Page 165 - Essencials of Sociology

138 CHAPTER 5 Social Groups and Formal Organizations

When society began to be
rationalized, production of items was
broken into its components, with
individuals assigned only specific 5. Impersonality and replaceability. The office is important, not the individual who
tasks. Shown in this wood engraving holds the office. Each worker is a replaceable unit. You work for the organization,
is the production of glass in Great not for the replaceable person who holds some post in the organization. When a
Britain in the early 1800s. professor retires, for example, someone else is appointed to take his or her place.
This makes each person a small cog in a large machine.

These five characteristics help bureaucracies reach their goals. They also allow them to
grow and endure. One bureaucracy in the United States, the postal service, has grown
so large that 1 out of every 250 employed Americans works for it (Statistical Abstract
2013:Tables 626, 1137). If the head of a bureaucracy resigns, retires, or dies, the orga-
nization continues without skipping a beat, because unlike a “mom and pop” operation,
its functioning does not depend on the individual who heads it.
As we explore in the Down-to-Earth Sociology box on page 140, bureaucracies have
expanded to such an extent that they now envelop our entire lives.

Goal Displacement and the Perpetuation of
Bureaucracies
Bureaucracies are so good at harnessing people’s energies to reach specific goals that
they have become a standard feature of our lives. Once in existence, however, bureau-
cracies tend to take on a life of their own. In a process called goal displacement, even
after an organization achieves its goal and no longer has a reason to continue, continue
goal displacement an organization it does.
replacing old goals with new ones; A classic example is the March of Dimes, organized in the 1930s with the goal of
also known as goal replacement
fighting polio (Sills 1957). At that time, the origin of polio was a mystery. The public