What is a bureaucracy?

Kathrine Miller's textbook Organizational Communication: Approaches and Process is the primary text for the class and begins with a chapter on classic approaches to organizational theory. When it comes to classic approaches to organizations it is difficult to get more classic than the bureaucracy.

We all just love a bureaucracy, why else would be associate them with such fun things as red tape, standing in line, uncaring bureaucrats, inefficiency, and waste. While there is a downside to bureaucracy there is also an upside. Max Weber wrote about both the good and bad found in bureaucracy. Karl Marx commented on the origins of bureaucracy found in religion and government.

To get a basic understanding of bureaucracy the article in the Wikipedia offers a starting place. Take note of the fact that I say starting place. While our concept of what is an authoritative source is undergoing change due to blogs and wikis that does not make the Wikipedia an authoritative source for purpose of scholarship. For any papers written for this class I expect primary sources whenever possible. The Wikipedia is so far from a primary source that you shouldn't even think about using it for written assignments except under very unusual circumstances. You should check with me to determine if I agree you situation constitutes an unusual circumstance. Compare the entry above on bureaucracy from the Wikipedia with an entry on bureaucracy from Encyclopaedia Britannica. note: this may require you to sign up for a free trial.

Welcome to Cubicle Land

I am creating this blog as a complement to the Organizational Communication class I teach at Austin Peay State University. The name of the blog Cubicle Land refers to the world of cubicles that so many workers live in these days. I have had to work in cubicles several different times during my career and I can't say that I'm very fond of that environment. Perhaps the best commentary on life is cubicles comes not from an organizational theorist but from the comic strip Dilbert by Scott Adams.

In beginning this blog I recalled my first class in Organizational Communication at Michigan State University which was taught by my undergraduate adviser Clyde D. J. Morris. Dr Morris (that sounds strange, everyone called him Clyde) was definitely a character but also a wonderful teacher. The main project for the class was a communication audit of the city of Grand Rapids. My particular part of the audit was to gather information at Calvin College. I took two other classes from Clyde as an undergraduate a class in research methods and a class in conflict resolution. Much of what I learned in all of Clyde's classes has stuck with me throughout my teaching career.