The Catholic Church, in other words, exists for many members on both a primary and secondary mode of membership and association. "Primary groups tend to be informal in nature and dominate the structures of traditional societies. Often organized around kinship ties, these groups regulate the activities of their members through informal norms and folkways of the culture. Secondary organizations are much more formal in structure and are usually coordinated through bureaucracy" (Elwell, 2008). The secondary organization of the Catholic Church is quite formal, organized, and bureaucratic in structure, but the informal social rules of the neighborhood church -- how much participation is demanded at the church bake sale, for example, is quite informal and based upon social and kinship ties. A parallel could be drawn with the American Heart Association, another organization I am a member of. The American Heart Association is a nonprofit charity, led by all of the hierarchy of administration of a nonprofit Weberian bureaucracy, including clear chains of authority from the CEO downward, impersonality of rules, written rules of conduct as to how employees and the organization can legally operate, employment and promotion based on achievement, specialized division of labor with career training and promotion, and efficiency (Elwell, 2008).
But informally, doing volunteer work, people often do multiple jobs, based not in descriptions but in availability and simply as to what needs to be done at any point in time. Promotion may be based on who seems most committed or has had a family member affected by the illness rather than upon experience or passing a test, and people volunteering...
An empowered employee may disobey rules and procedures to help a customer and in turn the organization itself. For further analysis of delegation and empowerment, we need to understand the concept of power itself. In bureaucracies, work is simply done by following preset procedures. Leadership doesn't usually have to impose power, in fact power is granted to employees to choose the best available choice (decision-making) cohering with the rules and
Ethics In viewing the basic definition of bureaucracy and in noting some of the country's most recent examples of success and failure in the bureaucratic business world, one can see that the issue is clearly two-sided and will likely remain so for many years to come. However, despite the split in opinion, the question of ethics and bureaucracy can be delved into in rational manner that, in the end, finds in
According to Parsons (2003), "Coincident with the growing avant-garde fascination with silent film, cinema was becoming the ultimate embodiment of modern mass culture" (90). The "modern mass culture" that was emerging in Europe at this time was a reactionary one that became known as a bohemian lifestyle that was personified by Valle-Inclan. In this regard, his biographer emphasizes that, "His behavior at the time showed contempt for the rational world
Social Welfare -- Its Origins and Contributions When did social welfare begin as a policy to help those who were struggling to find enough food, or suffering from a blight -- or otherwise in need of a lift from government? Why was social welfare initially launched -- and what groups or individuals were pivotal and ultimately influential as regards the social welfare movement? These questions will be addressed and critiqued in
Interest Groups and How Their Influence on Public Policy Interest Groups and their influence on public Policy Interest groups are clusters of people that come into existent to make stresses on government. The leading interest groups that are located in the United States are financial or occupational, but a range of other clusters -- philosophical, public interest, foreign policy, government itself, and ethnic, religious, and cultural -- have memberships that cut across
While there are clearly circumstances where the civil society sector is at odds with the state, there are at least as many where the relationship is one of interdependence and mutual support…. The state has thus emerged in the modern era not as a displacer of nonprofit activity but as perhaps the major philanthropist… (Salamon & Anheier 1997, p. 63-64). Evidence Calprig is an independent statewide student organization that works on issues
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