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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $70.50

Format:
Paperback
360 pp.
3 tables; 2 figures, 156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199275465

Publication date:
July 2005

Imprint: OUP UK


The Values of Bureaucracy

Edited by Paul du Gay

The end of bureaucracy has been anticipated many times throughout the history of management science, as well as in modern social and political theory. This book sets out to show why bureaucracy persists and what values it embodies and upholds. Thus the book seeks to show how and why bureaucratic forms of organization have played, and continue to play, a vital and productive role in ordering our political, social, economic, and cultural existence.

The book also describes and analyzes the impact of contemporary programmes of organizational reform in the public and private sectors on bureaucratic structures, and seeks to highlight some of the costs of attempts to de-bureaucratize organizational life in business, government, and the third sector. Overall the volume highlights the values of bureaucracy and at the same time indicates why distinctively bureaucratic forms of organization should continue to be valued.

Readership : Academics, researchers, and graduate students of Management and Organization Studies, Public Management, Sociology, and Political Science.

Section 1: The Politics of Bureaucracy
1. Charles T. Goodsell: The Bureau as Unit of Governance
2. Paul du Gay: Bureaucracy and Liberty: State, Authority, and Freedom
3. Thomas Armbrüster: Bureaucracy and the Controversy Between Liberal Interventionism and Non-Interventionism
Section 2: The End of Bureaucracy?
4. Paul Thompson and Mats Alvesson: Bureaucracy at Work: Misunderstandings and Mixed Blessings
5. Michael Reed: Beyond the Iron Cage? Bureaucracy and Democracy in the Knowledge Economy and Society
6. Graeme Salaman: Bureaucracy and Beyond: Managers and Leaders in the 'Post-Bureaucratic' Organization
Section 3: Bureaucracy and Public Management
7. Paul Hoggett: A Service to the Public: The Containment of Ethical and Moral Conflicts by Public Bureaucracies
8. Janet Newman: Bending Bureaucracy: Leadership and Multi-Level Governance
9. John Clarke: Performing for the Public: Doubt, Desire, and the Evaluation of Public Services
10. Daniel Miller: What is Best 'Value'? Bureaurcarcy, Virtualism, and Local Governance
Section 4: Bureaucracy and Civil Society
11. Yvonne Due Billing: Gender Equality: A Bureaucratic Enterprise?
12. Anonino Palumbo and Alan Scott: Bureaucracy, Open Access, and Social Pluralism: Returning the Common to the Goose
13. Mike Savage: The Popularity of Bureaucracy: Involvement in Voluntary Associations

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Paul du Gay is Professor of Sociology and Organization Studies, and Co-Director of the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance, in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. His research is located in the sociology of organizational life and cultural studies. His recent publications include, In Praise of Bureaucracy (Sage, 2000) and Cultural Economy (ed. with M. Pryke, 2002). Culture, Person and Organization: Essays in Cultural Economy will be published by Sage in 2005.

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Special Features

  • Argues for the importance of bureaucracy in organizations
  • Critiques the characterization of bureaucracy often employed in Management, Organization, Political, and Social Theory
  • Includes contributions from leading scholars in a range of disciplines