Max Weber, the famous German Sociologist provided this model who viewed bureaucracy as the most efficient form of a complex organization. Weber’s major contribution to organizational thinking was his theory of authority structure.
He identified three ideal types’ organizations on the basis of the way authority was recognized and used: charismatic, traditional and rational-legal.
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In the first two types, the base for authority is the leader’s personality and his/her inherited status respectively. In the third type of organization, authority was rationally and legally sanctioned which gave rise to the concept of bureaucracy.
Weber described bureaucracy in terms of a set of structural properties and characteristics such as hierarchy, division of work, rules and procedures. He also advocated impersonal and objective behaviour as management principles in dealing with workers i.e., teachers and students when applied to an educational institution.
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According to him, in order to enhance the efficiency of an organization, it should have a well-defined hierarchy of authority with jobs and offices defined with jurisdiction and location, a division of work based on functional specialization, a system of rules concerning the responsibilities and rights of workers (students and teachers), a system of procedures for dealing with categories of activities within areas of responsibility, impersonal relationships and a reward structure based on technical competence.
Bureaucratic thinking refined the norms of rationality and certainty that were characteristic of scientific management.
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Today, a very large majority of educational institutions in India run on the principles of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy in schools and collages has survived in India because of the comforts of order, rationality, accountability and- stability it provides the students, parents and teachers. Educational managers are its avid fans.
Clear lines of authority and specialized functions provide a convincing justification for professional management and proliferate managerial roles.
On the other hand, following the bureaucratic model in management of education has given rise to its own problems. Educational managers are required to handle diverse inputs for producing a standard outcome.
Though in ever typical institution, there are students with different needs, abilities and interests requiring different modes of handling and teaching-learning procedures, yet our educational institutions are characterized by monolithic curriculum, standard teaching, common goals and expectations, identical standards and uniform evaluation procedures. This is because ‘concern for persons’ is not emphasized in bureaucracy.