In what senses is bureaucracy more rational than other organizational forms? How does bureaucracy sometime undermine the pursuit of its own goals? 

Bureaucracy is known for being lazy and slow because there are so many different layers to be organized.   As stated on the Wikipedia online encyclopedia “A stereotypical bureaucracy would consist of many levels of management which require many signature approvals to make any decision, no matter how trivial.”  Mind you that there is a rational way to bureaucracy.  So let me tell you both good and the bad of bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy is very appealing to standardize particular situations, rules, and practices for very large organizations.  It is a way to be able to have a short cut to communication.  When one states that a regulation must be in place it effects everyone in the organization.  A bureaucracy is a way to; ideally treat everyone the same way.  There plenty of reasons why we use this rational way of organizing.  “Bureaucracy is intended to promote fairness, it is designed to treat everyone the same, at least within the bounds of consideration of merit”.  People have a job to specialize in and they get the job on who is the best in the position no matter if you are a man or a woman, black, white, green or blue.  No matter what you get the best person for the job.  Bureaucracy proposes a chance to be able set up rules and practices that can be learned.  Then when knowledgeable enough to be applied time after time one could pass down the practice or rule over time.

Now that we know what a bureaucracy is, then what would make this so rational compared to democracy or BLA.  Well for one that bureaucracy is way to help not confuse anything or anyone.  Everything that would be established would be completely standard.  How would that make you feel that not the person who could play politics better than you or had more money than you could get the job?  It’s all would be based on how well you specialize in the area.  And everything can be, in a sense, fair for all.   So, by being able to have everyone be equal, everybody is fair.  Being able to have rules for everyone, making a short cut in the communication, is a good thing, right?

There is a problem with the Bureaucratic structure, in a bureaucratic structure that exists over time, there could be a problem possibility creating a type of emperor that rules all.  Also there is a great threat to individuality as time goes on.   As Max Weber, a German theorist said that people would “merely [be] a cog in the machine.”  Bureaucracy elevates what Weber called formal rationality over substantive rationality; people become more concerned about calculating little tasks and less aware of the big picture. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy

http://www.tinyvital.com/Misc/Lawsburo.htm

http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Weber/WEBERW8.HTML

George Cheney, Lars Thoger Christensen, Theodore E. Zorn, Jr. Shiv Ganesh et.al. (2004).

Organization Communication. Long Grove:   Waveland Press.