Rationality, authority and bureaucracy: the bases for defining a post-bureaucratic organizational model

• Autor(a) principal: Vasconcelos, Flávio Carvalho de
• Data de Publicação: 2004
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/6534
• topic: organizations; post-bureaucratic model.; organizações; modelo pós-burocrático.

This article reviews the theoretical concepts of bureaucracy and the emergence of a post-bureaucratic organizational model. In such a post-bureaucratic model people would work in a way that would radically differ from the bureaucratic model. They would recognize the collective and organic nature of work, continuously adjusting and redefining their jobs, tasks and objectives according to the demands of the unstable environments in which they work. In these organizations personal dedication beyond formal responsibilities is valued and rewarded and the creation of a performance-oriented culture is stimulated. Moreover, communication, control and authority networks are built. Authority is seen not only as a result of the formal attributes of an official job description, but as the use of personal capabilities and leadership. Having in mind this picture of an ideal post-bureaucratic organization this article reviews Weber¿s theory of bureaucracy, connecting it to later developments such as the bureaucratic dysfunctions theory and the contingency theory to ground an academic debate on the continuity of bureaucracy as the paradigm for current organizations.