A General Theory of Bureaucracy

Description

Reviewed by Neal J. Pollock in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 17, 2013 Elliott Jaques made a herculean effort to raise management to a science. He led empirical, longitudinal studies ( The Changing Culture of a Factory (Industrial Relations) ), provided theoretical expositions of organizational structure ( Requisite Organization: A Total System for Effective Managerial Organization and Managerial Leadership for the 21st Century : Amended ), analyzed and recommended factors in ( Executive Leadership: A Practical Guide to Managing Complexity (Developmental Management) ), and much more. The present volume addresses not only the traditional character of bureaucracy (e.g. role, social structure, contracts, accountability, authority, etc.), but also speaks to the capacity of work, levels of abstraction (see also Levels of Abstraction in Logic and Human Action ), change management, hierarchical strata, and the relationship of bureaucracy to individual liberty. As usual, this book is ground breaking with few books that can compare to it. I especially recommend his final volume (before his death) co-authored with his wife: Human Capability: A Study of Individual Potential and Its Application