Sociology › Section F · Groups and organizations › Topic F.3
Formal organizations and bureaucracy
Schools, hospitals, companies, government agencies and prisons are all formal organisations, built on purpose to reach goals efficiently. This topic looks at the kinds of organisations people join, how bureaucracy works, and the critics who warn about its costs.
In this topic
- Formal organisations
- Three types of organisation
- Weber's ideal type of bureaucracy
- What bureaucracy does well
- Bureaucracy's costs
- The iron law of oligarchy
- McDonaldization
- Worked example: classifying organisations
- Worked example: a McDonaldized online course
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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