SOC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Nepotism
Document Summary
Hiring and promotion are based on the individual"s ability to do the job (or on merit), and not on such irrelevant factors as whom the individual knows. Nepotism (favoring one"s relatives over others) is frowned on, as is accepting bribes from job candidates. Relationships within bureaucracies are impersonal, thus ensuring equal treatment for employees as well as customers and clients: official activity demands the full working capacity of the [bureaucratic] official. In a nonbureaucratic organization, such as a one-person shoe shop, the shoemaker will spend most of his or her time making shoes and do administrative stuff, like keeping the books, only on the side. In an ideal-type bureaucracy, however, there is a specialized division of labor (as noted in characteristic i). Administrative work is a fulltime commitment: the management of the office follows general rules, which are more or less stable and more or less exhaustive, and which can be learned.
