In The Bureaucratic Phenomenon Michel Crozier demonstrates that bureaucratic institutions need to be understood in terms of the cultural context in which they operate. The originality of the study lies in its association of two widely different approaches: the theory of decision-making in large organizations and the cultural analysis of social patterns of action. The book opens with a detailed examination of two forms of French public service. These studies show that professional training and distortions alone cannot ex plain the rise of routine behavior and dysfunctional "vicious circles." The role of various bureaucratic systems appears to depend on the pattern of power relation ships between groups and individuals. Crozier's findings lead him to the view that bureaucratic structures form a necessary protection against the risks inherent in collective action. Since systems of protection are built around basic cultural traits, the author presents a French bureaucratic model based on centralization, strata isolation, and individual sparkle-one that that can be contrasted with an American, Russian, or Japanese model. He points out how the same patterns can be found in several areas of French life: education, industrial relations, politics, business, and the colonial policy. Bureaucracy, Crozier concludes, is not a modern disease resulting from organizational progress but rather a bulwark against development. The breakdown of the traditional bureaucratic system in modern France offers hope for new and fruitful forms of action.

The Bureaucratic Phenomenon

Business & Money

CROZIER, MICHEL

Management & Leadership

Univ of Chicago Pr

Although Crozier's specific focus in this book is on the workings and nonworkings of French society, the essence of his analysis is valid for all advanced societies in their search for revitalization and strategies for change. Indeed, his opening chapter addresses "The Crisis of Western Society" and its increasing complexity, uncertainty, and anarchy, and later passages in the book will strike American readers as pertinent to their own recent and ongoing political debates. The Future of French Society expresses a spirited opposition to the practices and goals of the bureaucracy-its enthusiasm for indiscriminate regulation, its passion for monopolizing power, its craze for self-aggrandizement and special privileges. It identifies the three main sources impeding change in French society: the systems of education, public administration, and recruitment of leaders. The book then proposes strategies for change that are strictly anti-utopian and self-limiting, thus avoiding the opposing extremes of centralized technocracy and revolution. Michel Crozier is Director of the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations in Paris, and one of the world's leading authorities on modern social organization. The book is the second volume in the MIT Press Series on Organization Studies, edited by John Van Maanen.

Strategies for Change: The Future of French Society (Organization

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Mit Pr

Looks at the legal system, mass production, the consumer market, management philosophy, and the welfare state in America, and discusses the problems that face the United States in the future

The Trouble With America (English and French Edition)

History

Americas

Univ. Of California Pr.

The Trouble With America: Why the System Is Breaking Down (English and French Edition)

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

Trouble with America: Why the System Is Breaking Down

Riesman, David

Historical Study & Educational Resources

University of California Press

The Trouble with America: Why the System Is Breaking Down

The Stalled Society

Penguin??Books

Book by Crozier, Michel, Huntington, Samuel P., Watanuki, Joji

The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission (Triangle Papers)

Huntington, Samuel P.

Watanuki, Jōji

Politics & Government

New York University Press

The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission

In The Bureaucratic Phenomenon Michel Crozier demonstrates that bureaucratic institutions need to be understood in terms of the cultural context in which they operate. The originality of the study lies in its association of two widely different approaches: the theory of decision-making in large organizations and the cultural analysis of social patterns of action.
The book opens with a detailed examination of two forms of French public service. These studies show that professional training and distortions alone cannot ex plain the rise of routine behavior and dysfunctional "vicious circles." The role of various bureaucratic systems appears to depend on the pattern of power relation ships between groups and individuals. Crozier's findings lead him to the view that bureaucratic structures form a necessary protection against the risks inherent in collective action.
Since systems of protection are built around basic cultural traits, the author presents a French bureaucratic model based on centralization, strata isolation, and individual sparkle-one that that can be contrasted with an American, Russian, or Japanese model. He points out how the same patterns can be found in several areas of French life: education, industrial relations, politics, business, and the colonial policy. Bureaucracy, Crozier concludes, is not a modern disease resulting from organizational progress but rather a bulwark against development. The breakdown of the traditional bureaucratic system in modern France offers hope for new and fruitful forms of action.

Mitchell, Wesley

Sociology

Routledge

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