Weber and Rationalization

An overview of Max Weber's concept of rationalization is presented. Weber made the historical movement away from institutional structures that engender actions based on the emotional, mystical, traditional, and religious to institutional structures that produce actions based on reason, calculability, predictability, and efficiency—the primary elements of his philosophy of history. Rationalization brings benefits to organizations while trapping workers in feelings of disenchantment. Despite the shortcomings of the process, Weber viewed it as efficient and necessary.

Keywords Bureaucracy; Efficiency; Fordism; Iron Cage; McDonaldization; Rationalization; Taylorism

Weber & Rationalization

Overview

Max Weber (1864–1920) is considered one of the founders of modern sociology. His work included studies of economics, the modern political state, and religion. At the core of Weber's work was a concern with the modern German state. He was a thinker situated in history between the positivist foundations of sociology, embodied in the works of Comte and Durkheim, and the rise of the anti-positivist movement. Weber was a contemporary of Wilhelm Dilthey, who argued that the social sciences were altogether different from the natural sciences and needed their own distinct but similarly scientific approach (Dilthey, 1989).

Weber embraced Dilthey's argument. In his last major lecture, "Science as a Vocation," he said that the natural sciences can only tell the answer to the question of what we should do if we want to technically master nature. It cannot tell us whether we want to or should master nature (Landmann, 1984). For Weber, rationalization was totally alien to value consideration (Gronow, 1988). His influence on sociology was such that both positivist and anti-positivist sociologists claim Weber as their own. Weber's contribution to sociological method is unquestioned. He refined existing concepts and introduced many more to the sociological approach to knowledge. He wrote at length about objective sociology and the subjective. To this end, he addressed concepts such as value-free research, social norms, ideal types, and social relations.

Perhaps Weber's most influential and enduring work was on rationalization. Rationalization is the movement over time away from institutional structures that engender actions based on the emotional, mystical, traditional, and religious, toward institutional structures that produce actions based on reason, calculability, predictability, and efficiency. It was in the light of his theory on rationalization that Weber viewed both the progress and the growing disenchantment of Germany.

Rationality

H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (1978) described rationalization as the most fundamental element of Weber's philosophy of history. The urge of religious teachers, artists, intellectuals, and eventually scientists throughout history has been toward comprehensive and meaningful interpretation of the universe. This constant drive away from institutional structures of magic, mysticism, and religion toward secular structures of rationalization has been at the center of the progress of history and what Weber called the "sociology of knowledge." Weber writes about the rise of bureaucracy and its presuppositions and causes in Economy and Society (1922). He sees the money economy as the primary presupposition of bureaucracy and gives as examples of the rise of historical bureaucracies the ancient Egyptian and Roman civilizations, the Roman Catholic Church, modern Western states, and modern capitalism.

Once created, these bureaucratic machines take on a life of their own and are permanent in character. Rationalization in these structures comprises calculability, efficiency, technology, and control over economic goods, labor, opportunities, advantages, and even values. This control allows for bureaucracy to better predict probable outcomes and mitigate risk (Weber, 1978). Throughout his career, Weber continued to develop the idea of rationalization and, in doing so, identified four types of rationality:

• Practical

• Theoretical

• Formal

• Substantive (Kalberg, 1980)

Practical Rationality

Practical rationality is based on an individual's experience and context. By considering their observations in light of their desired ends, individuals weigh their options and pursue the actions that are most likely to bring about those ends. Practical rationality is pragmatic and assumes action. Weber believed, like Sigmund Freud and later Michele Foucault, that culture and its institutions of rationality shape practical reason (Ritzer, 1975).

Theoretical Rationality

Unlike practical rationality, theoretical rationality does not assume action will be taken. Rather, theoretical rationality attempts to understand and explicate the world. This does not mean that theoretical rationality cannot give rise to action; it simply means that the theoretical rationality does not necessitate action.

Substantive Rationality

Substantive rationality involves the consideration of numerous cultural, institutional, or personal values. It recognizes that people often find themselves caught between competing values, norms, or laws and must choose between conflicting values or rationalities. The fact that substantive rationality is necessary points to a significant dilemma of structures of rationalization.

Formal Rationality

Formal rationality typifies bureaucratic institutions. Formal rationality embraces the norms, rules, and laws of economic, legal, and scientific organizations. With the rise of the rational structures within the church, even religion has become subjected to formal rationality. Adherence to formal rationality is based on an impersonal bond. This bond, something Sigmund Freud (1989) called "guilt" and Michel Foucault (1979) termed "discipline," imposes adherence and action (Weber, 1989). Formal rationality is the most coercive rationality and the most prevalent in social structures.

Disenchantment

Weber embraced scientific rationalization and its effectiveness in the natural sciences, though he remained wary of its limitations. His critique was directed towards the Kantian promise that reason would bring progress. Weber viewed Kantian reason, and Enlightenment thinking in general, as leading toward a rationalization of the economy that would limit individuals and lead to disenchantment (MacKinnon, 2001). Additionally, he often complained that the constant extension of rationality in bureaucracy through technology designed to emancipate eventually leads to an "iron cage" (Habermas, 1981).

Here lies the rub in Weber's work: Weber understood the value of rationalization and bureaucracy and the benefits it brought society. He did not see how history could march forward without it. However, he was deeply troubled by hegemony and the deep personal feeling of disenchantment that rationalization heaped on individuals.

He saw rationalized structures offering individuals worldly alternatives to their own nature. The rational structures that arose in churches offered religious love, brotherhood, and neighborly love in the place of sexual love. In this way the church could dictate sexual behavior. The idea of religious love, though an effective substitute, does not give a sense of accord to the passion of youth or the intellectual love in a mature adult (Bellah, 1998). Here Weber is echoing Nietzsche's critique that the Enlightenment and its pursuit of scientific rationality have stripped humanity of its passion and virility. What Weber is proposing is that a mature intellectual love can stand in opposition to the determining fiats of rationalized institutions and keep the individual in tune with his or her inner world.

Applications

Economy

Weber closely links the development of rationality with the rise of society and capitalism made possible by the subjugation of nature to manmade technology. It was technology that relieved humanity from the limits placed on it by nature and gave rise to techniques and organizations that undoubtedly determine the ideals of modern life (Weber, 1987). A contemporary of Weber was Frederick Winslow Taylor, whose method of scientific management, also called Taylorism, exemplified the historical progression of rationalization that Weber theorized. Taylor called for a vanguard of engineers to lead the process of using job observation, reengineering job tasks, teaching workers the standard method, and using rewards to drive efficiency and break down the "willful loafing and lagging of workers" (Taylor, 2008).

Fordism followed Taylorism. Henry Ford applied rationalization to automobile manufacturing. Fordism broke down complicated jobs into several smaller uncomplicated tasks and then assigned unskilled workers to perform each task over and over again. The assembly line and mass production are the practices most closely associated with Fordism. Today sociologists may refer to the McDonaldization of the economy. With the rise of white-collar jobs, specifically the service sector, and globalization, the practices of the McDonald's fast food chain embody Weberian rationalization. A McDonaldized organization is efficient, calculable, and predictable, practicing control over labor and resources (Ritzer, 2000). In fact, Lippmann and Aldrich (2003) have argued that McDonaldization may be the best way to teach Weber to college students.

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy is an ordered organization with specific and fixed jurisdictional areas governed by laws or administrative regulations. The hierarchy of a bureaucracy is fixed by individual duties and responsibilities. Authority is delimited by rules and regulations rigidly enforced and placed at the disposal of officials. The strength of bureaucracy is that authority rests in the position, not in the people who fill the position. This allows for the perpetuity of rules and regulations (Weber, 1978). Weber was interested in the historical development of bureaucracy in ancient Egypt, China, and Rome, as well as its development within religious organizations. He explored the benefits and limitations of bureaucracy in government, economy, church, and military. Bureaucracy was Weber's historical necessary evil. The efficiency of rationalized bureaucracy was indisputable. Yet he described bureaucracy as ensnaring the individual in an "iron cage" of rules and regulations that channel the human life to a "polar night of icy darkness" (Weber, 1978).

Body & Mind

One of the more provocative elements of Weber's idea of rationalization is the ever-increasing control that rationalized structures practice on individuals. It is a concept associated less readily with Weber than with many of his later critics. Weber believed that rationalized organizations could control individual actions and ideas to a great degree (Weber, 1987). Freud picked up on this theme in his sociological work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). Freud's idea of civilization reflects that of Weber's bureaucracy and administration. Freud believed that civilization uses laws, norms, and guilt to create an agency within that keeps watch over one's actions and intentions. Ultimately, conformity separates the individual from his or her natural instincts, and this causes discontent. Foucault (1979) believed that the institutions of the modern state and economy create a discipline within that takes a hold on the body, training it and forcing it to carry out tasks.

Critical theorists write about culture as a rationalized structure and believe that it separates the individual from the self and burdens people with false needs (Marcuse, 1991). Today the control may go beyond the body and thoughts. Barbara Ehrenreich (2006) argues that employers have begun to dictate what feelings an employee can and cannot have about their jobs. Whether it is social norms determining when during the year it is appropriate to wear white, factories controlling when employees can or cannot go to the restroom, church doctrine guiding allowable thoughts, city codes making homeowners cut their grass, advertisers telling consumers they need a product, or an employer demanding employees feel genuine passion for their jobs, one thing is clear: if Weber is correct, then this is not going to stop, and the rationalization of our structures is only going to increase.

Viewpoints

Critique of Weber's Rationalization

Criticisms of Weber's idea of rationalization include the arguments that the development of rationalization Weber presents is not historically accurate, that the concept is too pessimistic, that it is deterministic, and that rationalization is not a comprehensive concept.

One of the more famous critiques of Weber's rationalization is from social philosopher Jurgen Habermas, who believes that Weber did not go far enough. Habermas portrays Weber's rationalization as purely instrumental, involving only calculation and efficiency. Habermas's concern is that Weber did not account for the possibility of true democracy in his concepts. Following Weber's reasoning, democracy and the freedom to choose would eventually be rationalized out of society, as bureaucracy would increasingly set the most efficient actions with its rules and regulations.

Habermas offers an additional form of rationality: communicative rationality. Habermas believes that communicative actions have the ability to broaden understanding and, in doing so, broaden the opportunities for a better social, economic, and political life (Habermas, 1981). Habermas wrote about what he called the "ideal speech situation." This situation exists when two or more conversationalists agree to suspend judgment, discuss a topic on its merits, and accept the most reasonable argument. Habermas believes communicative rationality actually expands the horizon of reason and brings into play new ideas and opportunities that Weber's instrumental rationality cannot (Habermas, 1980). Habermas's theory of communicative rationality recognizes a universal pragmatics in language that allows conversationalists to leverage the intrinsic nature of language to criticize the control of rationalized structures (Kellner, 2004). It is this ability to alter the direction of rationalization that, for Habermas, makes democracy possible.

Conclusion

Weber's influence remains significant in the discipline of sociology. His ideas about rationalization, bureaucracy, and the decline of religion in favor of a rationalized religious order have stood the test of time. Since Weber presented rationalization as an element of his philosophy of history and was careful to shy away from the idea of rationalization as progress, he was able to nuance the complexity of the idea while spelling out the benefits and ills. It is this complexity that has kept the concept relevant when so many ideas have faded into history.

Terms & Concepts

Bureaucracy: An ordered organization with specific and fixed jurisdictional areas governed by laws or administrative regulations.

Efficiency: A measure of what is produced compared to what can be produced, or has been produced, with the same consumption of resources (capital, materials, time, and labor). The assumption is that technology will ever increase efficiency in the use of resources.

Fordism: The process of breaking down complicated jobs into several smaller, uncomplicated tasks and then assigning unskilled workers to perform each task over and over again. Named after Henry Ford. The assembly line and mass production are closely identified with Fordism.

Iron Cage: A concept coined by Weber. The constant extension of rationality in the economic, social, and religious lives of people eventually leads to an "iron cage" of rules and regulations. The feeling that is associated with the iron cage is disenchantment.

McDonaldization: The idea that all of society is being run like an efficient fast-food restaurant. Intended as a modern reinterpretation of Weber's rationalization. The term was popularized by George Ritzer.

Rationalization: The historical movement away from institutional structures that engender actions based on the emotional, mystical, traditional, and religious and toward institutional structures that produce actions based on reason, calculability, predictability, and efficiency.

Taylorism: A system that calls for a vanguard of engineers to lead the process of using job observation, reengineering job tasks, teaching workers the standard method, and using rewards to drive efficiency and break down the willful loafing and lagging of workers. Named after Frederick Winslow Taylor. Also called scientific management.

Bibliography

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Habermas, J. (1981). The theory of communicative action: Reason and the rationalization of society, Vol. 1. Boston: Beacon Press.

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Kellner, D. (n.d.). Habermas, the public sphere, and democracy: A critical intervention. Retrieved May 12, 2004 from website: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/habermaspublicspheredemocracy.pdf

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Lippmann, S., & Aldrich, H. (2003). The rationalization of everything? Using Ritzer's Mcdonaldization thesis to teach Weber. Teaching Sociology, 31 , 134-145. Retrieved July 31, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=11349168&site=ehost-live

MacKinnon, M. (2001). Max Weber's disenchantment. Journal of Classical Sociology, 1 , 329-351. Retrieved July 31, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=9773692&site=ehost-live

Marcuse, H. (1991). One-dimensional man. Boston: Beacon Press.

Ritzer, G. (1975). Professionalization, bureaucratization and rationalization: The views of Max Weber. Social Forces, 53 , 627-634.

Ritzer, G. (2000). The McDonaldization of society. Thousand Oaks, CA; Pine Forge.

Taylor, F. W. (2008). The principles of scientific management. San Diego, CA: ICON Group International, Inc.

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Suggested Reading ..FT. Button, R. (2012). A note on thematic affinities in Max Weber and Heinrich Heine: Disenchantment, devaluing reversal, and the demonic. Max Weber Studies, 12(1), 95–119. Retrieved November 1, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=74234456&site=ehost-live

Camic, C., Gorski, P., & Trubek, D. (Eds.). (2007). Max Weber's economy and society: A critical companion. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press

Schluchter, W. (1985). The rise of western rationalism: Max Weber's developmental history. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Weber, M. (1978). Max Weber: Selections in translation. Runciman, W.G. (Ed.), & Matthews, E. (Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.