be optimal in terms of the needs and wants of the people. Local governments employ most of the United States civil servants. The 14 cabinet departments in the U.S. are run day-to-day by career civil servants, which have a great deal of discretionary authority.

    Read More

  • Bureaucracy

    387 Words  | 1 Pages

    By definition, bureaucratic organization may not seem to be a bad thing. However, in practice, bureaucracies are known to have a negative effect on all its participants. As defined by Samuel Kernell and Gary Jacobson, "The model bureaucracy is, in short, a purposive machine with interchangeable human parts." Bureaucracies are dehumanizing, they train for obedience, and stifle creative thought. The characteristics of bureaucratic organization that have the worst effect on its participants and most compromise efficiency are its hierarchical structure in which all the power resides at the top and the specialization of tasks.

    Read More

  • The Bureaucracy: The Rise And Fall Of The Bureaucracy

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though the bureaucracy began simply, with George Washington’s creation of the Department of Foreign Affairs, over the last 226 years, its size and power have increased exponentially. From homeland security to the delivery of mail, this “fourth branch of government” possesses a wide scope of responsibilities. However, the necessity for such a structure often comes into question. According to Max Weber, who believed that “the bureaucracy was likely to acquire an ‘overpowering’ power position, the bureaucracy is an “inevitable consequence” of modern day life (“The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, Wilson). A specialized bureaucracy provides valuable expertise, an asset which the Founders did not take for granted, as they had suffered a committee

    Read More

  • Correctional Leadership

    610 Words  | 2 Pages

    In society today, the prison system has a blend of different cultures, leaders and workers must be equipped to handle cultures that are unfamiliar to them. Education on leadership helps to ensure the leader is component, reliable, has the motivation to lead large groups of individuals and make the organization a success (Jacobs, & Olitsky, 2012). Most of the correctional and penal leaders have entered their position at the entry level position. Those that enter the position must be capable of overseeing thousands of staff and inmates, skills for management are essential to be effective in the role of leadership, corrections has three organizational models the authoritative model, bureaucratic model, and the participative model, the authoritative model has the presence of a strong leader that has firm control of the prison environment and harsh discipline of inmates and staff, the bureaucratic model revolves around strict systems, but it does not put all its focus on dominating personalities the rules are specific with a clear standard of operating, the participative model is more open and democratic, it relies on input from staff on how the institution should be ran (Carlson, & Garrett, 2008). There exists a need for leaders that have a clear vision for change and that will motivate and inspire others. They must set rules that are clear and must be enforced.

    Read More

  • Cluelessness Case Study

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bureaucracy is a structure with tight and rigid policies, constraints, and procedures. Unlike the structural frame, a bureaucracy has stringent controls with a great unwillingness to change adapt. Bureaucracy helps establish the structure in an organization by formalizing its operations. It ensures every unite in the organization has a structure with .clear lines of authority and responsibility for every situation. The decision-making process in a bureaucracy uses a strict control-and -command structure. An adequate structure due to bureaucracy translates an organization into a machine with parts that should be maintained and replaced when they do not perform.

    Read More

  • Essay On Bureaucracy

    1621 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Enabling Creative Chaos: The Organization Behind the Burning Man Event by Katherine K. Chen (2009), the author offers an organizational model combining bureaucracy procedures with collectivist policies to readers. Chen analyzes the procedures and policies of the organizers behind the “Burning Man” festival’s creative chaos. Chen’s purpose in her book is to help society “reimagine organizations and their place in everyday life,” however, it remains unclear how the Burning Man organizational model relates to everyday lives in present society (Chen 22). Unlike Jason Corburn’s “street science” model used to study the potential causes of the asthma epidemic in Brooklyn, as explained in his book Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice (2005), Chen’s model does not reflect on how the individual organizers and participants of the event have used the Burning Man’s organizational model to change other bureaucracies within which they are involved. Comparatively, Coburn’s framework for understanding “street science” – decision-making that draws on community knowledge and makes contributions to environmental justice – is the better model upon which society should view bureaucracy (Corburn 111-144.).

    Read More

  • Understanding the Bureaucracy: America's Unofficial Fourth Branch

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bureaucracy is a slow and seemingly unnecessary addition to our governmental system, but it does have an important role. The Bureaucracy was originally created to aide the president, and consisted of four people (first cabinet). These members were called the Department

    Read More

  • Should Bureaucracy Be Involved In Decision Making Essay

    1186 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bureaucracy are defined as a system of government which most of the important decisions are made by the state officials than be elected representatives. Bureaucracy is also an organization made up of many departments and divisions that are administrated by lots of people. They are non-elected government officials and a non-administrative

    Read More

  • Bureaucracy Vs Red Tape Essay

    496 Words  | 1 Pages

    Even though bureaucracy and red tape are overwhelming the accumulation of federal, state, and local mandates make working with the Discussion Board 4 Govt 475

    Read More

  • Weber's Ideal Bureaucracy

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Weber analyzed bureaucracies, he developed an ideal type model, which consisted of six essential features. These features described how bureaucracies function and develop. The features Weber identified are as such: specialization; hierarchy; written rules and regulations; impartiality; impersonality; recordkeeping. These features are essential to upholding the purpose of efficiency bureaucracies were created for.

    Read More

  • Culture, Power & Politics in the Workplace

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bureaucracy is an organizational design based on the concept of standardization. “It is characterized by highly routine operating tasks achieved through specialization, very formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional departments, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command” (Judge & Robbins, 2007, p.

    Read More

  • What´s Post Bureaucracy?

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...eet customer demands thus flexibility is key. However there are criticism of post-bureaucracy for example if a company decides to subcontract due to insufficient supply of workers, this would decrease the workers production which would mean that the company is not flexible thus not agreeing with a feature of post-bureaucracy as well as there would be a key difference between pay. There are many factors encourage companies to move from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy. For example technology requires companies to work together because they are innovative, a company can be skilled but there is always something the company cannot develop thus networking and sharing information is important. Bureaucracy could not cope with the pace of change; information technology meant that there was more external control allowing informal relationships and a minimal division of labor.

    Read More

  • Bureaucracy

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bureaucracy Max Weber’s work on Bureaucracy focuses on the formation of a large, structured, and impersonal organization that will influence the lives of everyone born in the modern era we are in. The formal organization concept is the skeleton of Weber’s Bureaucracy. As an introduction there are three different types of formal organization: there is the voluntary type where in the sense that people may freely join them or withdraw from them like religious movements, professional associations and political parties. Some are coercive, in the sense that people are forced to join them, like primary level schooling or prisons. Other organizations are utilitarian, which is probably very important in a capitalist world since people enter these types of organizations to join a business in order to earn a living.

    Read More

More about Essay On Bureaucracy In Society

Open Document